Immersive exhibition invites visitors to help mend a broken world

By Melissa Keogh

COMMUNITY The Broken launch event. Photo by Sia Duff.

MOD.’s new interactive exhibition Broken, explores the widespread feeling that the world is broken, and nothing will change. From the fight against climate change to the housing crisis, society seem to be struggling, but what if humans imagined new ways of being? If the old systems are broken, what should the world build in their place?

Broken is MOD. at UniSA’s latest annual installation. Adelaide’s futuristic museum is open to visitors of all ages, though its exhibitions are aimed at people aged between 15 and 25.

Visitors can see how trees might vote in politics, explore how learning could mean more, hear a voice from 60,000 years in the future, put nature first and challenge the housing system.

Exhibition coordinator Dr Dylan DeLosAngeles says Broken is unlike anything MOD. has done before.

“It steps beyond despair or frustration and into a world of alternative systems,” he says. “At the start of the experience, visitors will be loaned a unique token.

Visitors at MOD. explore the new interactive exhibition. Photo by Sia Duff.

“As they journey through, the token is scanned to record answers that are posed in the exhibits, revealing a personalised story about how they see the world at the end of their experience.”

In Broken, there are seven galleries that each explore an aspect of society and a system that is different to what the world currently has in place. Each contains provocations and ideas for the future – some of them more preposterous than others.

As visitors explore the exhibits, they think about which parts they want to keep from both the current world as well as alternative solutions. Throughout the journey, they carry a token which records visitors’ experiences as they travel through the spaces. Participants are asked a question in each gallery, with the tokens used to record their answers, culminating in a personalised story at the end.

Director of MOD., Dr Kristin Alford says the world is volatile and uncertain, so “it’s no surprise that with climate change and AI people feel like the world isn’t fit for purpose”.

“It feels a bit broken,” she says. “This exhibition acknowledges that but equips visitors with skills in future-thinking, so that they can imagine alternatives and leave with a sense of active hope.”

This exhibition is open now until 22 November.

MOD. is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm and is free to visit. Plan your visit.

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