Trash: Aufheben is one installation in a series titled Philosophy Made Tangible. Oftentimes when we consider philosophy and one’s interaction with the subject, we think of reading massive tomes or discussions wafted with high falutin language. Though filled with the brim with rich insights, the content of philosophy as a discipline finds itself gatekept from broader society due to the imposing nature of its presentation. This project, Philosophy Made Tangible, seeks to offer a mode of philosophical exposition rooted in our most basic means of sense-making: our tangible experience. Through interactive installations that explore various philosophical concepts, individuals can physically engage with these ideas, encountering a subject matter whose form finally reflects the universality of its concepts.
The first installation in this series which I have been developing over the course of this semester is titled Trash: Aufheben. This installation aims to take Hegel’s notoriously diffuse concept of aufheben- or sublation as it is commonly translated- and applying it to a place it can be seen most clearly: trash. Despite the label, we aim to show that what we deem as trash is rarely just that; through the act of discarding, we actually preserve certain aspects of these objects, aspects that continue to shape the world we live in today.
