10 November 2017

The National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (MNACTEC) has started the citizen participation project Museu al carrer (Museum on the streets), which aims to inventory, georeference, document and valorise the heritage of industrial society preserved in the streets and landscapes of Catalonia. The project takes material form in the website mnactec.cat/museualcarrer to compile and view citizen contributions.

This initiative aims to collect photographs and information on distinguishing, visual and corporate elements of industrial society found in the streets and landscapes of our country. Despite the valuable accounts they provide for an era, many of these elements are not documented, appreciated or protected and are at risk of disappearing.

The heritage of industrial society is understood as the cultural, social, scientific and technological legacy of the society which was born from the industrial revolution (19th c.) and underwent a crisis with globalisation and the new information technologies (1970-1980). This society witnessed the creation of industry and all the consequences derived from it: mechanisation, rural exodus to cities, growth of advertising, birth of sports and tourism, etc.

The project Museu al carrer has four main focuses: transport and communications; advertising and information; trade; and leisure. This project aims to compile elements such as old maps of roads, former petrol stations and train stations; antique advertising signs and signalling symbols; traditional trades and railway heritage elements.

Once this heritage is documented and included in an inventory it will become part of the industrial society heritage studied by MNACTEC, which also includes movable elements preserved in the museum collections and real estate (industrial buildings, chimneys, etc.).