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THE MUSEUM OF OPEN WINDOWS


Concept, Exhibit & Audio Guide
Global / Glasgow
2021






The Museum of Open Windows is a new kind of museum that connects communities and existing museums in a global network of resource sharing, collaborative collection-making and empowerment. The concept has been developed by Studio MASH, RESOLVE Collective, Livia Wang (Van Gogh House London) and Nico Alexandroff.

With access to expertise and equipment, a community group might literally ‘open a window’ into their world by providing real-time footage of a landscape or industrial activity, to be accessed and shared globally with other communities online. They will be able to share quantitative information on water, soil and air quality, as well as more subjective accounts of their environments, redressing the predominance of cold scientific data in this field.

Museums are reimagined as a networked infrastructure in this scenario – a global set of tools and resources enabling citizen science that is attuned to local cultures and environments. By providing access to their collections, knowledge and hardware, any museum might become part of the Museum of Open Windows, helping communities to engage in climate action by gathering and sharing environmental data. By uncoupling the idea of a museum from any single building or site, the Museum of Open Windows asks how communities worldwide might research, catalogue and ultimately care for their own distinct terrains.*

*Extract from the 'Reimagining Museums for Climate Action' book.









The first Museum of Open Windows project is in partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre and takes the form of an audio field guide. Listeners are taken on a walk through their own local area – wherever they are – and helped to notice, observe and collect evidence of climate change.


"Today, you are going to do something quite different. Today you’re going to go on a walk, but not just any old walk. Today you are going to be a citizen scientist, observing your surroundings for signs of a changing climate and contributing to a global collection of data."


The audio field guide can be accessed here.








Samples collected by listeners of the field guide – images, videos and sound recordings – were displayed at the Glasgow Science Centre as part of a wider exhibition exploring the potential of museums as instigators of climate action. The exhibition was be visited by delegates of the COP 26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow.