In thinking about the future of museums and the museums of the future, I have been finding it difficult not to look through the lens of how uncertain the future looks at this moment. The concept of a post-human future, or one in which humanity survives in some dystopic form, is prominent in the Zeitgeist and in my immediate academic environment. In my Design for Live Performance class in the fall, I created a Cornell box in response to “Artifacts of Consequnce”, a play about a group of people trying to preserve cultural objects in a post-apocalyptic reality. The future museum assignment, as well as the visit to the Treasures in the Trash collection, have also raised the question, will there be anyone to witness what we leave behind? If there is a future observer/visitor, will they be human? Alien? Machine?
The diorama is a framing of the present state of human technology as a relic from the far past, something to be extracted from rocks millions of years after we are gone. Based on the relics it leaves behind and how they are preserved, how will human civilization be evaluated? Will its technological artifacts suggest superior intelligence and sophistication, or will the evidence of its wasetful use of resources and destruction of its environment lead to a classification of humanity as a parasitic life form?
Presentation
Process
I used Model Magic modeling clay to create molds, then poured Plaster of Paris to create the casts. In the second iteration I mixed some paint into the solution in an attempt to get a more fossilized look.
Posted in Spring '20 - Cabinets of Wonder, Uncategorized |