ReMIND · Reactivating Neglected Heritages, Reweaving Unspoken Memories. A Study on the Adaptive Reuse of Former Asylums into “mind museums”.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-07-15 → 2022-05-16
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Reactivating Neglected Heritages, Reweaving Unspoken Memories. A Study on the Adaptive Reuse of Former Asylums into “mind museums”.
ReMIND was a two-year-long research project focussing on the adaptive reuse of former asylum historical complexes as 'mind museums'. What has been termed a ‘mind museum’ is a site-specific and place-based cultural institution whose chief mission is to foster critical reflection and informed discourses on the history of and contemporary approaches to the treatment and management of mental health in society, with the aim to promote awareness and contribute dismantling taboos, stereotypes, and stigma about mental health today. To build awareness of mental health and promote its care today we need to talk more about mental health to dismantle stigma and stereotypes. In fact, even though statistics predict that by 2030 almost nine in ten people will experience a mental health problem by the time they are 38 years old (WHO 2018) and mental health has been included in Sustainable Development Goals, it is still a taboo and a little-known matter for many people. ReMIND has been the first study focusing on mind museums and one of the first research projects looking at former asylums as heritage. Therefore, the primary and overarching objective of the research was to develop an all-round and rigorous investigation of mind museums across Europe, with key attention to the Italian scenario, to develop a critical interpretation of what they are, how, what they do and with which effects. ReMIND however not only aimed to describe mind museums, but it sought to offer a critical understanding of their potential for effecting attitudinal change in visitors that may help to dismantle stigma and promote collective senses of care, and to be one of those much-needed ways to talk more and in a different way about mental health in past and present perspectives.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
ReMIND focuses on the potentials for ‘mind museums’(former asylums turned into museums)to provoke emotional responses in visitors and foster critical reflection on the histories and contemporary problems of dealing with mental illness (MI) in society.Its objective is to fill some relevant scientific gaps on the subject, as well as to conjoin complimentary disciplinary approaches from museum and exhibition design and museum studies and develop new research competence for me as fellow and for the host institution in the field of visitor studies.ReMIND explores the MI heritage landscape through asylums built in Europe from the mid-19th cent until the 60s’ deinstitutionalisation process in the psychiatric care system.Today, most of these buildings still stand where they were, often completely or partially abandoned, left to decay, and contributing to urban decline.ReMIND will survey the European landscape of MI heritage considering phenomena such as abandonment and reuse of historic asylums for cultural purposes.However, alongside this general desk-based overview, its main aim is to analyse former asylums that have been restored and reused as museums, specifically involving 2 indepth interdisciplinary pilot case studies.Nowadays we don’t have a sense of potentials for the responsible adaptive re-use of asylums and they are in danger.Likewise, once converted into museums, their role in effecting attitudinal change in visitors that may help to dismantle stigma and promote awareness toward MI has not been properly investigated.ReMIND addresses these gaps.To do so my study will integrate various disciplinary approaches to rethink adaptive reuse interventions and contemporary heritage conservation and valorisation practices.I will work at the intersection of different research fields, moving from Italy to UK at New Castle University to learn, deploy and contribute in implementing theories and methodologies related to heritage studies, visitor studies, and display analysis.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE · Newcastle Upon TyneCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union