Welcome

Welcome to our Cabinet of Curiosities, named "Leaving a Trace". The name of the collection is a play on the phrase "Leave no Trace," adopted in nature-ruled locations such as National Parks. By using this phrase and turning it on its head, it indicates that humans have ignored this idea and decided to make their presence known throughout the world, from flora, to technology, to waste, and beyond. The word "Leave" is in present tense, suggesting that this human destruction and occupancy continues. This collection has been curated and collected by the students of ‘The Anthropocene’ at William & Mary. The order of the collection (nature, technology, waste) reflects the timeline of how humans interact and change the world: They are one with nature, this relationship then changes to one of technical intervention as humans act on a separate nature, leaving waste in their wake.  

While perusing, please listen to this playlist for the ultimate mood setting experience.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQpmIm4I1dw&t=2954s  

The Anthropocene is defined as an epoch in which normal geological changes have been disrupted by human activities. While the time period cannot be pinned down to an exact point in time, here in our Cabinet of Curiosities, we cover a broad spectrum of time and the ways in which they reflect how we see the Anthropocene. It is prudent to note that many Humanities and Social Scientists argue for renaming the existing Holocene epoch to the Capitalocene, White Supremacy Scene, or Plantationocene. These are all concepts that our objects both explore and challenge through their thematic emphases. Our curiosities are categorized under three overarching themes: flora, technology, and waste. *We do not mean to simplify the uneven experiences of the Anthropocene into simply categories. * These categories are interdependent. But they relate to the overarching idea of "Leaving a Trace". A promise of the Anthropocene is that it can shift our focus: A general ‘humankind’ is not responsible for the ushering of the Anthropocene and the traces of this geological epoch are unevenly made and experienced. 

Our Cabinet’s three flora images represent the effect of anthropogenic processes and infrastructures on human-nature relations. A strong theme uniting the images are the dangers of monocultures and the intensity of globalization. The flowers die in the flowerbed because they are not taken care of properly or given an environment in which they are able to thrive. In addition, the almost excessive use of fertilizer used in order to sustain this flower bed can serve as a metaphor for how society has been severed from nature, with the former seeking to overcome and surpass the latter. The image of the aloe vera plant in a ceramic pot is the only thing able to survive in an artificially created environment, but only after everything else has been pushed aside for its own growth. These two images, the flower bed and the aloe plant, show the inability of life to thrive under improper conditions. Moreover, when we seek to contain or simulate nature, it can end up dying. The image of the potted elephant ear, like the rest of the plants in this section, is out of its depth in an environment where it cannot thrive. The gradual loss of the plant’s leaves shows that even in a simulated and controlled environment, plant life cannot be fully cared for.  This section evokes thoughts about the harms of creating and "conquering" the frontier and changing an alienated nature to our will. 

When you look through the technology portion of the cabinet, you will notice that all objects are made up of assemblages at multiple levels. At the level of the object, the old cellphone, for example, is made up of many parts: plastic, metal, and a sim card. If any of those distinct parts are neglected, the phone will no longer work as it once had. In fact, many of the objects in this section have already started to crumble. On a broader level, if ‘the humans’ most responsible for the ecological effects of our present epoch fail to take action, the anthropogenic assemblages that everyone, albeit asymmetrically, is now a part of will start to crumble, too. However, there is hope. The handheld game console in this collection, for example, continues to function as intended 14 years after it was produced, despite the company that produced forcing its outdatedness by only making games for newer models. But what if we start taking care of these technological assemblages in different ways and return objects to a new, or like-new, state? What if manufacturers take care against planned obsolescence which forces objects into the worldwide waste infrastructures? 

As you explore the waste section of the cabinet, note that each object is a complex network of materials that work together to perform a specific, single-use function. Take, for example, the poly-coated disposable coffee cup and the packaging of ground pork meat. Though seemingly mundane, these objects are deeply connected to the Anthropocene, representing the massive scale of capitalist consumption and waste production. The cup and the meat packaging are designed for convenience, but their impact on the environment extends far beyond their immediate use. As we confront the challenges of the Anthropocene, it is essential to acknowledge the long-term interconnections between us and our everyday objects and consider the long-term consequences of our choices.   

As you comb through the various exhibits of the cabinet, take note the differences and variations of the artefacts within, and how they reject the generalizing qualities of the Anthropocene as a concept. For example, the DS and the knife are both technologies, yet designed for entirely different purposes and people. While they are both lumped into the same general category, it is clear that to truly understand how the these items interact with our wider assemblages, one must look at them with specificity while retaining the larger picture the Anthropocene presents. Although it is easy to see these curiosities only in relation to humanity, it is important to keep in mind that they have lives that exist independently of our relationships and perceptions of them, and that it is this anthropocentric viewpoint that has contributed to many of the problems we now face today.