Climates of Inequality

Climates of Inequality is an international traveling exhibition presented by Humanities Action Lab, a coalition of over twenty universities led by Rutgers University-Newark. The exhibition presents site-specific investigations of environmental injustices created by students in collaboration with community organizations. 

MTWTF worked with the Humanities Action Lab to develop a content strategy to aid participants in shaping their stories for the exhibition. Each story centers on a map which spatially locates the environmental issue and the community affected. The stories are richly illustrated with press photos, historic images, diagrams, and media clips. These supplementary illustrations are keyed to recognizable places on the map to reinforce a spatial understanding of each story.

In addition, MTWTF developed a flexible display system which can be installed in a variety of ways to accommodate a wide range of venues as the exhibition travels. The system is a modular aluminum framework of inhabitable “nooks,” which are clad with fabric panels that zip on over the frame.

Within the exhibition, MTWTF organizes the visitor's experience as a series of spaces/environments. An introduction nook orients visitors by locating all the exhibition's stories on a projection of the earth's surface. Beyond the introduction nook, visitors move between the brightly colored nooks in a visual browsing space where they can see an overview of the stories and select what they'd like to learn more about. Inside each nook, three stories are presented side-by-side to facilitate comparison. These stories take the form of site maps annotated with a progression of 7-10 captioned images that tell the story. Above and below the maps, media devices (including VR headsets, iPads, and custom viewmasters) offer visitors other spatialized ways to dive deeper into each story.