Witnessing Each Other: An Intersubjective Stance for Exhibitions Relating to Substance Use and Abuse

Abstract

Most exhibitions are conceived to convey information the experts making the exhibition believe other people need or want. But the notion that the intended exhibition public will cooperate with the exhibition organizers. intent disregards the reasons people come to exhibitions and the way they use them. While the author contends that an exhibition cannot use facts to convince someone to abstain from substances they crave, exhibitions can nonetheless make a difference in lives complicated by substance use by providing representation for voices that are rarely heard and building empathy between witness and witnessed. The purpose of such an endeavor is not to change attitudes or behaviors toward a pre-determined outcome, but to facilitate a witnessing of others. experience. The uniquely intersubjective medium of exhibition can thus succeed in this field by opening the potential of mutual, humanizing recognition among people with varied life experience of substance use and abuse.