On the "In Silence" Museum's birthday we interviewed its founder and creative inspirer, Maria Aizina. We talked about the project's social mission, ways of bringing together the worlds of hearing and deaf people, and plans for the future.
Maria, how did the idea of creating the Museum of Silence come to you?
Originally I had a different museum in Vladimir – the "Da Vinci" Museum of Illusions and Sciences. Once a group of deaf children came there. That's how the idea came to me that it's important to open a space that would create a first positive experience of interacting with deaf and hard-of-hearing people, to remove visitors' fears and anxieties, let them fall in love with the guides, and form a desire to learn a little more about sign language or the world of people living in silence.
What is the concept and main mission of the project?
We sincerely believe that we contribute to the development of an equal-opportunity society. On one hand, the main visitor to the museum is a hearing person who, during the interactive tour, puts on noise-canceling headphones and tries to communicate without voice and hearing, understands the difficulties a person faces, and learns a little more about themselves. In this way, we make them fall in love with deaf and hard-of-hearing people. On the other hand, we employ deaf and hard-of-hearing young people and show them that they can communicate with hearing people and play the main active role. We teach them to communicate with a hearing audience and establish dialogue. Our main program is an interactive tour which, we hope, addresses the problem of the global social isolation of deaf people. The problem is that we can notice people with limited mobility and blind people, but deaf people do not stand out in a crowd, so we rarely think about the difficulties they face in everyday life.
The museum employs deaf and hard-of-hearing guides
At the moment the "In Silence" museums are open in three cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Are these museums similar?
Our museums are absolutely identical and operate as permanent exhibitions in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Saint Petersburg. When we traveled to different cities with mobile exhibits, we offered the same standard program. The only difference between these cities is that Moscow has an inclusive quest which, we hope, will soon appear in Nizhny Novgorod as well.
Quest walkthrough
What tour programs do you offer?
Our main tour "In Silence" consists of two parts: an exhibition section and an interactive section. In the exhibition part we tell about the life and everyday routines of deaf and hard-of-hearing people, discuss myths and facts, show cochlear implants and the evolution of hearing aids starting from the ear trumpet. In the interactive part visitors put on noise-canceling headphones and, accompanied by a guide, go through five zones completing tasks. The tasks are aimed at each visitor discovering a little more about themselves: how to 'speak' with your hands, listen with your eyes, feel music with your body. We believe that through play and interaction people put themselves in the place of a deaf or hard-of-hearing person and understand the challenges they face. It's hard to grasp that in theory.
Learning sign language
What other events take place at the museum?
Besides the interactive tour, we have a "Guess the Scent" workshop aimed at developing the sense of smell. Visitors play "Aromaloto", guessing fourteen scent sources. After that we read the explanations and learn what guessing a certain scent means. For example, extroverts and introverts perceive citrus scents completely differently. At the end of the workshop each visitor makes their own aroma amulet to take home. We provide low-fired clay in the shape of a star or heart where the visitor can apply an essential oil of their choice — for example, mint for calm, citrus for energy, and so on. There is also a "Chocolate Candies" workshop where we tell the history of chocolate and make candies together with visitors. We explain and show what cocoa beans, cocoa nibs, and cocoa butter look like — the latter is something few people know about. Then everyone creates their own chocolates and takes them home in a gift box. And, as I mentioned, in Moscow we have an interactive quest-room that both hearing and deaf people can take part in.
Photos from the "Guess the Scent" and "Chocolate Candies" workshops
What are the museum's plans for the future?
We have quite active plans – we would like to spread and involve as many visitors as possible across the country in the culture of interacting with deaf and hard-of-hearing people. We have traveled to 23 cities and been visited by over 100,000 people. At the moment we still see the museum's development through permanent sites that operate continuously, rather than temporary traveling exhibitions. When we set a goal, during its implementation the desire and inspiration to create something new and grow appear.
