Take part in a narrative exhibition about working from home. Just bring us an object that’s been important to you during all those months of working from home, or send us a screenshot of your Zoom set-up.
Please read on for more information.
Working and studying have been completely transformed by COVID-19. Video calling gives you a glimpse of the living quarters of your colleagues or fellow students, but how much do you actually get to see? The webcam dictates our field of vision, and beyond that it’s anyone’s guess. And some colleagues haven’t been able to work from home, but have had to spend many hours in a desolate office. In order to picture this now familiar yet alienating social experience, we’re calling on students and staff of UM to send in an object and/or screenshot. What does the webcam see when you’re working from home, and which object has gained special significance for you over the past months? That fantastic book you read during lockdown, that stone you took home from your newly discovered walking route, that special pen you use every day, your ultra-fast router, that unique thing from your new lockdown hobby or maybe that painting you look at secretly while you’re video calling?
We’d love it if you could express your experience of working from home (or elsewhere) in an image or object! We’ll be compiling a narrative exhibition from the screenshots and objects you send in. The exhibition will be part of the PAS Festival and will take place in the FSE building (Paul-Henri Spaaklaan 1). After the opening in the week of 13 September, the exhibition will run until 28 October. The initiative is organised by Studium Generale, Maastricht University and the Art and Heritage Commission (KEC).
How to participate
Step 1 – Choose something to send in
- There are two things you can send in for this exhibition. First of all, you can lend us an object that’s gained significance for you over the past months. The choice is yours. It can be a bought, found, home-made or given object, just so long as it reflects your experience of working at home and the story behind it, and providing you can do without it for seven weeks.
- And/or a screenshot of what your webcam sees. You can be in the shot yourself, but it’s not necessary. We’ll eventually make collages of all the screenshots we receive, so you’ll probably be unrecognisable anyway.
Step 2 – Send it in!
Send the screenshot of what your webcam sees and/or a photo of the object you want to lend us, including the dimensions, to pas-expositie-sg@maastrichtuniversity.nl, before 15 July. We’d also like you to tell us (in no more than 100 words) something about the screenshot or object in relation to your experience of working from home.
When a lot of objects are offered to us, we’ll probably have to make a selection. In the second half of August, we’ll let you know whether your object has been selected. You can then bring us your object on 13 September. You’ll get it back again after the exhibition.
