The Museum of the Person is an institution designed by Karen Worcman to capture the oral histories of oft-unrecognized individuals – from the homeless to nursing home residents – and provide them a “place” to tell and store their life stories.
The converted residence that houses the Museum of the Person in the bohemian Vila Madalena neighborhood of São Paulo is never open to the public. This museum is truly virtual. Its mission is to establish a digitalized multimedia databank of oral reports, videos, photographs, and personal documents and make them accessible and usable to a broad section of society via the Internet and other channels.
Worcman learned through her work – sometimes conducting interviews that lasted as long as 15 hours – that history is powerful, not only as a record or because it can hold lessons for future generations, but because the process of recording history can transform the protagonists themselves. She says of her work: “I would walk into people’s homes and see how much they wanted to tell their stories. Sometimes one of them would go into a trance. It would seem as if the person were being reborn. Having one’s life appreciated by another person creates an impact. I was fascinated.”
On the site, individuals, families and groups can upload their own material, though museum officials continue set up temporary recording studios in public squares, subway stations and other gathering spots like the recent Latin American regional conference of the Movement of Scavengers of Recyclable Material to record the stories of people typically without voices.
While the museum still publishes books, CDs and DVDs, and organizes exhibitions, its focal point is the Internet. Its website has been named by The New York Times as the “most interesting” of all those presented at a conference on Museums and the Web in New Orleans in 1999.
A related institution was created in the United States - Musum of the Person Indiana, which "collects, preserves and shares life stories for social change."
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