| If profound intractable problems exist in society, it follows that the professions needed to fix them have not yet been invented. Ian Wojtowicz (he/him) is a writer who builds stuff. His work applies techniques of connection, dissensus, modifiability, playfulness, editing, argument, dialogue, and repair. He has shown work in Hong Kong, Europe and throughout North America, and has published work in Wired Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and on PBS and Discovery channels. Professionally, Wojtowicz has consulted for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the US National Coast Guard Museum, the Redwoods National and State Parks, and indigenous cultural projects at Nk'Mip and Wanuskewin. Wojtowicz holds a degree in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT’s School of Architecture and is the editor of a collected volume from MIT Press entitled Interrogative Design, on artist Krzysztof Wodiczko's influential design philosophy. He currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada, on the territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh people. |
Museum Dissensus Instrument
Museums are sites of social and cultural power that often present authoritative narratives with a singular, dominant voice. Even the most progressive institutions have embedded biases and blind spots whose patterns filter through to the design of exhibits and accompanying written content. Visitors experience objects, art, histories and knowledge in controlled environments that present information in intentionally pre-constructed ways. In most museums there is little room for public debate and dialogue.
The Museum Dissensus Instrument is a portable voice projection system that enables visitors to push back non-destructively at museum exhibits. The use of this instrument as an individual or in a group, produces an agonistic spectacle within the rarefied, seemingly unalterable environments of museum interiors. The instrument is also equipped with cameras that enable the social online sharing of the museum interventions produced by the users of the instrument.
