THE NiS+TS PSYCHOGEOGRAPHER'S TABLE: Countering the Official Halifax Explosion Archive. (1st June 2018) - Luka, Mary Elizabeth
The material culture of archives is reconsidered in the Psychogeographer's Table (PGT), a counter-archive created by the Narratives in Space + Time Society (NiS+TS) in response to the impending centenary of the accidental catastrophe of the 1917 Halifax Explosion (HE). The PGT counter-archive addresses the relationship between viewer and archive material in a number of novel ways. The subject matter of the archive considers the public geographies shaping our cultural landscape in the Explosion's debris field, including the militarization of the waterfront and the invisibility of certain racialized and classed communities. The PGT is a portable sculpture and a curated repository of archival materials generated by NiS+TS, exhibited at the Dalhousie University Art Gallery in the fall of 2017. Further, the PGT's unique materiality is reflected through multiple layers of mapping created through collaborative walking, augmented reality experiences and storytelling. These engagements situate the viewer within the archive, past and present, contrasting the everyday with the catastrophic event.