How can a place become museum-ified? How do practices, communities, cultures, places and spaces become objectified? Who is the subject, who is the object and who decides? What are the symbols of the ‘muse’? What role do narratives play in constructing or deconstructing the muse? Who controls the narratives, especially the dominant ones? And for whom are the narratives being constructed? What lies outside the frame of the carefully constructed narratives? 

 

These were some of the questions we were exploring. This website is a chronicle of a pilot done under the larger umbrella of ‘City as Text: Un-muse-ing Narratives’ in the context of Jaipur as a city, creatively directed, curated, designed and facilitated by Sudebi Thakurata and Vishwesh Viswanathan with the batch of Post Graduate Diploma Program 2024-25 at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology as a part of Interpretations 2024.  

 

In this project, Jaipur, the UNESCO world heritage city and one of the most visited tourist destinations in Rajasthan, was explored through many lenses with the idea of un-museing the city, a city of museums which also often ends up being treated as a museum itself. The narratives that construct the museum can be unpacked and unfolded to see the core of what makes the city special, soulful, unique and one with life. The explorations, insights and discoveries from the project with playful activities can be used in the context of any city, in order to read the city as a text to un-muse the narratives which cage the city?

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To know more around the pedagogical and designerly explorations do check out our ongoing website which acts as an online exhibition. Here, you will embark on a journey through the narratives of the city, as seen through the lens of our diverse student community. Immerse yourself in the stories, experiences, and perspectives that shape the urban landscape, and discover the rich tapestry of exhibits that showcase the essence of the city.

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In order to explore some of the guiding questions we often inquired, interrogated, investigated, interpreted, deconstructed and reconstructed the foundational aspects of the terms around ‘Museum’. We wanted to unpack what is a museum? What does the term ‘muse’ mean? How does museumification happen? How does one un-muse it?