The Frida Kahlo Museum is peculiar. Nestled within the old house she shared with Diego in Coyoacán (part of greater Mexico City), the art and artifacts speak volumes. It's less a house and more a ranch-meets-gallery in the city. There's something magical about the artworks residing where they were born – early pieces in her childhood bedroom, famous works in her studio, and curated sculptures in the garden.
Wandering through Frida's life is like a bohemian-bourgeoisie safari (a BoBo's paradise perhaps!?). But what if each of us could create our own personal museum, an unshakable digital family tree grounding us in our ancestry? 23andMe is nice, but knowing which corner of the world we hail from is just the tip of the iceberg. The real story lies in our ancestors' struggles, joys, and triumphs. Today’s curated museums are just the thick, fatty cream on the top of a rich yogurt. But you should generally eat the whole yogurt including the watery whey part. And perhaps even save the yogurt container as a food saver of sorts which confuses guests into thinking that you indeed have yogurt when all you have is a three-day old curry that is starting to sour. This analogy has gone all wrong but my point is we should save art from everyone. We are all artists, creating tiny masterpieces like ditties or love letters. These little rebellions against rational overlords are essential to the human experience.
I think there are two ways to go about this. The first one is simple. At regular intervals (say every decade), save/print out your 5 most representative work items for that decade and put it into a physical capsule (preferably as air-tight as possible). Email your close friends and next of kin that it exists so that they (or some hapless future archaeologist) will know how awesome you are. This approach may not be the sexiest, but it gets it done.
The more complicated but admittedly the better experience is to really lean in to digital real estate. It’s already easy to set up *some* digital real estate. Imagine museums where each room honors a family member, or entire museums dedicated to famous clans and their forebears. Better yet, museums cataloging the histories of entire peoples – all because we made the art accessible and organized. The world will feel much more connected when we use VR for immersive spaces and digitize art forms. You could even use some sort of cryptographic methods to sign the artifacts so people know it was created by the real you. You can create backups and store those addresses on the blockchain to make sure there’s a breadcrumb for your descendants to find you.
Frida Kahlo was a 20th-century titan, with a loyal entourage who preserved her public works. You may wonder what public works are applicable for our own legacies? Well, for us mere mortals, that means photos we’ve taken, meaningful emails we’ve written, basically anything that we’ve created and there is digital proof of. Your digital museum may not captivate the masses, but it will enthrall your descendants, both biological and intellectual. Really mundane but cherished memories (think an audio file of your grandmother coo’ing as a baby) make some of the best exhibits. There comes a time when we are all forgotten. By preserving your most teenage-angst ridden song lyrics, you’re helping the future maybe not take itself so seriously. That can make all the difference.
What an interesting idea for everyone to have their own digital museum.
I think it is hard to find the right platform to hold the digital things... Which company will have the most staying power?
I look forward to listening to the podcast.