Digital memory bank to record past and inspire future

A new digital archive to document and celebrate Victoria University of Wellington’s creative past and present is set to inspire its creative future, says director of the Museum and Heritage Studies programme Professor Conal McCarthy, a member of the Cultivating Creative Capital multi-disciplinary theme.

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Pictured at the launch of Creative Legacy, from left to right, back to front: CCC Chair Professor Jennifer Windsor, Professor Conal McCarthy, Isabel Herstell (Master of Science student), Lucy Jackson (MMHP graduate), Laura Jamieson (MA in Museum and Heritage Studies student)

Creative Legacy launched this month along with a book, Creative Victoria by Rachel Barrowman, has been established to showcase the University’s contributions to the cultural and creative life of Wellington and New Zealand over the past 120 years—across music, art, theatre, film, architecture, science, education, literature, publishing and beyond.

“While the emphasis has been on documenting and recording our history, this is ultimately about a creative encounter—creating something that students, staff and the public can engage with to generate new understandings, new work, new ideas,” says Conal McCarthy. “Ultimately the goal is for this platform to become the University’s memory bank.”

Creative Legacy is built on a cloud-based web-publishing platform, Omeka, which caters for object-based, narrative-rich online exhibitions. Among other objects and collections, it features stories about the University’s creative legacy and contemporary innovation written by Victoria University of Wellington students for the STQRY app, many as summer scholars, but also through course assignments.

Conal McCarthy says the concept of creativity in the context of the archive is very broad. “We’re talking about creative thinking and creative expression—in a diversity of forms, across a range of fields.”

He says the future of the Creative Legacy platform and the STQRY app will be student driven.

“We’ve had around 60 postgraduate students of all stripes developing content on the University’s creative legacy and leading the development of the app and this new platform Omeka. This is a tool that gets everyone involved in their history through teaching and learning, while developing useful skills for the digital world, so they are industry ready.”

Recent Master of Museum and Heritage Practice graduate Lucy Jackson has been involved with the Creative Legacy project since its inception and most recently has acted as curator of the digital platform. “Students are at the core of this project; they drive the content, develop narratives around objects, spaces and people that intrigue them, and write for a wide audience. As the web curator and a student myself, I think the Creative Legacy project has bridged the gap between expert and engager. We have translated academic concepts and ideas into easily accessible and interesting stories so that everyone can access and explore the University’s creative past, present and future.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Jennifer Windsor says “This project provides new ways to create and find all kinds of information about student and staff work—from 3D printing of Grecian urns to digital cultural mapping in Māoridom to wearable technology and the plusses and pitfalls of entrepreneurship. It’s a fascinating way to learn more about the people and ideas that have shaped our communities.”