On the opening of the Museum of Solutions, Mumbai

I gave these remarks at the opening gala for the Museum of Solutions on November 24, 2023.

Intro: the MuSo “3 boxes” video

The Museum of Solutions is represented by a simple red box; our logo.

Like the museum itself, this red box isn’t something we want you to passively admire; It’s an invitation. It’s questions: When you look at the world around you, what do you see? And then: what can you imagine? And then: what can we do?

But why is this important? Why build a museum to make an invitation and ask questions?

The Museum of Solutions is built on 3 fundamental ideas.

First, that the world is an increasingly complex and challenging place. The future our children inherit from us will be full of dramatic change and uncertainty; great need and great opportunity. The way we were taught to work and live together in the past will no longer suffice.

Second, that young people; the beautiful, funny, silly, capable, extraordinarily children that we love — that we all once were! — have a special place in this world. But their needs, rights, and capabilities are often undervalued or overlooked by grown ups.

Decisions we adults have taken have made the future less hopeful and less joyous for young people than it should be.

And when we overlook young people we not only harm them — we rob society of their extraordinary talents: to see the truth and to speak that truth to power; to imagine without boundaries; to solve problems; and to love.

And third, that museums, which have traditionally been a place where we look at the past, can now be, must now be, a place where we work together to imagine and create the future.

That all sounds pretty heavy. But the good news is that we here at MuSo think that changing the world can be playful and fun.

In fact, the key insight of MuSo is that changing the world *must* be playful and fun.

Children and grownups alike — we learn best when we are playful. Through play we truly see each other; we empathise. With play, our creativity is unleashed and our imagination is set free. And through play we become brave and confident — we take risks, we fail and fall, pull each other up, and try again.

This kind of playful learning: seeing, imagining, and doing together …together... is what MuSo was built to celebrate.

I believe that the Museum of Solutions is the most important museum project in the world today. Nowhere else have I seen this deep, unwavering commitment to the rights, capabilities, and futures of young people so magnificently realised.

And I think in a few moments, when you start exploring the museum yourself, you’ll feel this way too.

Whenever and wherever you see our beautiful red frame with “MuSo” written on the top of it, I invite you to pause for a moment, find a friend, and tell each other what you see in the world. Tell us what you imagine for the future.

And then: roll up your sleeves, find some fun, and let’s see what you can do.

Tonight, this isn’t just a party and MuSo isn’t just a box: it’s the future waiting to be imagined.

/

Photo: Kartik Rathod

Links/references for Living With War and the Lianza New Zealand National Library Conference

logo - text that says "living with war"

Ahiahi pai to all of you at the Lianza 2023 New Zealand library conference (October 31)!

And greetings to my colleagues at the Living with War conference in The Hague (November 3rd)!

For the Lianza conference I’ll be joining you from from inside the wood fabrication shop in the 10,000 square-foot Make Lab of the soon-to-open Museum of Solutions, Mumbai! And on November 3 I’ll be with you in person in The Hague for Living With War.

We are opening in November and we’ll be releasing more info, teasers, and events info very soon!

(You can check out our Instagram {the main platform in India} and website now for some sneak peeks of the building, program, and philosophy. Here’s a short post (about my joining the team) that gives a good short overview of the project. LOL see below for a special personal photo album treat.)

Links and notes related to my talk

  1. Photos — Some photos of the site, construction, and goings on here.

  2. Climate Things — I mentioned the Climate Things initiatives, 23 Climate Things and the Culture for Climate Innovation Prize. We would love to have you all involved - - so drop us a note and let us know how we can help! Special shoutout to the great Erik Boekesteijn (who I believe is with you there today?! Hi Erik!), Jan Holmquist and Julia Matamoros who are bringing their tremendous passion and expertise to the project, and of course our initial group of funders/supporters.)

  3. Culture, climate, and The Big Frikin Wall —This talk was a super-short “reduced Shakespeare” version of longer, more detailed work on the subject of updating library practice and The Big Frikin’ Wall, so here is some more detailed work if you’d like to dig in.

    MuseumNext Interview: Culture, activism, and the big Frikin' Wall - a long interview with me about these ideas

    Video and slides/links for NEMO webinar, Create Dangerously: Museums in the Age of Action - tons of notes, references, and a 45 minute webinar version of these ideas from the Network of European Museum Organizations. (Also a keynote talk from the NEMO 2022 conference in Lisbon.)

    Notes from Digital, Culture, and the Transformation of Europe - a cool set of slides presenting the outcomes/synthesis of a 2021 workshop with library and museum/cultural leaders in Leiden, The Netherlands

…More coming soon. Got to watch the conference talk now!

Announced today: Director of the Museum of Solutions, Mumbai (MuSo)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Museum of Solutions, Mumbai
May 10, 2023

Today we are proud to announce the appointment of Michael Peter Edson as the Chief Museum Officer (museum director) of the Museum of Solutions. Edson, an internationally renowned museum professional, will be responsible for leading the museum’s mission to inspire and empower young people to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

“Mike has been a long-time friend and supporter of MuSo,” said Tanvi Jindal the museum’s Founder. “He is a visionary and empathetic leader with a passion for the social impact of museums. Mike’s creative drive and his deep commitment to the rights and capabilities of young people make him an ideal leader for our organization.”

With over 30 years of experience in museums, Edson has long been at the forefront of transformational change in the cultural sector. Edson was formerly the Director of Web and New Media Strategy for the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex in Washington, D.C., and he was the co-founder of the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live, where he forged a new vision to catalyze global effort towards the sustainable development goals of the U.N.. Edson is a frequent speaker on the topic of technology, culture, and social change, and he has been active as a consultant and collaborator in over 20 countries.

“MuSo is a groundbreaking initiative: full of global significance, but founded on a true love for the people and future of Mumbai,” said Edson. “The world is changing quickly and museums are changing too. Traditionally, museums have looked backward at the past through the eyes of a few experts — today, museums are looking toward the future, inspired to make a better world with and for the communities they serve. I am honored to be joining the Museum of Solutions at this important time.”

Mike will join the team full-time in August.

About MuSo

The Museum of Solutions (MuSo) is a new, state-of-the-art museum in Mumbai, India, dedicated to inspiring and empowering people to solve the world’s most pressing problems. MuSo’s exhibits and programs will explore a variety of topics, including climate change, poverty, and inequality through hands-on exploration and playful learning. The museum will open its new, purpose-built 100,000 square foot facility in the heart of Mumbai's Upper Parel district in 2023.
Press release, Museum of Solutions, May 10, 2023 (via LinkedIn)
A small picture gallery about the museum is here (my photos).

SDG's in English and French

Here’s a two-pager (or one page double sided) showing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in English and French with the flashy graphics and short text descriptions.

UN SDG Game in English and French (PDF) (.ODT)

…This is for use at the Ingenium Innovation Challenge /hackathon on March 5, where I am moderating a panel discussion about engagement with the SDGs. (I’ll use this printout in a game we’ll play at the opening of the hackathon.)

MuseumNext Interview: Culture, activism, and the big Frikin' Wall

Jim Richardson and Tim Deakin published a long interview with me on the MuseumNext website in advance of the Green Museum Summit.

As a former Director of Web and New Media Strategy for the Smithsonian Institution and co-founder of the Museum of the United Nations – UN Live, Michael Peter Edson’s career has often been intertwined with the big issues over the last 30 years.

He explains to MuseumNext why the landscape has changed for museums and how passivity is no longer an option in the face of urgent issues like climate change. Instead, he advocates for new and dynamic forms of activism in order to have a “consequential impact on the course of the Anthropocene”.

Video and slides/links for NEMO webinar, Create Dangerously: Museums in the Age of Action

A quick post here with some links I’ll mention in tomorrow’s Feb. 14 Webinar for NEMO – the Network of European Museum Organizations: Create Dangerously: Museums in the Age of Action.

Video of the talk and Q&A

Slides: Google Slides / slides in a static PDF format

Recommended books/articles

Below are some of the books/articles I recommend towards the end of the talk, more-or-less in order of appearance.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions!

On the edge of collapse

The Rite of Spring was a revolutionary work for a revolutionary time. Its first performance in Paris [in 1813] was a key moment in cultural history – a tumultuous scandal.

Written on the eve of the first world war and the Russian revolution, the piece is the emblem of an era of great scientific, artistic and intellectual ferment. No composer since can avoid the shadow of this great icon of the 20th century, and score after score by modern masters would be unthinkable without its model.

The Rite of Spring has survived many trials in its first 100 years, not excluding the notorious premiere, during which Nijinsky's provocative choreography elicited such a volume of abuse that the music itself was frequently inaudible. Initial performances – even Stravinsky's own – of this immensely complex score were often on the edge of collapse, but the piece is now part of the international orchestral repertoire and the greatest risk it faces today, paradoxically, is routine renditions which make a work which should shock seem safe and easy.

George Benjamin, How Stravinsky's Rite of Spring has shaped 100 years of music, The Guardian, 29 May 2013

Not the universe.

Carlo Rovelli lecturing at the Royal Institute

The passage of time is not for us a rational thing to contemplate. It’s something we live into — we are the passage of time. We are this constant computing of time.

We can think about reality without space. We can think about reality without things. But it’s very hard to think yourself in a reality without time. You wouldn’t know how to start thinking.

But the confusion is: is this because reality by itself cannot be thought of without time?

No, it is because our thinking cannot be thought without time. We cannot think without time. We are a time machine. Not the universe.

Physicist Carlo Rovelli, The Physics and Philosophy of Time [at 43:41], the Royal Institution, 13 June 2018

The one minute

BARKEEPER

Will you go looking for her?

THOMAS

She is in the past.

…The past is not my concern.

And the future is no longer my concern either.

BARKEEPER

What is your concern, Tommy?

THOMAS

The one minute.

The soldiers minute.

In a battle that’s all you get.

One minute of everything at once.

And anything before is nothing.

Everything after, nothing.

Nothing in comparison in that one minute.

Peaky Blinders, season 1 episode 7 (wiki)

"Digitality" references for MuseumNext and Computers In Libraries

This week I’ll be speaking at the MuseumNext Green Museums Summit and Computers In Libraries (two separate conferences) about “digitality” and climate action in the cultural sector.

Here’s the gist of it: The climate emergency asks museums, libraries, and other heritage, knowledge, and memory institutions a series of tough questions about their purpose and relevance in society. How big can they work? Who do they involve? Who do they serve?

Compared to the scale and speed of the climate crisis and the mind-blowing scope of what we must accomplish together in the next 10, 20, and 30 years, what can the cultural sector do?

These questions are hard to discuss within the cultural sector. Though the humanistic, prosocial values in the sector are strong the sector’s institutions, in particular, are wary of disruption and have evolved to think in conservative, risk-averse ways. But the climate emergency acts like an X-ray or lie detector on institutional thinking, revealing gaps between values and practice that might go unnoticed when working on smaller concerns.

One of those gaps has to do with digital. Digital is currently a blind spot in our thinking about climate action, and in both of these talks I’ll argue that the museum and library sectors are operating with a confused and outdated concept of digitality that impedes our ability to think clearly about the kinds of impact we are obligated to create. An updated concept of what “digital” means in the 2020s — new tools, new skills (and learning to appreciate neglected old tools and skills) and a new understanding of the digital public sphere are all needed to help us find a new direction and unlock new capabilities within the sector and in the communities we serve.

But (or perhaps, and), going there — having a solid conversation about what digital is and can do requires us to question some tightly held assumptions about trust, disruption, and power.

Below are links to slides, references, and other useful/relevant information cited in the talks.

I’ll post slides transcripts from these talks ASAP.

Resources mentioned in the talks

Updates

General intro stuff from first 10 minutes

European climate and recovery initiatives

The European Commission has put €1.8 trillion on the table for the next 6 years’ work on The New European Bauhaus, pandemic recovery, and European Green Deal.

  • New European Bauhaus
    A new EU initiative launched in 2021 to be the cultural front-end for the European Green Deal. “The New European Bauhaus initiative calls on all of us to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls. Beautiful are the places, practices, and experiences that are: Enriching, inspired by art and culture, responding to needs beyond functionality; Sustainable, in harmony with nature, the environment, and our planet; Inclusive, encouraging a dialogue across cultures, disciplines, genders and ages.”

  • Pandemic recovery
    €807 billion for 7 priority areas, including cohesion, resilience, natural resources/environment.

  • Green Deal
    Targets 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and by 2050: “economic growth decoupled from resource use”, carbon neutral, and “no person and no place left behind”.

Workshop notes (Digital, Culture, and the Transformation of Europe)

Farhad Manjoo: “A bag of mixed emotions”

Why Tech Is Starting to Make Me Uneasy, Farhad Manjoo, 11 October 2017.

“In 2007, when Mr jobs unveiled the iPhone, just about everyone greeted the new device as an unalloyed good. That's no longer true. The state-of-the-art, today, is a bag of mixed emotions. Check might improve everything. And it's probably all so terrible in ways we're only starting to understand.”

Reactions to Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris accord

Pew Research

I cranked through about 10 years of Pew Research Center reports in trying to figure out the evolution of our concept of digitality over the years. The first link, Visions of the Internet in 2035 | Pew Research Center, was particularly useful for gaining some insight into how “experts” conceptualize the role of information technology in society. That being said, I was dismayed, but not surprised, to see so few mentions of the climate emergency in any of these reports. Overall, these Pew reports reminded me of how essential and empowering the Internet is in so many people’s lives.

Here are a handful of the most useful reports. The full list is on this spreadsheet.

“Cataloging projects”

I put this spreadsheet together after reviewing 1000 pages of my own notes on digitality, 30+ reports from the Pew Research Center from the last 10 years, and notes from our November 2021 workshop on cultural-sector climate action.

There are three tabs

  • References lists 323 digital-related sites, apps, technologies, concepts, patterns, phenomena, and attributes that I’ve tagged, subjectively, with some adjectives like prosocial, civic, empowering, and dangerous.

  • Sorted by tag count shows each tag on its own column, and then a list of all the digital-related things that have that tag. You can hover your mouse over each cell to see a note and link (if there is one)

  • Link to sources shows a list of 89 articles, books, and references mentioned on the References tab

The empowering side of digitality

The Dark Side

Disruption Theory

Books, Articles, Videos

A big long list of relevant resources in this spreadsheet here, and a handful of the most relevant below.

Notes from Digital, Culture, and the Transformation of Europe

I’ve just posted the report (slides here, and embedded above) from our climate-action strategy workshop Digital, Culture, and the Transformation of Europe, held on November 18-19, 2021 in Leiden, the Netherlands.

The goal of the workshop was to determine if, how, and to what degree the cultural sector (very broadly defined) can contribute meaningfully to the social, economic, and environmental transformations required by the climate emergency.

The word “culture” gets thrown around a lot in climate policy circles, and many of us, as cultural professionals, are outraged by the climate emergency and want to take action. But what can the cultural sector actually do for the climate fight?

Some clear themes emerged through our two-day workshop and the weeks of thinking and dialogue that followed. I’ll list a few below as a preview, as one does, but the depth and complexity of the ideas (and more) really come to life through the words of the participants themselves, as shown in the report.

  1. The Big Frikin’ Wall — With a nod to the remarkable Kathy Sierra, much of the cultural sector seems afflicted by, metaphorically speaking, a Big Frikin’ Wall that stands between the world of safe, established practice and the world of urgent work that needs to be done. Working through, around, or over this wall will require a combination of strategic thinking, bold and enlightened management, well placed incentives. If we do not work through the Big Frikin’ Wall we are not likely to make significant progress on the climate emergency, as a sector or as a society. (See slide 38)

  2. Local, bottom-up approaches — The importance of local, bottom-up action was a persistent theme throughout the workshop. Participants emphasized that they felt many organizations wanted to be more involved in campaigning, movement-making, and local action but don’t know how to start. Training in these techniques might be a smart investment for the sector. (See slide 56)

  3. The role of culture — Participants offered a variety of opinions about the role of culture in society. Is “culture” a social good? A tool that serves power? An expression of identity? An entertainment medium? A tourist industry? A human right? The term culture is used in a variety of sometimes contradictory ways, even within the same sentence. A shared understanding of what we mean by “culture” would help us have more productive discussions about how to use it as a tool for positive change. (See slide 70)

  4. Digitality — It is hard to imagine how we will win the climate fight without an enlightened and strategic use of digital platforms; and it is easy to imagine losing the climate fight if digital is ignored (or worse, subverted). But a concept of digitality — what it means to live in a society that is infused with digital — is notably absent from the cultural strategies emerging from initiatives such as the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus. The cultural sector must develop a concept of digitality to match its ambitions for participating in climate action or effecting social change. (See slide 69)
    - - Note that I’ll be speaking about a new concept of digitality at Computers in Libraries and the MuseumNext Green Summit this month.

  5. The need for solidarity — Workshop participant Tom Pravda, Co-founder of Avaaz, asserted that the social problems caused by the climate crisis may prove to be more of a problem than the climate crisis itself. “We need to be working in ways to build human solidarity — a sense that we are in this together,” stated Tom. “Only by cooperating are we going to be able to tackle this problem.” (See slide 17)

I am happy to say that a number of clear, actionable initiatives arose directly from this workshop, including a sector-wide training initiative, a proposal for Horizon Europe funding, and a radical “incentive prize” competition. These, in addition to the remarkable work already being done by workshop participants.

Concept development is underway for these new initiatives, and I’m also working to organize a follow-up meeting in Europe and similar workshops in the Americas, where the cultural-sector issues are different but the will to make a difference is likely to be the same.

Finally, as I’m writing this I’m aware that the COP26 conference in Glasgow was taking place as we were planning this workshop, and the IPCC’s grim sixth climate report was issued 2 days ago as I was finalizing the report. Meanwhile, the world is still afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia has invaded Ukraine. If we believe that the cultural sector, however defined, has the potential to inspire and educate people, build solidarity, and transform lives for the better then there’s a lot of work to do.

Many thanks to everyone who participated (listed on slide 6), including our supporters and GoFundMe contributors who pitched in to defray travel and lodging expenses for participants. And of course many thanks to my co-conveners Meta Knol, Director of the Leiden 2022 European City of Science, and Harry Verwayen, Director of the Europeana Foundation, who stepped boldly into the void to help make this workshop a success.

The embers of dead empires

Kenya Digital News (video /YouTube)

Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani’s remarks to the U.N. Security Council following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This situation echoes our history. Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire. Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris and Lisbon, with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.

Today, across the border of every single African country, live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural and linguistic bonds.

At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later.

Instead, we agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited, but we would still pursue continental political, economic and legal integration. Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known.

We chose to follow the rules of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations charter, not because our borders satisfied us, but because we wanted something greater, forged in peace.

We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighboring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?

However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.

We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious or cultural factors. We reject it again today.

Kenya registers its strong concern and opposition to the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. We further strongly condemn the trend in the last few decades of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard.

Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight. It has been assaulted today as it as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past.

We call on all members to rally behind the Secretary-General in asking him to rally us all to the standard that defends multilateralism. We also call on him to bring his good offices to bear to help the concerned parties resolve this situation by peaceful means.

Let me conclude, Mr. President, by reaffirming Kenya's respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
Kenyan U.N. ambassador compares Ukraine's plight to colonial legacy in Africa, National Public Radio (video, transcript), 22 February 2022.