One of the summative components of my Fulbright research is the creation of a guide for teachers to implement place- and community-based art projects into their coursework. I have been busy designing lessons which utilize the tools I have been researching and am excited to share them once my work is complete. Many of the projects involve a certain degree of crowd-sourcing information, especially involving the history of a location. Though I knew of the capabilities I wasn't aware of a specific platform for such work until I serendipitously came across the Dean Village Association's Memory Collective.
Dean Village is a bucolic village abutting a tranquil stream, with gardens,19th-century buildings & a museum right in the middle of the city. It is a charming location, as the high number of tourists have found it to be. Posted along the walking trails are signs advertising the Dean Village Association's current events such as these:
Dean Village Memories is an online platform where residents and visitors can post photographs and memories having to do with this location. It is hosted through "Edinburgh Collected"
Edinburgh Collected is a place to share, explore and discuss one's memories of Edinburgh.
It is managed and maintained by Edinburgh Libraries, part of the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC).
All the material added will expand the City’s digital heritage collections, adding to the material held in the Central Library, already the most extensive collection about Edinburgh in existence.
Edinburgh Collected was built with open source code, this is freely available to everyone to develop their own version of the site through GitHub. All images and text added to the site are also available as open data. This means that site content can be shared and reused, offering further opportunities for innovative digital products that promote engagement with heritage and collections.
Edinburgh Council uses maps such as this one to teach tourists about the rich history of this city village. This narrative, paired with the crowd-sourced memories of Dean Village help visitors to understand and appreciate the community they have entered.
