Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the potential of the research exhibition to tackle three ethical challenges in fieldwork: power imbalances between researcher and researched; co-creation rather than extraction; and the sharing of knowledge generated.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I think about the potential of the research exhibition to tackle three ethical challenges in fieldwork: power imbalances between researcher and researched; co-creation rather than extraction; and the sharing of knowledge generated.

I am currently working on a series of three exhibitions to showcase and extend a large comparative research project on state buildings in Africa. It focuses on processes of ‘Building Africa’ since independence, exploring how institutions and identities have been made by and through architecture. The exhibitions are being created in collaboration with designers in Accra, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg, each of whom has been asked to interpret the project’s initial findings in their own way. Each exhibition will be shown in the city where the research was carried out, made as accessible as possible to the people who participated in it, and draw in visitors’ evaluations of the work through group discussions and other forms of feedback to develop the findings.

The exhibitions are being staged through the first half of 2023. The paper will reflect on the process of co-designing and staging with three different architects ¬– particularly on the ways power was shared during the process. It will explore the degree to which the exhibitions enabled research participants to become co-creators of the work through reflection and evaluation. And it will consider the degree to which events like exhibitions can democratise and share knowledge.