Client: The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary and The Rosenbach Museum and Library
Project: The Franklin Remixed

inspiration

In celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday in 2006, The Franklin Tercentenary and The Rosenbach Museum and Library approached The Philadelphia School to allow their middle school students the opportunity to “remix” the museum exhibitions and produce an online exhibit based on their work. The purpose was to help students learn curricular content while gaining insight on the fundamentals of curating an exhibit.

narration

Night Kitchen Interactive collaborated with the two organizations in developing an exhibition-based educational program that allowed students to tell their own story and create an online exhibit capturing their vision of the life and work of Benjamin Franklin.

design

As artist-in-residence, Night Kitchen Interactive facilitated the development of the students’ online exhibit during a three-week course. Students were introduced to easy-to-use Web 2.0 applications to minimize technical issues and focus student time on design and content. A combination of blogging, podcasting and web-based image sharing and manipulation tools were used to allow students provide maximum input into the exhibit.

interaction

The Franklin Remixed online exhibit allows visitors to view a rich-media slideshow narrated by the students themselves, explore the exhibition artifacts and their stories, or view a gallery of artifacts. In addition, the exhibit also features student pages, in which they relate their individual reflections on the exhibit through text, image and voice. The exhibit, developed for middle school students by middle school students, is now available to fellow middle school students around the country.