[developed during Beatrice Leanza’s directorship of the museum 2019-2022]
Launched on September 16, 2020 maat ext. (read: extended) is a content platform developed by the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon)that aggregates, connects and expands the reach of the museum’s actions across the digital sphere.
“maat ext. is an experiment and an effort towards defying the time-based metrics of offline content consumption in order to produce a space for knowledge production, research and dialogue that can empower institutional practice to an intellectually flexible and creatively temperamental mode of contemporary storytelling.” (Beatrice Leanza, executive director of maat).
A companion to the website redesigned in line with the revamped visual language of the museum, maat ext. is an editorial space where different forms of creative output coexist, some of which are developed by and with the collaborators involved in the museum’s programming and others that are native to this realm.
The contents are organised in five main sections defined by their formats, each landing itself to different strategies of appropriation and inventive deviation from its typological form. Bulletin – a space for sharp and brief news, condensed op-eds, poetry and prose of meaning. Open Sources – a knowledge repertory of references, readings and bibliographies of insight. Longforms – deep reading not power browsing, for essays and interviews in words, visuals, and data. Cinema – moving images made with anything that can record. Antenna – podcasts, playlists, sound capsules.
In Topics are thematically specific reading threads across the platform. Fixed tags on top of the column in this section are more closely related to subjects and preoccupations the museum is deepening through its on-site programming. Explorations: to delve into the socio-cultural and environmental transformations concerning the current bio-crisis and ecological destruction, providing insight into the hard science of climate intervention. The Quest: creative speculations behind innovation-lead research to safeguard our planetary coexistence. Collections: an expanded field of enquiry into the meaning and making of museological practice. maat #: contents connected to exhibitions. Expanded Classroom: alternative education, rethought pedagogies and disruptive learning.
All of which generates resonances, further links and reflection interwoven with the on-site events organised by the museum while opening up a new dimension further to the ones the institution traditionally engages, for collaboration with individuals, institutions, festivals, publishing ventures in print, digital or else, among many others.
Read on at https://ext.maat.pt
maat ext. is a collective effort, keep an eye on the about page of the website for regular updates.
Creative Director: Beatrice Leanza
Editor: Nuno Ferreira de Carvalho
Graphic Design: Lisa Hartje Moura
Web Development: Wingman
Translations and Proofreading: Liam Burke, Per Christopher Foster
The new visual identity of maat was developed by the Lisbon based studio Barbara says…