On June 27, the first test workshop of the SFB 1604 transfer project “Reflexive Migration Research in the Museum” took place. For this purpose, the project staff members Aladin El-Mafaalani, Lale Yildirim, Annika Heyen, Johannes Pufahl, and Tim Ott, together with students from the field of History and the Master’s program “International Migration and Intercultural Relations” (IMIB), were guests at the project’s external application partner, the Documentation Center and Museum on Migration in Germany (DOMiD), represented by Bebero Lehmann and Sandra Vacca. The workshop’s objective was to test various technical tools, which are primarily intended for use with the so-called Exhibition Builder, as well as time schedules under practical conditions, before commencing work with civil society, extra-university groups. The Exhibition Builder is designed to provide civil society actors with the opportunity to design their own exhibitions in virtual environments or to revise existing ones so that they feel more strongly represented along with their own history. Both the Exhibition Builder and the second tool, the so-called Place Changer, serve in the transfer project “Reflexive Migration Research in the Museum: Potentials and Perspectives of Virtual Realities” to investigate the extent to which digital methods and virtual realities enable a shift of agency in the narration of migration history toward migrantized actors and those underrepresented in the traditional museum landscape. The group of participants for this first test workshop consisted of students from History as well as the Master’s program “International Migration and Intercultural Relations” (IMIB). After examining the virtual reality application “Fragments of Migration History,” which had been compiled in advance and shown during the international opening conference of SFB 1604 “Production of Migration: Figures, Infrastructures and Spaces,” the group received a tour of DOMiD’s facilities. Sandra Vacca and Bebero Lehmann provided insights into the genesis of Germany’s largest collection of objects and testimonies documenting the diverse history of migration in Germany. The workshop participants are being guided through DOMiD’s facilities by Sandra Vacca and Bebero Lehmann (both center) (Photos: Annika Heyen). An introduction to DOMiD’s database enabled the students to research such objects. Divided into two groups, they searched for items that, in their view, represented aspects of German migration history—and especially social groups—that had not yet been narrated in the basic exhibition. The first group dealt on one hand with objects on the theme of “arrival,” but on the other hand also with developing voice and agency of migrantized persons. They selected a matryoshka doll and a rocking horse from the Landesstelle Unna-Massen, the first arrival point for many resettlers from the Soviet Union between 1975 and the early 1990s, as well as a garbage can that served as a prop for the first Turkish cabaret in Germany, Knobi-Bonbon, but was also used as a speaker’s podium at demonstrations. The second group showed interest in long-term perspectives for migrants in the Federal Republic as well as in the topic of civilian sea rescue. They chose the headlamp of a Korean miner, a sewing box of a Turkish immigrant woman, and a life ring from Cap Anamur I, whose crew rescued Vietnamese boat refugees in the South China Sea from 1979 to 1982. Workshop participants during research and reconceptualization. (Photos: Annika Heyen) Using their own digital devices, the students transformed the selected objects into digital 3D models through photogrammetric scanning. These models are currently being integrated into the existing application “Fragments of Migration History” by Michael Brinkmeier and other colleagues from the Chair of Computer Science Didactics, implementing the design wishes of the workshop participants. Once this work is completed, the students will be able to revisit the digitally altered exhibition according to their preferences. Workshop participants convert objects into digital 3D models. (Photos: Annika Heyen) Insights from this first test workshop on June 27 are now being incorporated into the refined planning of events with extra-university civil society groups.
This article is an English translation of the original German post: History@SFB: DOMiD-Workshop mit Studierenden der Geschichtswissenschaft und des IMIB