Interview with Giuseppe Antonelli, director of the Multi (Multimedia Museum of the Italian Language)

This year newitalianbooks and the Multi (Multimedia Museum of the Italian Language) have begun a collaboration based on the common goal of promoting and spreading the Italian language to an international audience. We asked Giuseppe Antonelli, full professor of History of the Italian Language at the University of Pavia and director of the Multi, to explain the aims and characteristics of this digital museum to the readers of newitalianbooks.

The name of the Multi (Multimedia Museum of the Italian Language, available at https://multi.unipv.it/it/) combines two apparently distant terms: museum, a word that sounds like a place where ancient objects belonging to other eras are preserved, and multimedia, which instead refers to the most current and contemporary innovations. So, was the Multi created to preserve the past or to document the present of the Italian language? 

To answer this, I’ll start with what happened in October last year, when the Multi was exhibited in the Italian Pavilion during the Frankfurt Book Fair with three large interactive screens and three audio stations, as well as the possibility of downloading individual pathways via QR code. Precisely because of its specific conception, balancing the thousand-year-old tradition of our splendid language with the most advanced technological narration, the Ministry of Culture considered the Multi an excellent interpretation of the slogan chosen for Italy’s guest of honour at that event: ‘Roots in the future’.

The Multi, which today is part of the University of Pavia Museum System, is the result of a design project conducted by three separate research units – the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, the University of Tuscia (Viterbo) and the University of Pavia – on an IT infrastructure designed by the Dotdotdot studio in Milan. Structured as an innovative knowledge and research platform, the Multi aims to describe, preserve and contextualise the extraordinary cultural heritage that is the Italian language, allowing it to emerge as a ‘living thing’, a tool for expression and growth of society. A museum designed to satisfy, and at the same time ignite, curiosity about our language. Hence the idea of structuring the story by answering some questions. We start from the origins (How was the Italian language born?), and then tackle six pathways dedicated to norms (Who established the rules of Italian?), writing (How did written Italian circulate?) and orality (How did spoken Italian spread?), popular language (How does the Italian of those who don’t know Italian sound?), our relationship with dialects (What languages are spoken in Italy?) and with the rest of the world (How has the Italian language spread throughout the world?). Photographs and drawings, maps and videos, manuscripts and comics, games and animations. The story continues – with curiosities and insights – crossing the fields for which Italian is best known in the world: art and music, literature and cinema, fashion and cuisine. From A for Alighieri to Z for Zerocalcare.

In developing this project, were you inspired by foreign models already in operation? Are there similar experiences in other countries?

The work of developing this project, which lasted two years, is described in a book published by Il Mulino and available online for free: Verso il museo multimediale della lingua italiana. Riflessioni, esperienze, linguaggi (https://www.darwinbooks.it/doi/10.978.8815/410283). Through a series of specific contributions, the book documents the pathway that Multi has travelled from its conception to its realisation. The first phase of the research focused mainly on the theoretical side of transforming an intangible cultural heritage, such as language in virtual contexts like the internet, into a museum exhibit. Therefore, the study of existing language museums, the census of online resources useful for this type of project and, above all, the different possibilities for setting up the exhibition. That is to say, aspects such as the identification of the objectives of knowledge dissemination and the target audience; the selection of the contents to be favoured because they are more suitable for this; the choice of the most effective storytelling and multimedia exhibition techniques. The second phase was dedicated to the concrete construction of a multimedia museum that could represent the practical application of this theoretical reflection, involving visitors from all over the world in a fascinating immersive experience.

The Multi project is part of a much longer process that has already given rise to the idea of a great museum of the Italian language and will continue to do so in the future. In particular, it stems from the experience of the exhibition Dove il sì suona. Italians and their language (Florence, Uffizi Gallery, 13 March 2003 – 6 January 2004) and from comparison with international museums such as the Planet Word (Washington, DC: https://planetwordmuseum.org/) or the new Museu da Língua Portuguesa (São Paulo, Brazil: https://www.museudalinguaportuguesa.org.br/), and is parallel and contiguous to the great project of the National Museum of the Italian Language (MUNDI: https://cultura.comune.fi.it/mundi) which, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, already offered the public a preview in the summer of 2022. Meanwhile, renovation work has continued on its splendid location in the Santa Maria Novella complex in Florence and, at the same time, the scientific project has also been defined by a working group that includes representatives from the Accademia della Crusca and the Accademia dei Lincei, the Association for the History of the Italian Language, the Dante Alighieri Society and the Enciclopedia Treccani. The architectural design is also almost finished and has been organised around various types of artefacts: documents and books, obviously, but also art objects and everyday objects, 3D reproductions, multimedia stations and interactive maps. The 18 rooms of the MUNDI are expected to open to the public by 2025.

Compared to all these language museums, the Multi has a special feature that is also a novelty on an international level. It is what you might call a ‘digital native’ museum. Not a digital rendering or translation of a pre-existing physical museum, but a museum expressly conceived and created for exclusively digital use.

What type of user is the Multi aimed at? Is there any possibility for interaction between the public and the museum?

Multi is a virtual museum that aims to promote the diverse intangible heritage of the history of the Italian language through technologically advanced, inclusive and interactive content, also aimed at non-specialists and non-Italian speakers. Thanks to an intuitive interface and an easily navigable structure, the Multi is aimed at a vast and heterogeneous audience. Its digital pathways combine narrative languages, images, video and audio to reconcile the scientific rigour of reconstruction with an immersive and surprising experience. The Multi is inclusive, interactive, free and – thanks to the English language version – also appeals to an international audience.

The narration of the various events in the history of the Italian language is organised in the Multi according to the logic of scrollytelling: it is precisely through the mechanism of scrolling that the digital objects at the centre of the story are encountered. Images, graphic animations, high quality digital reproductions of documents and manuscripts, video extracts, voice recordings, music and interactive maps make up the museum’s exhibits, or rather the elements that form the museum collection. The exhibits are included in the narrative of the various itineraries but can also be viewed in the Museum collection: here, reproductions of manuscripts, audiovisual films or works of art, accompanied by captions with all the technical data, are combined in new meaningful geometries, between juxtapositions and leaps in time. The public is also involved through the recreational activities in each room.

How will the collaboration between the Multi and newitalianbooks work in practice?

It will consist of a series of contributions published on this site and dedicated to a specific aspect of the Italian language and its history: music, food, art, sport and so on. As the director of Multi, I am very happy with this collaboration and I hope it will help our multimedia museum reach the many people throughout the world who study, teach or even just love the Italian language.