Design Building Gallery
How does a place speak? How can a human listen?
Following the November 2023 exhibition, The Futuring Lab, which was thematically grounded in time, this show explores the spatial possibilities for place-based consciousness. How does one grow-with the places one inhabits? In what ways does one become a lake, a forest, or even a city? What future modes of communication and communion can one have with a forest, an ocean, or a river? And how can one extend the notion of civility, to include the wildly feral and earthly bodies of our terrestrial world?
Y3K: On Distant Keys imagines a (not-so) distant future where landforms are recognized as sentient beings with legal rights and the ability to self-govern. Based on the transdisciplinary research project, On Distant Keys, this exhibition portends the yet-to-be island of Ondacka, leading the planet as it enters the next millennia and new global consciousness. With a curated selection of art, artifacts, maps, music, videos, and text– the exhibition highlights artistic interpretations of nine distinct landforms.
VISUAL ARTISTS:
Ashley Eliza Williams, Amanda Maciuba, Darren Waterston, Elliott Green, Ian Ingram, Kathy Ruttenberg, Linda Molenaar, Malaika Ross, Renee Gladman, Siobhán MacDonald, Saya Woolfalk, plus numerous students and other community collaborators.
MUSICIANS:
Ben Richter, Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Jonny Rogers, Laura Cetilia
CURATORS:
Bella Donovan (research assistant)
Ben Richter (music curator)
Kelly Feeney (co-curator)
Sandy Litchfield (producer, co-curatator)
SPONSORS + PARTNERS:
UMass Amherst Faculty Research Grant
Architecture Research Collaborative
Office of Inclusion & Engagement
School of Earth and Sustainability
Arthur Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies
Renaissance of the Earth
The Anthropocene Lab
The Puffin Foundation