The Modern Mythology Academy - Reconnecting Past, Shaping Future
MoMY is an innovative Academy born within the broader Museum of Modern Mythology project.
Its courses in Modern Mythology go hand in hand with different Universities and professional disciplines and have the common aim to facilitate 6 generations to get a deeper understanding of the cultural complex ecosystem they live and work in. MoMY has already activated its teaching at the Polytechnic of Milan-Dep. Interior Design and at the University of Turin-Dep Foreign Languages and Modern Literatures.
Cross-border/international
Germany
Portugal
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Spain
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: France
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Slovenia
Municipality of Turin (Italy)
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Fondazione M-Cube Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Fabrizio Last name of representative: Modina Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President and Artistic Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Ormea 164 Town: Turin Postal code: 10125 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 335 690 0951 E-mail:fm@fondazionemcube.it Website:https://www.fondazionemcube.it
Name of the organisation(s): Università degli Studi di Torino Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Gianluca Last name of representative: Coci Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Responsible for special projects at the Departmet of Foreign Languages and Modern Literature Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Giuseppe Verdi, 10 Town: Turin Postal code: 10124 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 670 2005 E-mail:gianluca.coci@unito.it Website:https://www.lingue.unito.it/do/home.pl
Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Milano Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Raffaella Last name of representative: Trocchianesi Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Responsible for special projects at the Department of Interior Design Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32 Town: Milan Postal code: 20133 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 335 694 7676 E-mail:raffaella.trocchianesi@polimi.it Website:https://www.interiordesign.polimi.it/
Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Torino Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Antonio Last name of representative: De Rossi Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Responsible for special projects at the Department of Architecture and Design and Director of the Research Institute for Mountain Architecture Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 Town: Turin Postal code: 10129 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 090 8697 E-mail:antonio.derossi@polito.it Website:https://www.polito.it
Name of the organisation(s): Università degli Studi di Siena Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Maurizio Last name of representative: Masini Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Responsible for special projects at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: via Banchi di Sotto 55 Town: Siena Postal code: 53100 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 0577 235555 E-mail:maurizio.masini@unisi.it Website:https://www.unisi.it
Name of the organisation(s): Università di Bologna Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Paola Last name of representative: Scrolavezza Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Responsible for special projects at the Department of Modern Languages, Literature & Culture Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Cartoleria 5 Town: Bologna Postal code: 40124 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 051 209 7114 E-mail:paola.scrolavezza@unibo.it Website:https://www.unibo.it
Name of the organisation(s): Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Luigi Last name of representative: Cernigliaro Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Researcher in Sustainability Management Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33 Town: Pisa Postal code: 56127 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 320 723 1831 E-mail:Luigi.Cernigliaro@santannapisa.it Website:https://www.santannapisa.it
Name of the organisation(s): Universidade Aberta Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Antonio Last name of representative: Araújo Gender: Male Nationality: Portugal Function: Coordenador do Polo CIAC-UAb Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rua da Escola Politécnica, 147 Town: Lisboa Postal code: 1269-001 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 300 002 918 E-mail:Antonio.Araujo@uab.pt Website:http://ciac.pt
Name of the organisation(s): Universidade do Algarve Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Bruno Miguel Last name of representative: Dos Santos Mendes da Silva Gender: Male Nationality: Portugal Function: Post-doctoral fellow in Communication, Culture and Arts Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Campus da Penha Town: Faro Postal code: 8005-139 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+352 89 80 01 00900 E-mail:info@ualg.pt Website:https://www.ualg.pt/
Name of the organisation(s): Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin - University of Applied Sciences Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Johann Habakuk Last name of representative: Israel Gender: Male Nationality: Germany Function: Responsible for special projects at the Department of Computer Science Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: WH Gebäude H, 216 - Wilhelminenhofstraße 75A Town: Berlin Postal code: 12459 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 30 50193213 E-mail:JohannHabakuk.Israel@htw-berlin.de Website:https://htw-berlin.de
Name of the organisation(s): Unioncamere Piemonte Type of organisation: Other public institution First name of representative: Paolo Last name of representative: Bertollino Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: General Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Pomba, 23 Town: Turin Postal code: 10123 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 566 9201 E-mail:segreteria@pie.camcom.it Website:https://pie.camcom.it/
Name of the organisation(s): Regione Piemonte Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Alberto Last name of representative: Cirio Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Castello, 165 Town: Turin Postal code: 10122 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 432 1111 E-mail:info@regione.piemonte.it Website:https://www.regione.piemonte.it
Name of the organisation(s): Comune di Torino Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Stefano Last name of representative: Lo Russo Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Mayor Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Palazzo di Città 1 Town: Turin Postal code: 10122 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 0112 3010 E-mail:sindaco@comune.torino.it Website:http://www.comune.torino.it/
Name of the organisation(s): Webtek Spa Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Emanuele Last name of representative: Piasini Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Stelvio, 24 Town: Poggiridenti (SO) Postal code: 23020 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 0342 393000 E-mail:emanuele.piasini@webtek.it Website:https://www.webtek.it
Name of the organisation(s): Omninext Holding Srl Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Vincenzo Last name of representative: Sarcina Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Calefati n.72 Town: Bari Postal code: 70121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 339 162 3901 E-mail:vincenzo.sarcina@omninext.it Website:https://www.omninext.it
Name of the organisation(s): Doc Creativity Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Daniela Last name of representative: Furlani Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Luigi Pirandello 31 Town: Verona Postal code: 37138 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 328 098 4063 E-mail:daniela.furlani@docservizi.it Website:https://docservizi.it
Name of the organisation(s): Doc Servizi Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Demetrio Last name of representative: Chiappa Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Pirandello 31B Town: Verona Postal code: 37138 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 348 407 9280 E-mail:demetrio.chiappa@docservizi.it Website:https://docservizi.it
Name of the organisation(s): Eurocrowd Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Francesca Last name of representative: Passeri Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Project Manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Lago di Garda 16 Town: Spoltore (PE) Postal code: 65010 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 338 144 0246 E-mail:francesca.passeri@eurocrowd.org Website:https://www.eurocrowd.org
Name of the organisation(s): Tiny Bull Studios Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Matteo Last name of representative: Lana Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Sebastiano Beato Valfrè 16 Town: Turin Postal code: 10121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 340 001 3456 E-mail:matteo.lana@tinybullstudios.com Website:https://tinybullstudios.com
Name of the organisation(s): Dreiform Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Ralf Last name of representative: Nähring Gender: Male Nationality: Germany Function: Co-founder, Chief Developer Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Kalscheurener Straße 19 Town: Hürth/Cologne Postal code: 50354 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 221 9874230 E-mail:naehring@dreiform.de Website:https://dreiform.de
Name of the organisation(s): MEZZO FORTE SAS Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Andrea Last name of representative: Gozzi Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Senior developer, Musician Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 87 rue Henri Barbusse Town: MEUDON Postal code: 92190 Country: France Direct Tel:+33 6 88 46 07 63 E-mail:andrea@mezzoforte.design Website:https://www.andrea@mezzoforte.design
Name of the organisation(s): Overlat Global Srl Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Javier Last name of representative: Garcia-Lajara Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Merce Rodoreda 2, portal A, 2oD SS Reyes Town: Madrid Postal code: 28702 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 670 63 36 53 E-mail:javier.lajara@overlat.com Website:https://www.overlat.com
Name of the organisation(s): Momentum Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Grace Last name of representative: Roche Gender: Female Nationality: Ireland Function: Responsible for international projects Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 9 Orchard court Town: Leitrim village Postal code: n41hy80 Country: Ireland Direct Tel:+353 86 828 1355 E-mail:grace@momentumconsulting.ie Website:https://www.momentumconsulting.ie
Name of the organisation(s): Arctur computer engineering d.o.o. Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Katarina Last name of representative: Ceglar Gender: Female Nationality: Slovenia Function: Responsible for international projects Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Industrijska cesta 1a Town: Nova Gorica Postal code: 5000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 31 394 788 E-mail:katarina.ceglar@arctur.si Website:https://www.arctur.si
MoMY is an innovative Academy born within the broader Museum of Modern Mythology project. Its courses go hand in hand with different Universities and professional disciplines and have the common aim to facilitate students to get a deeper understanding of the complex ecosystem they are living and working in. MoMY is today active at the Polytechnic of Milan in collaboration with the Dep. of Interior Design and at the University of Turin in collaboration with the Dep. of Foreign Languages and Modern Literature.
MoMY agrees with critics, researchers and curators who recognized the historical, artistic and sociological importance of the Pop Culture’s languages, being also economic and cultural assets. We can more appropriately talk today of “Modern Mythology”: from Superheroes to real life icons like sports champions, fashion legends, rock and movie stars, Modern Mythology has generated new role models which, with precise historical cyclicality, are offering their solidity as reassurance to fears facing an uncertain future. On that basis, MoMY is adopting a playful approach to knowledge as it is capable of reactivating - in a surprising way - the dialogue with and among 6 generations generally disenchanted and culturally distant from the artistic and historical heritage of their Country.
MoMY aims to teach about co-design and development of Culture but also of its economic, social and cultural impact; to support students to envision new ways to produce sustainable content, services and products; to stimulate the development of new sustainable startups and hybrid jobs; to open the possibility for new environments for learning, as well as for new kinds of intergenerational and/or inter-cultural knowledge exchange.
MoMY adopted a language which can easily cross and connect Humanities, Technology and Science, can go beyond prejudices and barriers and it speaks of empowerment and happiness after a pandemy and in war times.
Modern Mythology
Pop Culture
Cultural Heritage
Edutainment
Social Impact
MoMY is the strategy implemented by the M-Cube Foundation to push people to rediscover Culture starting from their own stories and by using simple languages like the ones from the Modern Mythology worlds.
In the last 50 years, in many EU countries, starting from Italy, Culture has not been sustainable anymore. That is because it represents a past in which contemporary individuals and communities do not recognize themselves and their lives, there is not a clear connection between what happened in different ages and what is going on today. Displayed objects have been separated from real life and from any emotional, affective value people should associate with them. This caused the crisis of many museums and the shutdown of the smallest ones especially along with the economic and the pandemic crisis. For the ones still offering exhibitions and cultural productions, ticketing is mostly the only economic return while business activities such as cafés/restaurants or bookshops still remain a marginal income.
MoMY aims to:
teach about co-design and development of concrete cultural actions with a clearly defined economic, social and cultural impact
support students to envision new ways to produce sustainable content, services and products dedicated to a 6 generations target and a worldwide potential audience
accompany students to co-design and co-develop Culture being aware of the necessity, for all their outputs to safeguarding the planet and the environment and to using sustainable structures, systems, materials and resources
open new research, learning topics and challenges at the Academic level to generate actions that can stimulate the development of innovative and sustainable startups/jobs also through different sectors’ contamination
teach students and researchers how to interact with citizen science and to consider the possibility to design new environments for learning, as well as new kinds of intergenerational and/or inter-cultural knowledge exchange.
MoMY aims to build the possibility to open a new dialogue between different generations, to help them to be aware of different aesthetics, design, languages and trends. Teaching modules and products take inspiration and knowledge from the most iconic artists of the past Centuries, from idols born in different fields (fashion, music, cinema, sport, etc.), times and places. Characters coming from ancient Greece or Egypt, from the Victorian era or from the far Asian legends are “the fathers and the mothers” of today's superheroes and myths. Hercules, Perseus, Arthur and the samurai have turned into paladins in capes and tights, giant robots, aliens, warrior princesses, knights riding dragons.
MoMY is proposing this fantastic neo-pantheon - that fits perfectly with the contemporary exaltation of the role-model seen through sports champions, rock stars, fashion and pop legends, as the means to stimulate students’ critical thinking and to enlarge their knowledge about sources, inspiration-originality-authoriality of ideas, evolution of artistic processes and languages. Actually, today Culture is made of multi-layered artworks. We have the necessity to recognize each one of those layers to better understand the value of those objects and how they can be used for further original inspiration.
Another important point to be aware of is the continuous mixing, melting and recycling of languages, sectors, materials and ideas. MoMY allows students to go beyond the single product or service, to zoom-out and get a broader overview on processes, meanings and aesthetics. Out there, books inspired music, which inspired movies, which inspired games, which inspired fashion, in an infinite circle of cultural growth.
Concerning inclusion, MoMY starts from a precise point of view: Modern Mythology interests all people in the world, of every age, gender, color and attitude. Actually, real and fictional icons come from all countries and from all eras, they are unpair, they belong to the LGBT+ community, they believe in different religions, philosophies and epistemologies and their ultimate and exceptional power is to break down the existing barriers between these dimensions.
MoMY’s teaching provokes students: how can we be superheroes ourselves?
MoMY aims to reach and include the largest possible number of people in co-design, testing and learning. In this direction, a virtual environment is under development. Here, teaching will include the possibility to interact, co-create, manipulate and explore 2D and 3D visual and audio objects. It will be available for all users in the world without any physical barrier. MoMY is also collaborating with Mezzo Forte and in future courses it will implement an Ecological Audio-Augmented Reality. This technology uses digital processors to add a sound layer to the natural acoustic environment, for learning (and of course for information and entertainment). The additional layer may be shared (i.e. when projected by loudspeakers) or individually used, by innovative bone-conduction earphones. All content is provided in accordance with accessibility rules (font size, color contrast, code for screen readers, etc.) and starting from 2024 spoken content will be available also in sign language.
Addressing 6 generations, MoMY cannot fail to consider the feature and content addressed to elderly people, who know Modern Mythology’s topics and gradually become more and more accustomed to the use of technological devices and the web, pushed also by exogenous phenomena (such as Covid). These users will be able to get the teaching sessions in the online dimension, discovering cultural content while sitting comfortably in their own home.
M-Cube Foundation activated MoMY, aware of the relevance of the impact Modern Mythology can have on civil society. Superheroes were born in the late 1930s as witnesses of a period of generalized instability, passing from mere playful and propaganda figures to torch bearers of hope and positive thinking, guardians of freedom, justice and security. A role they played again at the end of the 2000s with the emergence of the great economic crisis and, again, with a precise historical anniversary, in the Covid era, offering their solidity as a response to fears of an uncertain future. Superheroes become icons of easy and powerful readability of the concept of protection and justice which through comics, books, cinema, television, video games keep alive a cultural path of myths that has united the world for millennia.
Starting from this point, MoMY is going to offer in 2023 also workshops and intensive learning beyond academic courses. Teaching will be scaled to reach children, young, adults, elderly targets and families. M-Cube Foundation is already working with schools in Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regions and it is enlarging in these months its network in Sicily, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany.
An interesting collaboration is going on also with Tiny Bull Studios, with which the Foundation co-designed the videogame “Alone Together” with a focus on loneliness and is now producing a new game on youth suiciding. Both the games will be used in MoMY teaching programmes to support young in hard social issues, in different ways, according to students’ level and age.
M-Cube Foundation is collaborating with numerous institutions and bodies at the regional, national and international level, as well as with communities interested in the various services and products, including learning. Actually, the necessity to collect and catalog the Modern Mythology new corpus, requires the involvement of institutions as well as citizens, enthusiasts, collectors, owners of rare objects, gallery owners.
The mapping process the Foundation is carrying on includes the organization and interconnection of data in a qualitative database under new institutionally recognized cataloging standards. The dialogue already opened with the Ministry of Culture is essential for interfacing the M-Cube database with the national and international catalog networks.
The database will constitute a pillar for research, MoMY’s teaching and it will be open for users’ usage through visual interfaces. The mapping/cataloging is already going on based on the collaboration with cultural associations such as Anima Firenze - Museo del Cinema d'Animazione but also thanks to the dialogue with private collectors of various levels. The members of the M-Cube Foundation have already collaborated with Europeana and they will exchange expertise on the digitization of private assets and organize innovative training sessions starting from the Modern Mythology data collection.
With respect to public bodies, M-Cube Foundation is working together with: Municipality of Turin, Piedmont Region, University and Polytechnic of Turin, University of Bologna and that of Siena, Polytechnic of Milan, Sant’Anna School of Pisa, Universidade Aberta - Polo CIAC-UAb in Lisbon and Universidade do Algarve (PT), HTW - Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (DE).
Concerning private stakeholders, a series of partnerships has already been signed in Italy (Webtek, Omninext, Tiny Bull), Spain (Overlat), Germany (Dreiform) and Ireland (Momentum), especially in the technological and education sectors.
MoMY works as a multidisciplinary magnetic field that attracts almost all the expressions of Culture and Knowledge of the modern world. As said, the actors called to play the main roles in this project are many, from Visual Arts to Performative Arts, to all kinds of Design. The singular voices are:
- Literature
- Dance and Theatre
- Classic and Contemporary Music
- Cinema and Television
- Animation Arts
- Fashion and History of Costume
- Videogame Design
- Figurative Arts, Comics Art and Illustration
- Sport
- Cultural Heritage
Through the lens of Modern Mythology all these disciplines are blended in a unique thread that starts from the past reaching today in an unstoppable cycle of mutual inspiration and concepts regeneration. While historians and museums are used to approaching these fields strictly compartmentalized, the purpose of MoMY is to show how much they are related to each other, opening the visual of students in terms of future’s choices that could bring together study with personal passions, leading the path for new professions. Aside from this, the project aims to stimulate a change of mentality applied on the six generations, showing them that there is not “old stuff” or “too new stuff” but a single treasure to discover and share.
MoMY is one of the results of the innovation push of the Museum of Modern Mythology broader project. The teaching offer is relevant because of different elements:
TOPIC: only very recently curators and cultural experts have started recognizing the huge social, economic and strategic value of Pop Culture and to better understand its articulated identity of Modern Mythology - a complex form of Culture produced all around the world from the beginning of the XX Century. MoMY has designed and it is today offering the first formal teaching on that content, in collaboration with Universities and schools and starting from the biggest collection of Modern Mythology’s artworks in Europe.
TARGETs: the simple, emotional and experiential approach Modern Mythology offers, is a way to reach a large range of targets who results, even more when attracted by using these languages, hungry for knowledge. Children, youth, adults, elderly people, professionals and companies, students and workers, all of them can be considered target audiences.
TECHNOLOGY: the use of technology is peculiar in the Museum of Modern Mythology project and in MoMY. The necessity to provide the last-on-market technology could be a must for this kind of project, but it is here a bit of a different issue. The continuous teaching/learning process enabled by MoMY will put the Foundation in the position of Beta tester more than in that of early adopter, and this will create the conditions to engage students to interact and co-design innovation rather than being mere market victims.
MoMY will offer courses and modules to different Universities, schools and institutions, fulfilling the goal of a wide spread of Modern Mythology contents in different towns and regions in Italy and abroad. The learning offer will be content-specific according to the partners needs and objectives. Alliances with the Universities of Bologna, Siena, Pisa, in Portugal as well as in Germany have already been established, so these will be natural future targets for MoMY’s offer.
In EU Countries - so rich in history, every town and region can count on its peculiar cultural identity, highlighted by the variety of contents in its museums and places, generally related to specific ages. For example, in Italy, Rome tends to analyze its ancient glorious past, Florence focuses its narrative on Renaissance, Turin is a baroque city, Venice the water jewel charmed with exotic influences, Milan a place projected more towards the future than to present days. Each place has a different approach to Modern Mythology. So far, the Ministry of Culture can be considered the first and the main beneficiary of MoMY’s teaching approach, and museums and art galleries as potential targets.
The adoption of technology and the possibility to run a broad virtual environment will allow MoMY to provide online learning with a series of teaching modules developed for VR.
Contents will be available on a large scale, at the national as well as at the international level, by combining the traditional teaching with 3D objects and interactive processes accessible during the lectures by users standard devices.
To manage complex ecosystems a multidisciplinary and multi perspective approach is needed. Because of this, MoMY’s teaching teams included professionals from different disciplines and sectors, most of them hybrid profiles which can move easily between humanities, technology, soft and hard sciences. This combination and the “natural horizontality” of Modern Mythology languages and topics, allows to design time by time and partner by partner a case specific teaching module which can go in line with diverse courses in different universities. In 2022/2023, for example MoMY is interlacing contemporary exhibitions’ setup issue at the POLIMI and video Asian-languages subtitling with the Dep. of Foreign Languages and Modern Literatures at UNITO.
The adoption of gamification strategies make the teaching/learning work easier. Gamification is also the key mechanism for making research and development of high-level universities and companies open their doors for the dialogue with citizen science. A joint learning and experimenting ends in new problem solving attitudes, designing products and services for complex issues such as rare diseases, diagnostic and therapeutic tools for children, prostheses, etc. Modern Mythology can help humans to see disability as only one of the possible infinite variations of their bodies and minds.
The loss of visitors in small and medium museums and the gradual distraction of common people from Cultural issues, is not an Italian problem only. COVID19 period has shown the dramatic impact on the EU economy and society of the lockdowns and tourism is still not yet returned to its pre-pandemic performance. This represented almost a catastrophe for Countries which own relevant and abundant artistic and historical heritage, most of which could not be moved from its place to be exhibited all around the world in museums and relevant events.
MoMY is conceived to combine 3D versions of original artworks from museums to their counterparts of Modern Mythology, for learning and researching reasons, but making in that way masterpieces more reachable at least in the virtual environment and more approachable through the adoption of simplified languages.
Moreover, Modern Mythology includes messages, discussion and vision on challenges which go beyond the culture domain, and can interest health, climate change, energy, safety of food, security, migrations, etc. The possibility to use simple and engaging languages from comics, anime and a fresh narrative, create the conditions to bring the discussion about complex and uncomfortable topics on different tables and to make them accessible also for less trained or young audiences. This is also an asset for MoMY: because of the natural horizontal role of Modern Mythology, it can mix its teaching proposal in different situations and in synergy with different disciplines (medicine, environment sciences, energy, etc).
In the last years MoMy has produced 2 editions of courses in “Temporary Exhibition setup” in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan. In the 2021/2022 edition, students have been divided in 10 teams: they were asked to indicate a topic from Modern Mythology, to connect it with History and to design a possible temporary exhibition. 10 thematic setups have been prototyped to be potentially implemented in the Bicocca Space. MoMY had also the possibility to collaborate with POLIMI colleagues for work revisions, improvements and to set those exhibitions in the real world.
In 2023, MoMY is starting a new module on Modern Mythology at University of Turin, in collaboration with the Foreign Languages and Modern Literature Department. In this case, it is a chronological transcultural and transmedial tour from XVIII Century to modern time, through cinema, rock music, design until today’s video games, manga and animation.
The use of Modern Mythology is considered by the Foundation as a possible simplifier of the Culture’s languages, able to respond to the lack of empathy and understanding of the knowledge degree of users has gradually brought families, youngsters and kids to get apart from “formal” cultural institutions with the consequent economic impoverishment of both the Parts. Therefore, since 2005 to present, the Foundation has been providing content to Museums through Modern Mythology. For example, in 2019 the Museum of Oriental Arts in Turin decided to include Modern Mythology pieces in the exhibition “Warrior Womens from Rising Sun”. The exhibition concerned unknown female samurais and showed an innovative parallel between historical characters and modern warrior icons from animation and comics. This combination raised the on-average-10.000-visitors for a 3 months temporary exhibition, to more than 30.000 users. Modern Mythology has been turning exhibitions into interesting learning experiences (MUDEC, Fabbrica del Vapore, MANN, MAO, new ones planned in 2023).
Building on IP and Inkind support of Think & Do Tank Dreiform and its sister company dnxt GmbH in Cologne, M-Cube Foundation is today collaborating in the prototyping of an innovative tool for skills profiling, search and match on the basis of VISME Software. The toll will go beyond current industry standards, such as LinkedIn. Actually, VISME takes a holistic, semi-automated approach to skill profiling through user-centric assessment by skill owners, combined with a novel way of visualizing individual competencies within skill pools and connecting project teams, like-minded peers and communities. This will help the M-Cube Foundation to define present and future jobs in the Creative and Cultural sector but also in connected fields with a special attention to sustainability and green jobs, to know how to contribute to train students in that direction, and to help enterprises and institutions for searching and matching already available hybrid profiles.
