2019 Case Study

Proposed Intervention: Victoria & Albert Museum

Self-led Project

A (total loss of) Perspective

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A (total loss of) Perspective *

A total loss of Perspective was a speculative curatorial and writing-based intervention led by Nayanika Singh at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. As an independent, self-initiated case study, the project explored how artifacts shift in meaning and identity before and after conservation — occupying fluid roles between object and narrative, visibility and obscurity.

The research focused on a museum’s spatial politics, examining how placement, signage, and infrastructure contribute to what is seen, remembered, or overlooked. Through casual interviews, video documentation, photographic evidence, and narrative writing, Nayanika traced hidden stories embedded in the museum’s architecture — such as unnoticed floor tiles or peripheral displays near cloakrooms.

Instead of critiquing institutional authority, the project offered gentle disruptions—suggestive interventions that encouraged alternative forms of looking, listening, and interpreting. Drawing on museological theory and embodied writing, it framed the museum as a site of layered perception and speculative meaning-making.

- To explore the shifting identity of museum artifacts through the lenses of conservation, narrative, and spatial politics.
- In-situ observations at the V&A Museum
- Casual interviews with museum staff and visitors
- Critical reading of museological and philosophical texts (Bryson, DeSilvey, DeSilva)
- Experimental, embodied writing as intervention
- Visual and audio documentation of interventions
- Object semiotics and material memory
- Display architecture and curatorial authorship
- Institutional invisibilities
- The affective life of museum spaces
- Creative-critical writing in the form of artifact monologues
- First-person letter-based speculative narratives
- Poetic reflections on spatial placement and neglect
- Non-linear, democratised voice-driven narration
- A site-responsive, Public engagement proposal, featuring sound-based exhibition using QR codes placed discreetly throughout the permanent collection
- Supporting publication prototype
- Supporting essay exploring speculative museology and embodied writing as curatorial method

“What makes something visible? What makes something heard? Photographs of floor patterns. Voice notes from security staff. Scribbled visitor quotes. Paused moments in stairwells. A speculative map to plot what's left out. Together, they shaped an inquiry into the museum’s unnoticed spaces and its unassuming treasures.”

Visitors were invited to scan, to listen, to pause.
To hear the museum speak—not through grand narratives, but through what it left unsaid.

Can you hear it?
Can you see it?
Do you want to know more?

Museum

〰️

Artefact

〰️

You & I

〰️

Museum 〰️ Artefact 〰️ You & I 〰️

Partially penned-down interview with the cloakroom attendant

00:00:12 - Evidencing day-to-day activities near V&A cloakroom, where dear Puck is almost invisible. Click the image to view site recording

WHERE DO I LOOK?

LOOK AT THE OVERLOOKED
objects & spaces

Not necessarily non-artefacts,
even artefacts can be overlooked.
Catch audience by surprise in the usual sites
& offer them a fresh approach.

Take a deep breath.

The chandelier in the window holds living cells that photosynthesise, absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, purifying the AIR we breathe.

It breathes, like the greens!

A (total loss of) Perspective

Off Label / Soft Openings

A QR-based tool for digital capsule exhibitions
It is a digital intervention that enables curators to create small, digital-only exhibitions within existing museum spaces. Activated via QR codes, these capsules respond to artefacts and architecture with emotional immediacy— offering fresh, urgent, and poetic perspectives without altering the physical displays.
Designed for accessibility and speed, the tool fosters free, inclusive engagement. It invites visitors to experience the museum through layered storytelling—expanding interpretation beyond labels and into personal, mobile encounters.
“Dear You, Yes, You.”

An artefact speaks: speculative narration from the edge of visibility
This prototype intervention stages a poetic letter from the statue of Puck—a marble sculpture by John Graham Lough—located just outside the V&A’s cloakroom. Installed as an interpretive placard beside the original museum label, the text offers a voice to the often-overlooked artefact. Written in the first person, Puck addresses the viewer directly, reflecting on his peripheral position, fading visibility, and desire to be acknowledged—not merely as object, but as presence.
Part of the broader A (total loss of) Perspective series, this speculative narration challenges the visitor’s perception of attention, display hierarchies, and the affective life of objects. By animating an artefact with poetic agency, the intervention invites the audience to pause, reflect, and engage with what is routinely bypassed.
Audio Interventions: “I too have a story”

An exploration to create a democratically engineered poem – a mélange of a body of voices from all around the world. The underpinning concept acknowledges the journey of various objects before they become part of a singular unit i.e., the museum. In this case, the floor of the V&A interests the author. She urges the reader to appreciate and understand, not just why the floor’s appearance changes from one gallery to the other but its journey before being fixated here.

Listen
Breathe in... Breathe out

A prototype intervention in the V&A’s Reception Area
As a working example of A (total loss of) Perspective, this intervention places a poem—Breathe in… Breathe out—in the V&A’s Member’s Reception Area, paired with a scannable QR code. Visitors who scan it access audio reflections and visual content linked to the surrounding space.
This poetic annotation highlights the emotional life of overlooked spaces — a commissioned sculpture — reframing it as a narrative entry point into the museum’s collections and architecture.
Museum Freebies!

This is a free, tactile publication created as part of A (total loss of) Perspective. Designed to be picked up by museum visitors, the booklet includes poetic annotations, re-narrated artefact labels, and reflective prompts. It extends the exhibition beyond the gallery—into queues, cafés, and train rides—allowing visitors to revisit the collection on their own time, and in their own way.

Read the publication
Off the Wall

Outdoor advertisement as curatorial extension
Off the Wall reimagines outdoor advertising as part of the exhibition itself. Here, featuring bold typographic posters placed in public spaces—such as underground passageways or bus stops —this intervention invites viewers to encounter A (total loss of) Perspective. Such advertisements also help transform urban spaces into a staging ground for attentiveness—blurring the boundary between exhibition and everyday life.

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