Format
Communicating place
We conceptualised this exhibit as a design experiment with four desired qualities:
- Complex: Express complex relationships between concepts from physics, biology, culture, and design.
- Non-deterministic: Present this information in a form that overcomes the constraints of journals and books, e.g.: linearity, unidirectionality, completeness.
- Alive: Exhibit this information using a format that encourages asynchronous curiosity, engagement and iteration. Avoid technical, complex and/or proprietary formats that complicate modification.
- Open: Reduce barriers to participation and make decision-making transparent.
Exhibiting place
We implement these methods using Dendron, an open-source application for personal note-taking. Dendron provides features that satisfy our experiment aims:
- bidirectional linking (non-deterministic, complex)
- flexible hierarchies (complex, alive)
- web publishing (alive, open)
- source control using git and GitHub (alive, open)
- written using Markdown (alive, open)
- open-source (alive, open)
Four entities facilitate this user-experience within our Dendron wiki:
- Notes house information attributed to its source.
- Links allow non-linear exploration across topics and disciplines.
- Experiments visualise dynamics within phenomena, for example: the anthropocentrism of colour language, the inexactness of place and colour words, and the challenges of quantifying descriptive texts.
- Stories organise content into narratives that focus on how agents experience phenomena, for example: the environmental factors that led a bird species to evolve colour perception, how this subjective experience of colour differs from humans, and the consequences of ignorance of difference.
Towards an exhibition format
Outlining a novel exhibition model is a secondary aim of the project.
Current limitations
Standard exhibitions are unidirectional, linear and metaphorical. Commonly, an artwork transmits a symbolic message to an audience, a process susceptible to misinterpretation, selection bias, criticism, and ineffectiveness. Participatory artworks establish new processes and relationships that produce real impacts, but lack repeatability.
Filling the gap
A niche exists for art forms that function across many locations, contexts and timelines. Such works require malleability, openness, and reproducibility.
Children
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