ObjectViewOfContestedCollection — Queenie Szu-Yu Huang

Timeline
Research October to December 2023
Design and Fabrication Feburary to April 2024

Class
ITP Graduate Thesis
Watch the Presentation ->

Technical Details
Mixed Media Installation with:
Soundscape
Material Wall
Projected Narrative:
Animated and rendered with UE5
Projection Mapped with MadMapper

Central Exploration:

With growing concern of repatriation, misrepresentation and other contested issues at museums, how do we propose an alternative way of approaching cultural objects as visitors that does not hold museums as objective information dispensers?

Existing Museum Framework and Image:

Branded as a place where objective information is presented alongside the art and objects from different countries and respective countries. When in reality, it upholds a very western and oftentimes colonial point of view that creates a disconnect with visitors of other backgrounds that may have subjective and personal connections with what is presented.

However, growing concert of representation as well as the methods in which these cultural objects are obtained has sparked action among government and institutions to start return or repatriate to their rightful place, culture, or individuals.

The question is as how do we as visitors approach contested objects?

Concept -

An immersive installation that brings visitor through the journey of how an object arrives at the museum. It starts with audio and tactile hints of auction, transportation and conservation that leads to visitors to inside a display box at a museum space, before providing more concrete examples of actual cases of repatriation in a storage space. By experiencing the process and recontextualization an object undergoes, it prompts a deeper understanding of the complexities attached to contested cultural objects by relating it to personal emotions and experiences.

Designing the Space

Planning Exhibition Flow Based on Content <--> Test Variations in 3D <--> Test Scale in Actual Space <--> Adjust Floor Plan and Dimension for Construction

Creating the Physical and Digital Contents

Material Tests and Prototype

Testing Effects and Narration in UE5

Construction

Video Overview of the Experience

Photo Gallery

Credits

Special Thanks to:

Alexander Porter - Thesis Advisor
Daniel Shiffman - Thesis Advisor
Tatsuki Hoshihara - Design and Fabrication Support
Victor Morales - Narrative and UE5 Consultant
César Loayza - Voice
Vera Zhong - Voice
Yuxiang Cheng - Voice
Henrique Bastos Stockler - Voice

Others I am grateful for:

Brett Peterson
Briana Jones
Deepa Paulus
Emily Conrad
Dr. Marisa Karyl Franz
Winslow Porter
... and so many more!

Queenie Szu-Yu Huang’s Selected Works

Objective View of Contested Collection is a meta-exhibition allowing visitors to embody a museum object from their own cultural context to approach the topic of repatriation with an empathetic lens.