Ceredigion: a natural selection

Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
1 August – 14th September 2013

Does random selection lead to natural selection; a survival of the fittest objects?

‘Ceredigion: A Natural Selection’ explores how random choice can lead to natural selection of objects and memories. All museums illustrate the evolution of objects. They record why some objects are collected and saved for future generations, whilst others are unrecorded and disappear from our collective psyche. Ceredigion Museum collects Ceredigion related objects, a selection policy and process that holds onto local identity and preserves it for the future. Members of the public were invited to evolve this concept further, looking at what it is we hold on to and what helps us to remember.

Each participant randomly created a store code using the museum’s box abbreviation system. The selected box was then found and the
content shown to the person who chose it. They were then asked to create a reply to the archived object by choosing an item of their own that responded in some way to the museum object; anything the original object made them go in search of.

The two objects were then exhibited side by side, breaking down the divide that can reside within museum culture between the
knowledgeable curator or artist and the novice visitor and created a democratic response to a public collection.

Commissioned by Ceredigion Museum. Funded by Arts Council Wales