Conference Experiencing the Museum: Web and Digital Technologies as Tools for Museum Accessibility

DESCRIPTION

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art announces the sixth annual Experiencing the Museum conference. This edition’s theme is the role of web and digital technologies in creating an inclusive and accessible environment.

As new technologies are changing the world around us, it makes us consider the social construction of the future. The conference Experiencing the Museum suggests taking a look at what web and digital mean for inclusion and diversity. How can cultural and educational organizations become more accessible by using assistive technologies or creating web content accessible to all user categories? How do novel technologies enable artists facing various barriers to participate in the life of cultural institutions?

An important part of the conference will be the preceding program of education events. From February 8 to March 18, the Museum will run the online course Inclusion in the Area of Web and Digital Technologies: Assistive Technologies and the Accessibility of Digital Products. The course is aimed at product and cultural managers who are looking to make their product accessible to everyone or develop a new technology that helps to make space and information accessible to different audiences. Over two months, the participants will learn the basics of designing accessible digital products, learn more about assistive technologies and the principles of their work. The core of the course, however, is its practical orientation. Participants will develop their own projects of an assistive product (e.g. an application, game, or platform), which they will have the opportunity to present at the Experiencing the Museum conference.

The conference Experiencing the Museum: Web and Digital Technologies as Tools for Museum Accessibility will run for three days, each covering a specific topic, including assistive technologies, methods of developing accessible web and digital projects (applications, games, educational platforms), technology as an artistic method, and technology assistance in education and ensuring independent living. The list of participants will feature experts in the fields of culture, education, and assistive technologies design from across the world.

The previous iterations of the conference Experiencing the Museum were devoted to the work with deaf-blind, deaf and hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired museum visitors, visitors with learning disabilities, as well as people with migrant and forced migration backgrounds.

EDUCATION PATRON

HOW TO TAKE PART

Free admission with advance registration.

Personal protective equipment (masks and gloves) must be used at the event.

The event is accessible for deaf and hard of hearing visitors and will be translated into Russian Sign Language.

For more information, please email openmuseum@garagemca.org.

Schedule

Conference Experiencing the Museum: Web and Digital Technologies as Tools for Museum Accessibility

Advancements in technology are a starting point for a discussion addressing concepts of the future social structure. With technological development, interest in the transhumanist agenda is also growing. Who can a new person become? Does transhumanism contradict the idea of ​​diversity? Can the conflict between transhumanism and a set of ideas consistent with the concept of diversity be resolved? How can technological progress be harnessed to maintain diversity in society?


The conference will run in a hybrid format for the first time.
The events on April 1 can be attended physically at Garage Auditorium with advance registration.

REGISTRATION

Online via the Museum’s YouTube channel.

Time
16:00–20:30
Place
Garage Auditorium

Welcome address. Introduction to the conference program

Anton Belov, Director, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Maria Shchekochikhina, manager at Garage Inclusive Programs Department

Time
16:00–16:30
Place
Garage Auditorium

Lecture "Biotechnology and Diversity. How New Technologies Exposed Old Problems"

Lecturer

Elena Bryzgalina, Candidate of Philosophy, Head of the Department of Philosophy of Education at the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University, specialist in philosophical problems of biology and medicine

Time
16:30–17:30
Place
Garage Auditorium

Lecture "All Technologies are Assistive. Criticism of Assistive Technologies"

Lecturer

Konstantin Deblikov, popularizer of modern prosthetics, user of bionic arm prostheses.

Time
17:30–18:30
Place
Garage Auditorium

Lecture "The Bioethics of Improvement: Transhumanism, Disability, and Biopolitics"

Lecturer

Melinda C. Hall, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Stetson University. She specializes in bioethics, Continental philosophy, and the philosophy of disability.

Time
18:30–19:30
Place
Garage Auditorium

Lecture "Body and Technology. The Boundaries of the Human"

Lecturer

Ekaterina Nikitina, PhD in Literature (University of Silesia), researcher in Animal Studies, member of the Posthuman Studies Lab open research platform.

Time
19:30–20:30
Place
Garage Auditorium