ReMIND · Reactivating Neglected Heritages, Reweaving Unspoken Memories. A Study on the Adaptive Reuse of Former Asylums into “mind museums”.

ReMIND focuses on the potentials for ‘mind museums’(former asylums turned into museums)to provoke emotional responses in visitors and foster critical reflection on the histories and contemporary problems of dealing with mental illness (MI) in society.Its objective is to fill some relevant scientific gaps on the subject, as well as to conjoin complimentary disciplinary approaches from museum and exhibition design and museum studies and develop new research competence for me as fellow and for the host institution in the field of visitor studies.ReMIND explores the MI heritage landscape through asylums built in Europe from the mid-19th cent until the 60s’ deinstitutionalisation process in the psychiatric care system.Today, most of these buildings still stand where they were, often completely or partially abandoned, left to decay, and contributing to urban decline.ReMIND will survey the European landscape of MI heritage considering phenomena such as abandonment and reuse of historic asylums for cultural purposes.However, alongside this general desk-based overview, its main aim is to analyse former asylums that have been restored and reused as museums, specifically involving 2 indepth interdisciplinary pilot case studies.Nowadays we don’t have a sense of potentials for the responsible adaptive re-use of asylums and they are in danger.Likewise, once converted into museums, their role in effecting attitudinal change in visitors that may help to dismantle stigma and promote awareness toward MI has not been properly investigated.ReMIND addresses these gaps.To do so my study will integrate various disciplinary approaches to rethink adaptive reuse interventions and contemporary heritage conservation and valorisation practices.I will work at the intersection of different research fields, moving from Italy to UK at New Castle University to learn, deploy and contribute in implementing theories and methodologies related to heritage studies, visitor studies, and display analysis.