Phase 3: What’s a museum of the future?

Activities

Acknowledging Country

• Reflect on what is happening on Country at the moment. What season/s are you experiencing? What have you noticed about Country since spending time outside in Phase 2? Reflections could be shared with the class, or journalled individually.

Warming-up

• Check out the warm-ups for suitable activities. You might like to revisit Collective Action (Keepie-uppie) to prepare for thinking about how different factors influence outcomes. Alternatively, you might like to prepare for thinking creatively through an Exquisite Corpse.

Curating artworks

• As a class, lay out the artworks created in Phase 2 (possible futures of local places). Consider how you might curate these artworks:
  • What similarities and/or differences do you notice in the art elements used (colour, shape, line, space, form, texture)?
  • What are the shared themes and ideas?
  • What stories do you want to tell?
  • How do you want the audience to move through/interact with the artworks?
  • How do you want the audience to interpret the artworks?
  • What spaces for display do you have available?
• Divide the class into two to three groups (either randomly or based on a shared theme). Each group has 15-20 minutes to create an exhibition of their artworks. If possible, work in separate spaces.
  • Develop a name for your exhibition.
  • Create and position interpretive materials to help your audience engage with the exhibition.
• Move through the other group’s exhibition. Consider:
  • What does the name tell you about the theme or story of the exhibition?
  • What ideas, opinions, and information are communicated through exhibiting the artworks like this?
  • How do the interpretive materials help you engage with the exhibition?

Examining influences

• As a class, discuss the differences and similarities between a gallery (what you have just created) and a museum. Share any experiences you may have of visiting galleries and/or museums. How are these spaces influenced by the following factors? How are these factors influenced by galleries and museums?
  • History
  • Geography
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Society
  • The environment

Imagining futures

• Close your eyes and imagine:

It is the year 2050. We are still in the age of the Anthropocene – human activity is significantly affecting the planet’s climate and ecosystems. What can you see? Hear? Smell? Touch? Taste? How does your body feel?

Over the past 26 years, we have been able to attend to some socio-environmental challenges. Humans are living more sustainably and equitably. Look around you. What changes do you notice from the year 2024? How do these changes make you feel?

You are about to enter the Anthropocene Museum: a space dedicated to displaying artefacts that record humans’ impact on the planet and some of the measures taken to reduce this impact. What does this space look like? Sound? Feel? Smell? Is there anything you can taste? How has the space been influenced by the past 26 years of history, geography, politics, economics, society, and the environment?

• Open your eyes. Without speaking to anyone, capture your impressions of the Anthropocene Museum in 2050. You could do this individually, in small groups, or as a class through:
  • Drawing, painting, collaging, or digitally creating a 2-D artwork.
  • Sculpting and/or assembling with found objects a 3-D artwork.
  • Writing a narrative, poem, or free flow text.
  • Embodying either the space or yourself in the space.
  • Creating a soundscape.

Evaluating ideas

• As a class, share and reflect on your futures ideas. What socio-environmental challenges are you aware of/do you anticipate? What opportunities for sustainable and equitable change do you foresee? Are these ideas probable, plausible, possible, or preposterous?

Examining past futurists

• People have always had visions of futures. In pairs, examine past visions of futures. What did these futurists get right? What is different from our present reality? How are the futurists influenced by history, geography, politics, economics, society, and/or the environment?

Revisiting exhibitions

• In your exhibition groups, choose one or more of these visions to include in your exhibition. How will you position these visions? How do they affect the theme or story of the exhibition?
• When each group is ready, revisit each other’s exhibitions and reflect on the other group’s changes.

Reflecting

• Individually, reflect in your journals on your experiences in Phase 3 using the same prompts and note any changes/similarities.