Trapped. Museum experiments with relationality, empathetic imagination and perspective

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on a particular category of objects often found in ethnographic museum collections: traps. It asks what might be particular to this kind of object, and what these particularities might teach us about making exhibitions, whether specifically about traps or not. I argue that traps can teach us about particular ways of engaging with objects that mobilise what I call “empathetic imagination”. In the conclusion, I reflect on how exhibitions can use artefacts in ways reminiscent of traps to facilitate such engagement.