ENGAGING THE FUTURE THROUGH ENGAGING THE PAST:
A MULTI-MEDIA INTERPRETIVE EXPERIENCE ON THE “ROAD OF DEVELOPMENT”

Development is a problematic and often-critiqued concept in anthropology. The beginnings of the discipline often brought us to places in the world that were deemed less “developed,” and scholarly work has, in many cases, traced changes as they have occurred as years pass. We are trained and inspired to see the value in these “pre-development” societies but are careful not to lose ourselves in nostalgia or a desire to preserve past and different ways of life as “static relics.” When we were first conceived of this installation, we wanted to explore the concept of development through many different eyes, focusing on the reality of the people throughout the world whose everyday lives are touched by development processes. We wanted to show more than just the great benefits of a new clinic or a water system. We wanted to show more than just the great damage which a new church or a new food system can bring. We hope that, through bringing these varied perspectives and practices together in this format, we can move past a dichotomous global conversation and focus on how people negotiate their lives through these changes. Through engaging with how societies and systems have produced knowledge that has worked effectively in the past, we hope to illuminate how the current and future processes of innovation and invention can benefit from this engagement. Development is a dynamic process and a global reality, but we are not passive observers. Challenging assumptions of value in knowledge and practice, this installation serves to remind us of this.