Abstract:
"Welcome to The Museum of the Absurd. Join us in curating our next exhibition about the 2020s, a decade when some of the most unreasonable and illogical decisions made by society led us to catastrophic crisis". In this interactive session, participants take on the role of curators in a new exhibit in the Museum of the Absurd, set 30 years from now. At the beginning of the workshop, participants will peruse an exhibition of pre-selected artifacts: a meat hamburger representing biodiversity loss, a prescription for birth control representing the disparity in access to reproductive rights, a piece of asphalt representing the increasing floods in cities, etc. Curators are invited to rethink the present as subject to change, especially when looking at artifacts that lead to destruction and oppression. Then, they will discuss in groups which artifacts they want to add to the exhibition. Participants will be able to "craft" their objects using materials that will be available to them. A previous version of this workshop was previously held at the event at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Following the showcase of their proposed artifacts and the reasons to do so, participants will discuss the implications of their choices. Which habits, systems, structures, and values are these curatorial choices rejecting? And which actions can participants do in the present to make their chosen artifacts "obsolete" in the next years? If groups agree, their proposed artifacts will be shared on an open-access website.
Areas of STS Scholarship: Decolonial and Postcolonial STS, Method and Practice
Authors/Participants: Beatrys Rodrigues, Cornell University
