Alice in the Archives: The Changing Shape of Knowledge
By Marketing and Communications | 06-21-2024
Cushing Exhibition Presents Research as an Antidote to the ‘Rabbit Hole’
A pair of artists view the curiosity, courage and creativity of research as a powerful means for society to grapple with a world that often feels like the frightening, yet exciting place portrayed in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in a new art installation at the Texas A&M University Cushing Memorial Library & Archives.
“Alice in the Archives: The Changing Shape of Knowledge,” designed by Meredith Tromble and Laura Hyunjee Kim, is on display through Oct. 4, 2024.
It’s a wide-ranging experience that draws from an extensive range of artistic media, items from various Cushing collections and input from Texas A&M University scholars from widely different academic disciplines.
“Finding ourselves in a new time of intellectual upheaval, with social media, digital tools, and artificial intelligence transforming our culture, we relate to ‘Alice’ author Lewis Carroll’s imagery of an unpredictable world,” said Tromble. “In this art installation, we offer a vision of research as a powerful, essential human process of meeting this unpredictability — and a touch of humor, just like Alice.”
The art installation takes visitors on a journey through a new interpretation of Wonderland, visiting five key themes: Archive, Brain, Calibrate, Digest and Epiphany. Each step of the journey invites exploration of how information is taken in and processed, becomes knowledge, and then is reinterpreted in the process of taking in more information.
“The installation mimics Alice’s travels through Wonderland and how she gains knowledge along the way,” said Jeremy Brett, Cushing curator. “At every moment along the way, you are rethinking your approach to how you, and those around you, understand the world and acquire knowledge. The art instillation is saying that we are never at the stage of ‘I know everything and every possible way to know something.’”
The designers of “Alice in the Archives” considered Cushing’s items through an artistic lens, said Beth Kilmarx, assistant university librarian for special collections.
“This art installation is a collaboration of multiple disciplines,” Kilmarx said. “Tromble and Kim used Cushing’s archival materials in a completely different way. It’s multimedia, with art, archival materials, rare books and interviews.”
Cushing Library is open Monday - Friday, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
This art installation is free and open to the public.
Additional Contributors to the Art Installation Include:
- Kenyatta Ali, artist and model
- James R. Ball, III, Texas A&M associate professor of performance studies
- Joshua DiCaglio, Texas A&M assistant professor of English
- Rebecca Hankins, Texas A&M professor of global languages and cultures
- Allison Leigh Holt, artist and Fulbright scholar
- Srikanth Saripalli, Texas A&M professor of mechanical engineering
- Dawna Schuld, Texas A&M associate professor of modern and contemporary art history
- Angenette Spalink, Texas A&M assistant professor of performance studies
- Daniel Spalink, Texas A&M assistant professor in the department of Ecology and Conservation Biology
- Courtney Starrett, Texas A&M associate professor of visualization
- Kevin Sweet, University of Texas at Dallas assistant professor of design and interactive arts
Texas A&M University Libraries
Written By: Ivy Mestrovic | Media Contact: Matthew Kennedy, matthew.kennedy@tamu.edu
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