Today’s feature comes to us from educator and library program developer Matt Finch, who blogs about his work over at The Signal in Transition. The project we’re sharing today is TimeQuest, a playful, highly interactive program that Matt developed in partnership with library staff members at the public libraries and other community partners in Auckland, New Zealand, when he was there as a library services consultant.
The focus of this TimeQuest game, on a city’s and community’s heritage, is particularly relevant for me personally at the moment as the small town where I work is gearing up for its 150th founding anniversary next year–but I think it’s applicable to many libraries as we consider how to preserve and offer experiential opportunities that encourage our communities to interact with and explore their past, present, and future. Enjoy. ~Laura
by Matt Finch
Heritage is one of the most exciting challenges in community outreach. It’s an opportunity to dispel the myth that the past is staid or somehow divorced from the present. Many public and private bodies hold weird and wonderful archives, unique traces of the generations that have preceded us. Everything we do and dream is rooted in what has gone before, whether we like it or not, and yet the past is not fixed, as we uncover new truths, new ways of looking at those who have gone before us. The strange and beautiful thing about historical narrative and memory is that even a path you’ve already trodden can still change course in retrospect.
Two years ago I visited Auckland in New Zealand for a six month contract as Service Development Adviser to the city’s libraries. My brief was “to push the boundaries in how our large public library network creates innovative programmes for children and young people […] to inspire others to experiment and learn from the experience of working in fresh, even unexpected ways.”
During my stay, Auckland celebrated its 2013 Heritage Festival, an annual “opportunity for everyone, locals and visitors to Auckland, to celebrate and remember our past and discover our heritage.”
With my Auckland Council hat on, I looked for ways to make the past thrilling, and immediate, and to create opportunities for each neighbourhood library to take responsibility for devising and delivering inspired, playful programming.
A trip to Chromacon, the city’s festival of illustration, led to a meeting with British expatriate artist Nicola Brady. Her drawing of a crumbling present-day Auckland was the perfect inspiration for a time-travelling heritage event.
TimeQuest Postapocalyptic Auckland Skyline by Nicola Brady.
Nicola’s doomy vision provoked questions: What if we made our heritage programming about both the future and the past? What if we turned it into a dynamic mission of rescue, with participants making their own choices about the value of history?
TimeQuest was born: a season of cultural programming for the school holidays, with a heritage theme and an overarching narrative:
Auckland, 2379. It’s the end for planet Earth – a red sun burns in the sky and the ground is parched of life.
The last survivors are preparing to leave for a new home on the other side of the galaxy, when the scientist Maia completes her greatest invention – a time portal that can take you to any moment in Auckland’s history.
Her plan: to send you back in time to recover the best books, art, and objects from New Zealand’s past. Time has run out for the planet Earth, but we can still rescue the best of our heritage and take it with us to our new home.
Where will you go – and when?
What will you choose to save?
Time Quest – Raid the past to save the future.
For me, it was important to create a storyline which respected New Zealand’s bicultural past and future. If we were going to imagine a postapocalyptic science fiction setting, it would be one where Māori identity was front and centre. Our defiant genius hero would be a Māori woman and a scientist, who invited TimeQuest participants to make their own decisions about the value of heritage, rather than accept some dusty authoritarian imposition.
Auckland Libraries – Timequest logo used for programs aimed at a younger audience.
Excerpt from “Thrill of Heritage: Playful, postapocalyptic, postcolonial cultural programming” written by Matt Finch at The Signal in Transition. Hop on over to Matt’s website to read the full article and to see examples of library programs that supported TimeQuest.
Read more articles from Matt Finch on the Library as Incubator Project.
from Library as Incubator Project » Library as Incubator Project | Library as Incubator Project http://ift.tt/1Qsu5j4
via IFTTThttp://ift.tt/1Qsu66J
No comments:
Post a Comment