Tagging and classifications systems: we interact with them almost everyday, and yet we rarely consciously notice them; this form of writing is invisible to us. We tend to accept this form of writing as objective and static; if we search for something in a library, we don’t question how that particular book has been classified, and accept its classification as objective fact. However, how something is tagged or classified can tell you information about that thing before anything else, highlighting certain information or even making certain judgements about that thing. Further, these tags are not objective; someone had to write those tags or sort those objects, and people can, even unintentionally, bring their own biases and perspectives to their writing.
The aim of this exhibit is to highlight some specific tags within classification and tagging systems, to try to bring more attention to the existence of this hidden form of writing. While exploring this exhibit, you will be asked to consider how tags impact your perception of the thing being classified, and how certain tags may have been assigned to certain artifacts. Consider what other tags could possibly have been assigned to the objects we explore in this exhibit, and how those different tags would have impacted your understanding of those artifacts. Maybe even look at how artifacts in this exhibit are tagged within the Museum of Everyday Writing. Would you have tagged them differently? Did any particular tags lead you to this exhibit?
Click on the exhibit pages to the right to start exploring.
Credits
Ashley Jongerius