A Playground for Climate at 0ºn, 0ºw
Reimagining Museum for Climate Action
Glasgow Science Centre
Glasgow
2020
Imagine a museum in the future being a safe playground of collective endeavour and realisation to a greener future. The proposal, developed for this competition, is a set of protocols, manifested as a hand-book that radically challenges the normalised climate of museum spaces. They outline and inject a series of green actions and reactions into existing museum spaces, often focusing on the mundane, the kind of actions and choices people make everyday as museum visitors and curators.
The protocols are designed to be intentional and peculiar, each offering an alternative to conventional ways of operating and experiencing a museum. These measures bring an immediacy to the sometimes abstract nature of the climate crisis narrative by scaling down a larger problem into small actions. For instance, taking off your shoes might be insignificant but the resulting consequence adds up to create shifts in the macro scale of the system. The amount of detergents required to clean the space daily are decreased; energy and capital invested in equipment to control thermal comfort or dust level can be cut. Beyond that, the factory line-up, input chemicals and pollution brought about in support of production and transportation of cleaning products and manufacturing of shoes can be positively down-sized. Like a ripple, a small intentional action will reverse a sequence of carbon-loaded activities when we start to change our everyday choices and habits. Many of these measures are not novel, yet taken to extreme, the museum becomes a common ground where our geopolitical and generational boundaries dissipate into a shared vision, anyone can be part of this multilateral advocacy for planetary well-being .
The curation of these protocols lend ownership to its community. The process of implementing these protocols encourages sustainable partnership with local institutions and stakeholders. Different museums can adapt and appropriate these measures accordingly, with each being a unique variation of a collective effort.
In 2015, British supermarkets took up the pioneering role of charging customers for plastic bags, which has consequently positively changed the lifestyle of a nation. We see museums in the future as laboratories, they play a leadership role in testing novel environmental conscious ideas.
In 2000, the japanese island of Shikoku began their zero waste challenge. Household waste must be separated into no fewer than 45 categories, before being taken to a collection centre. The regulations seem bizarres compared to conventions, however they are in fact so straightforward and impactful that anyone with the right mind can carry them out. Extending the experimental spirit of Shikoku Island into developing our museum manual, we hope to see a similar paradigm shift starting from our cultural fragment, further highlighting a museum's role as a carrier where simple acts of daily life, kinship and togetherness between all lives are framed, elevated and celebrated.
Linking immediate actions and radical transformation in function, this proposal for future museums imagines a cohesive and radical experience that brings the immensity of the climate crisis down to an intimate level. The urgency is made visible and hope begins to be found when words are turned into actions.
Collaborated with Michelle Sin and Tiffany Cheung.
The protocols are designed to be intentional and peculiar, each offering an alternative to conventional ways of operating and experiencing a museum. These measures bring an immediacy to the sometimes abstract nature of the climate crisis narrative by scaling down a larger problem into small actions. For instance, taking off your shoes might be insignificant but the resulting consequence adds up to create shifts in the macro scale of the system. The amount of detergents required to clean the space daily are decreased; energy and capital invested in equipment to control thermal comfort or dust level can be cut. Beyond that, the factory line-up, input chemicals and pollution brought about in support of production and transportation of cleaning products and manufacturing of shoes can be positively down-sized. Like a ripple, a small intentional action will reverse a sequence of carbon-loaded activities when we start to change our everyday choices and habits. Many of these measures are not novel, yet taken to extreme, the museum becomes a common ground where our geopolitical and generational boundaries dissipate into a shared vision, anyone can be part of this multilateral advocacy for planetary well-being .
The curation of these protocols lend ownership to its community. The process of implementing these protocols encourages sustainable partnership with local institutions and stakeholders. Different museums can adapt and appropriate these measures accordingly, with each being a unique variation of a collective effort.
In 2015, British supermarkets took up the pioneering role of charging customers for plastic bags, which has consequently positively changed the lifestyle of a nation. We see museums in the future as laboratories, they play a leadership role in testing novel environmental conscious ideas.
In 2000, the japanese island of Shikoku began their zero waste challenge. Household waste must be separated into no fewer than 45 categories, before being taken to a collection centre. The regulations seem bizarres compared to conventions, however they are in fact so straightforward and impactful that anyone with the right mind can carry them out. Extending the experimental spirit of Shikoku Island into developing our museum manual, we hope to see a similar paradigm shift starting from our cultural fragment, further highlighting a museum's role as a carrier where simple acts of daily life, kinship and togetherness between all lives are framed, elevated and celebrated.
Linking immediate actions and radical transformation in function, this proposal for future museums imagines a cohesive and radical experience that brings the immensity of the climate crisis down to an intimate level. The urgency is made visible and hope begins to be found when words are turned into actions.
Collaborated with Michelle Sin and Tiffany Cheung.