The Internet of Things is here. Small, cheap technologies have enlivened formerly inanimate objects. These new ‘Things’ have human-like characteristics, able to sense their environments and communicate with one another via the internet autonomously. In future, we will have access to not only physical artefacts, but the data they have collected throughout their lives. This hypothetical museum display considers how this information may be curated.
In this project I fixed small, cheap, low-resolution digital cameras to three everyday objects: a can of Stella Artois, an HSBC debit card, and a packet of Marlboro Red cigarettes. Video was captured using these objects of their initial purchase through to their consumption and final disposal. The three videos were synchronised and projected on a screen in a small exhibition space I designed. It gave a composite view of the everyday not through the human gaze, but from the point of view of things. It was displayed alongside the physical artefacts displayed in a cabinet.
Throughout the project I considered how the architecture of gallery space may be augmented to renegotiate the long-standing anthropocentric tradition in exhibition design.
Royal Academy of Arts, London