What does this page contain?
The content of this webpage combines excerpts from Melanie Garland's PhD manuscript and research project, which began in 2015. These fragments have been part of exhibitions, installations, sonorities, and individual and collective publications in art and social science journals and books. They can be seen, read, and heard in this multimodal online space that presents the more-than-text form of this dissertation.
How do you navigate this page?
The structure of this webpage encourages the viewer to navigate freely between chapters, past exhibitions, artworks, essays, and more. Each element stands on its own and invites the viewer to explore it individually or in combinations, akin to overlapping and juxtaposed puzzle pieces. This design mirrors a stratigraphic layering that reveals the various material, theoretical, and temporal dimensions of the dissertation.
Accessibility considerations
I (Melanie) acknowledge that the manuscript and this webpage is crafted in English, a language steeped in (neo)colonial and neoliberal structures, an issue currently challenging the academic realm. Opting for the English language was also a way to step beyond the confines of the German academic sphere, a space not easily accessible due to language barriers. My inability to proficiently write in German and the desire to engage with diverse communities around the world influenced this choice. Specifically, I sought connection with my artistic and anthropologic circles dispersed worldwide, where our primary means of communication is through English, well ‘a modified version of it’. While I lament not being able to write this manuscript in my mother tongue, Spanish, the practicality of reaching wider academic and artistic networks prompted the use of English. My aspiration, in the foreseeable future, is to translate either the entire dissertation or specific sections into Spanish. This endeavor aims to connect with the Spanish-speaking diaspora, both within and beyond Latin America.