World Public Forum

Published on 16 March 2009

Written by WPF Dialogue of Civilizations

The project “World Script Museum” by the President of Balkanmedia Association Rossen Milev. Material of the forthcoming conference “Writing Systems of the World: History, Development, Prospects”.

 

World Script Museum
Project-idea

(Mus?e international des ?critures • Museo internacional de las escrituras • Weltschriftmuseum • Музей письменностей народов мира
Световен музей на писменостите)

The idea for the creation of the first of its kind WORLD SCRIPT MUSEUM, which will collect and exhibit in one place all the multitude of alphabets, written signs and cultures from all over the world came up when I was working on my paper on the “World script revolution in the 4th c. AD” (this paper was published in Bulgarian and English language in June 2007 by Balkanmedia in Sofia). In it I had gathered as illustration material most of the  world scripts and this was a chance to consider the possibility of gathering all the alphabets and other writing systems of different peoples in one place and actually present it as a unique museum exhibition that is to be housed in one building and the surrounding park area. In this way they would become accessible as a joint ensemble for the wide public.

The idea is to create a new type of museum, representing all alphabets and writing systems in the world. An institution, corresponding to the new planetary way of thinking in our modern world, to the ideas of peace, humanism, democracy, equality of peoples and cultures, of the concept for diversity, of intercultural interrelations and totality of the world, of the all-human strive for harmony, for development of the material and spiritual culture. The museum will stimulate the international cultural dialogue, the understanding among nations and the scientific exchange in the research of written cultures, for example of the universals in writing. Today, in the world there exist just a few museums dedicated especially to writing. And they only present a given writing system of one nation or of a couple of languages, such as the Museum of the Armenian Alphabet in Yerevan (Armenia) or the Institute for Sanskrit and Other Ancient Manuscripts in the city of Laknau, state of Utar Pradesh (India). Besides these there are a number of museums of technique that present the history of mass media. The envisaged World Script Museum will use all of that experience and place it in the multidimensional context of the conceived planetary exhibition.

In a building with a spiral construction each country, each nation with a specific tradition in writing and culture, will arrange its own exposition in a separate hall where it will present the originals or copies of the most important written monuments (on stone, wood, bones, clay and different ceramic items, metal, papyrus, parchment, silk, palm leaves, paper, on coins, armaments, armory, jewelry, etc.). Special accent in general will be on the diversity of written culture – from the cuneiform writing to papyrus, parchment, paper scrolls, leaves and codex from different epochs and parts of the world; on the different locations that they were created – monasteries and ruler’s scriptoriums, trade offices, private writing and art ateliers, etc. An accent placed on the richness of variants of writing/drawing, copying, decorating, coding. Naturally at the center of the exhibition’s interest will be the human creator – the bookman-author (writer, poet, chronicler), calligrapher, clerk, transcriber, translator, decorator, bookbinder and designer of letters and written monuments, as well as the man – keeper of written works – librarian, documentarians, archivist, etc. But this will also be a museum dedicated to the creative individuality of the literate, writing man all over the world in general, of his uniqueness and individuality as an everyday creator of written monuments with a specific style, representing the characteristic written reproduction of written signs which he uses. Letters, all kinds of everyday notes and reports, school notebooks, graffiti, handwritten receipts, etc. originating from different cultures and historical periods will create an additional democratic representative venue of the exposition space. Presented will also be exhibits of different kinds of musical (note) writing as well as other specific written signs, such as Louis Braille (for the blind), stenography, etc.

Alongside will be visualized, with the help of modern audiovisual technology, computer simulations also the evolution of different written cultures, the change in the graphic appearance, of the meaning and symbolism, of the sounding of the different letters and of other written signs-words. In this way through the joint efforts of experts from all over the world not only a maximum exactness and representativeness of the exhibition will be achieved (because who is better acquainted with the written culture than the peoples on whose historical grounds it has developed or who has accepted it as their own, has become the carrier of the relevant cultural tradition and memory), but the principle of equality between nations and peoples grounded at the basis of modern international relations will be re-created in the museum realm.

The park of the museum could be used to present originals and copies first of all of the most famous written monuments on stone and rock, such as the Rosetta Stone from Egypt, the stones with runic inscriptions from Scandinavia, steles with inscriptions of the Maya people in America, etc.

By gathering in one place world script cultures – ancient, extinct ones or ones that have evolved to modern forms the museum will focus on the world cultural-historic heritage in the sphere of writing in all of its colorful diversity but also on its totality as a possession of human memory. In this way this will also be a museum-message towards a unified future of humankind, to the new information society offering a common, planetary reminiscence and vision about the universal human genius of man in one of the most important spheres of his evolution – writing. Cultural capacity, activity closely connected on the other hand with the development also of language and thinking, i.e. with man himself. The study of “reading and writing” since ancient times lies at the basis of human enlightenment, of the development also of the school as a universal initial enlightened institution – that is why the museum will show also the relevant school textbooks and writing trivia (wooden and wax boards, chalks, etc.) from different parts of the world and different epochs.

 

Speaking in more concrete terms, the World Script Museum will actually be also a museum of inscriptions and texts (holy and “ordinary”), of different kinds of meanings, literacy and knowledge transmitted from man to man through them.

Since most writing systems have merged on a religious basis, the museum will actually gather also the different religious and spiritual quests of all continents in their concrete material manifestation in written signs and monuments. In this way it will present a synthesized expression of the religious and ethno-cultural polyphony of the world and will show the common influences and enrichment in the evolution of the different spiritual-written systems.

Besides the letters, hieroglyphs, musical notes, ciphers and other written signs the exposition will center also on the development of written communication in general – on writing instruments and materials in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, printing presses of European, Chinese-Korean and other types, illumination and printing of illustrations in manuscripts and books, on the technological innovations in literary and newspaper production in the 19th – 20th centuries, the modern artistic development of print characters and polygraph craftsmanship in general, on the new means and forms of individual and social production and distribution of written messages – postal items, typewriters, telegraphs, telexes, fax machines and reaching up to modern computer methods of production, preservation and distribution of written speech. The museum will exhibit objects (also as miniaturized models) as well as audiovisual reconstructions and the development of the culture for creating, preservation and presentation of written works – scriptoria, chests of drawers and shelves for scrolls and books, book depositories, library cultural clubs, libraries, book fairs, modern electronic registries, etc. Visualized also will be the different forms of censorship and struggle for free speech during the ages as well as different historical forms of cryptography and ciphering.

An international academic research center will be founded at the museum which will study first of all the cultural-historic interrelations between the writing systems of different cultures and civilizations, what is common and specific in them. The whole exposition will be made accessible also as a web-page for the interested virtual visitors from all over the world.

The work on the preparation of the museum began in 2008, when at the 6th Rhodes Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” on 10th October Balkanmedia's coordinator Svetlana Lazarova presented the project-idea before the members of the forum. Also in this continuity in May 2009 in Sofia the WPF Dialogue of Civilizations and Balkanmedia Association will organize the First Conference «Writing systems of the world: history, development, prospects».

The opening of the museum is planned for 2011. This year marks the 1700 anniversary of the birth of Bishop Wulfila (311-383), the flounder of the Gothic Christian alphabet (the research on him was the occasion for the discovery of the phenomenon “world script revolution in the 4th c AD” and the idea for a World Script Museum).

Naturally after 2011 the museum will continue to collect new exhibits, to enrich and further develop its collection, to grow as a world center of written culture. An international committee will coordinate the overall preparatory work, organization, financial and intellectual, creative work on the project. Its Secretariat will be based at Wulfila House in Sofia and the everyday organization work will be undertaken by the team of Balkanmedia Association.

The project will have the status of a PPPP (Public Private Partnership Project), i.e. on the basis of co-financing will accumulate resources from state national and international organizations and funds as well as from private sponsors (juridical persons, companies, foundations, etc.) and invest those funds in the construction, arrangement and further support of the museum. The management of the museum will be established after a tender in the city which offers the best and most perspective conditions for the creation and development of the establishment.

Rossen Milev
President Balkanmedia Association
Sofia, March 2009