Curatorial and visual-spatial design services for social researchers (2015 – 2019)

Social research is intended, in some way or another, for public consumption. Social research projects (like Bua Modiri, Nelspruit Poster Project, the Zine Project, and Stitching My [HIV] Story Activst Quilt project) are often designed to communicate with publics. Exhibitions are a great way to engage people. Exhibition can be considered an activity that intersects with the world, sometimes galleries, but often not. Exhibition involves some kind of showing and interaction. These are designed interventions that take a position in the world. While the design can be focussed on creating a controlled environment, the design can also create an environment that allows for emergent interaction to create the meaning. Exhibition, therefore, also has to do with messaging, what is said or hidden, and the choices regarding the design of the project and the project’s output. The media through which this message is mediated, then, can include galleries, symposiums, publications, and marches, and protests, and meetings, and many more different types media and modes. Exhibitions of all types happen at a local level, they are micro-interventions, but they link to places beyond the local. These local events, for instance, draw things together from afar, and they can reach a wider audienceand when they feed into research, advocacy, and social media. It is critical, therefore, to consider the audience of an exhibition when designing specific relationships of concepts, objects, and processes.