GeoMuseUM: Geolocative App of Campus Public Sculptures used to Sculpt Innovative Curriculum and Music

Lien Tran, Assistant Professor of Interactive Media; Diana Ter-Ghazaryan, GIS Research Associate at FIU; Melvin Butler, Associate Professor at Frost School of Music; Brent Swanson Lecturer at Frost School of Music; Christina Larson, Andrew W. Mellon Academic Engagement Fellow at the Lowe Art Museum; Mark Osterman, Manager of Museum Digital Experience at the Lowe Art Museum

Attendees will learn about GeoMuseUM and ways in which it can be used for innovative curriculum. Funded by a Mellon CREATE Grant, Dr. Diana Ter-Ghazaryan and Professor Lien Tran worked with a team of students to collect highly accurate GPS coordinates of the Coral Gables campus’s public sculptures and prototyped interactive map and app solutions to make finding and learning about these sculptures easier for the UM community and campus visitors. This exploration led to the launch of GeoMuseUM, a geolocative web app and sculpture guide created in coordination with the Lowe Art Museum. Visitors to this online resource can connect to the Gables campus via physical places/spaces and art, learn about sculptural art and artists, and even be inspired to create. Dr. Melvin Butler and Dr. Brent Swanson will share their experience using GeoMuseUM as part of an assignment in MCY 140 Experiencing Music. Students selected, visited, and studied a sculpture in-person or virtually, then “sculpted” (composed or improvised) a short piece of “music” that connected to the selected piece of visual art. The Lowe plans to use GeoMuseUM to engage the residential student population through art-related, stress-reducing activities that provide healthy outlets for anxiety and feelings of isolation. The GeoMuseUM app is available at geomuse.as.miami.edu.

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