A multimedia room experience asking participants to think about the shaping of historical narratives.
When do we blame people for the past? How can we be conscious about shaping our future?
Participants examined “artifacts” from the year 2019 from a the perspective of inhabitants of a future world facing water shortage.
They were honored historical experts on the year 2019. We asked them to help us identify unknown objects like this “game board,” or a “water bottle.”
“Water bottles were accumulated by hoarders to plan for the upcoming water shortage.”
World-Building
Everyone could help themselves to water - as long as there was enough in the pitcher. Artifacts had to be touched with a gloved hand.
The Process
Collaborated with 3 others.
Designed the premise, managed the project over multiple iterations.
Engaged climate-change theory.
Created an immersive setting by writing world-building texts, sourcing items.
Engaged participants using improvisation techniques.
Theory
Participants examined the objects and their histories by reading placards that speculated on how the objects were used, and were able to touch the objects with a gloved hand. They spoke to us, the museum staff, to learn about the future climate-changed world. Eventually, the museum staff unveiled their questions about several new objects and asked participants to describe the significance of these items. These were Monopoly: For Millenials, a reusable Target bag, and an abstract wooden sphere with five prongs tipped by five smaller spheres. The participants proposed that the Target bag was a dangerous hypnosis device, and one museum curator threw it on the ground, as another complained about their treatment of the item.
RVR took current objects and moved them into a future space. It decontextualized objects that are familiar to the players who enter our room and brought those objects into a space for new interpretation. Unlike apocalyptic speculative futures, our room developed the link between the present and future that focused on what is preserved between present and future, rather than what is lost. Lastly, the project asked players to consider how figures of power motivate the way dominant narratives of history are shaped.
Thank you for coming! Photo courtesy of the Franke Institute