Full Speed Ahead

Good evening everyone!!!

The semester has officially begun and with that has come the very real realization that my thesis exhibition is no longer something I can keep safely in my head but something that will physically exist in the Bower Showcase Room in a little over a month, which is equally exciting and terrifying. Right now my focus has shifted fully into execution mode, meaning refining the structure of the exhibition, tightening my object list, and figuring out how to tell a story that spans roughly 250 years of civil resistance without overwhelming the space or visitors. Rather than following a strictly linear timeline, the exhibition will be organized into three thematic sections that detail how graphic communication has been used to agitate, educate, and organize, allowing moments from different eras to speak to one another and show how protest strategies and messages repeat, evolved, and resurface over time. A major part of what I have been working on recently is strengthening the contemporary end of the exhibit, particularly the 1980s through the 2020s, by incorporating material connected to movements like AIDS activism, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and youth led climate protests, all of which help demonstrate that what often feels new in protest culture is deeply rooted in much older visual traditions. Another big piece of this week has been working closely with Lee, who I am sharing the exhibition space with and collaborating alongside, as they are developing their own exhibition that resonates strongly with mine, allowing the space to function almost like two distinct but connected exhibitions that share a broader message. Today in class we spent our time actively brainstorming layout concepts together, talking through how the space could function tangibly, how visitors might move through it, and how our projects could coexist without competing, using the whiteboard to sketch out rough spatial ideas, object placement, and circulation paths (see photo below). Seeing the exhibition move from abstract ideas into physical planning like this has made the project feel much more real and much more achievable. The exhibition will open on around February 22nd and run through March 8th. It sort of feels like everything is happening at once, but that also means the project is finally taking shape, and while that comes with pressure, it also comes with the excitement of watching months of research and thinking turn into something tangible. IF there is one thing I keep reminding myself, and something worth sharing, it is that projects like this are not meant to come together perfectly or all at once, and feeling overwhelmed usually means you care deeply about the work you are doing, so keep pushing forward and make something you are proud of, even if it scares you a little.

~ Rain Milligan