THE MUSEUM OF HIDDEN GENIUS: An Atlas of Afrotech
- Dr. Matthew Kenyatta
- City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design
-
Independent Creative Production Grant
Screenshot of the animated logo of the Museum of Hidden Genius project depicting flickering light trails tracing the words in a neon yellow glow accompanied by a lightbulb with a brain as its carbon filament. Created by Dr. Matt Kenyatta, November 2023.
THE MUSEUM OF HIDDEN GENIUS (MOHG) is a digital cabinet of curiosity crowdsourcing histories of African American invention, or “Afrotech”, to preserve, exhibit, and activate an atlas of hidden heritage worthy of wonder, adventure, and world-making in legacy cities. Barely 2.5% of the 98,000 sites in the National Register of Historic Places are devoted to African American heritage. In 2023, only four Black heritage sites are designated for “Invention.” The MOHG pursues the quest, “Where is the African American geography of genius: the hidden Atlas of Afrotech?” In answering this, can storytelling and spatial technologies help joyfully repair legacies of erasure in public spaces? The platform prototypes a micro-museum with several galleries that offer answers to this quest.
A nine-second animation of a logo depicting flickering light trails tracing the words the Museum of Hidden Genius in a neon yellow glow accompanied by a lightbulb with a brain as its carbon filament. Created by Dr. Matt Kenyatta, November 2023.