Abstract
The inside-out museum was a necessity during COVID-19, when gathering indoors was prohibited. During the pandemic, UC Berkeley students created an outdoor environmental history museum via a multi-media tour and exhibition at a construction debris landfill on San Francisco Bay. They used the mile-long peninsula of debris, which is un undeveloped public park, as an observatory to explore California histories of resource extraction by focusing both on the rubble underfoot and the landscapes visible across the water. The project combined a mobile podcast, art installations, augmented reality, and a 360-degree virtual tour. Monument to Extraction, as the project was called, provided multiple portals of entry for park visitors, engaging sports fishermen, dog walkers, and others who may not be regular museum-goers. The exhibition examined nearby histories of racial segregation, oil refining, and wartime industry, linking them to global histories of mining, container shipping, and industrial agriculture. This paper examines issues including guiding students in the creation of an exhibition; managing installations in an exposed and uncontrolled site; and ownership of stories of indigenous peoples, of the homeless community that once occupied the landfill, and of marginalized people impacted by extractive industries.
Presenters
Susan MoffatCreative Director, Future Histories Lab, UC Berkeley, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Decolonizing Museums, Non-traditional Audiences, Inclusion, Visitors, Participation, Environmental History, AR
