From 25 to 28 May, the Forum of Slavic Cultures, in cooperation with the Regional Museum Koper, the European Museum Academy and the Goriški Museum, organised the international summer school of museology Piranova. This year’s sixteenth edition bore the title Expanding Horizons: Echoes of Heritage in the Future of Museums. The programme took place in Koper, in the premises of the Regional Museum, where thirteen speakers from seven countries contributed to establishing a dialogue on pressing issues in contemporary museological practice. In addition to students, the invitation to participate was accepted by curators, conservators, and professionals working in museum institutions – not only from Slovenia, but also from the USA, Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and others.
The European Museum Academy had the honour and opportunity to conduct the very first test of the META MUSEUM training module about The Transformative Nature of Cultural Heritage.
It was done online by Henrik Zipsane supported by René Capovin and Elia Vlachou. Afterwards we had some comments. Our colleague professor Massimo Negri was present in Koper and wrote that “it was useful especially for the rich selection of examples that you offered to the audience. A topic which raised a lot of attention, and some debate was the possible uses of AI in and for museums with a variety of reactions (mainly suspicious in spite of the young age of average participants). Of course, it will be interesting to see the first results from the neurosciences experts in due time.” Organisational assistant D’elia D’Urso from the Forum of Slavic Culture wrote that “regarding the participants’ reactions, everyone seemed quite engaged, even though the nature of online lectures can limit interaction to some extent. It would certainly have been more effective in person, but nonetheless, it was very well received and appreciated.”
With only 35 minutes for the lecture, it was necessary to keep up a relatively high speed. That meant that we had to leave out the short films from the lecture. There is still a feeling that we almost talk too much about things which museum professionals, museology researchers, and even museology students know quite well already. From ICOM, NEMO, and national governments and EU the museums have for decades heard about their importance for societal coherence through providing competence development (knowledge, skills and attitudes) in their lifelong learning environment. It is not new for museums to work with creating or stimulating emotions. But it can probably be developed further to enhance the impact. With this in mind, it is almost surprising that the participants at the FSK summer school in Koper, Slovenia was so relatively positive. The ethical issues raised are naturally of specific importance and deserve attention. We expect that more information about results from the experiments done by the neuroscientists from UniRoma1 will provide substantial new knowledge to share in the coming updates of the training module.
