Okanagan Waterways Past, Present and Future: Approaching Sustainability through Immersive Museum Exhibition

Aleksandra Dulic (), Miles Thorogood (), Marlowe Sam, Maria Correia, Sarah Alexis and Jeanette Armstrong
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Aleksandra Dulic: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Miles Thorogood: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Marlowe Sam: Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Maria Correia: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Sarah Alexis: Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Jeanette Armstrong: Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-25

Abstract: This paper presents Waterways Past , Present and Future , a research project and exhibition in Okanagan Syilx territory, aimed at increasing awareness of the relationship between people and water towards catalyzing sustainable water practices. The exhibition’s multi-channel audio-visual media was designed to immerse, provoke, destabilize, transform and move visitors to take responsibility for water. Drawing on many ways of knowing and doing in the creative process, the exhibition opens different entry points to the research, thus encouraging an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural audience to engage with it. Waterways’ contribution to sustainability discourse lies in its empowerment of collaborative inquiry as a way of knowing, understanding and representing our world. The epistemological dimensions of the exhibit present multiplicities embedded in the social life of water, inviting dialogues, shaping cultural narratives and developing new forms of creativity. Through the sensual process of immersion and activation of lateral thinking, the exhibition facilitates connections across cultures, connections that act as agents for social transformation. Waterways’ experiential journey transcends our personal and dominant socio-cultural patterns, reaching beyond normative structures to new creative realms shared ethical space.

Keywords: community design; dynamic systems; interdisciplinarity; collaboration; environmental science communication; immersion; museum exhibition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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