What is an exhibition?

Exhibitions are thought to be just a public engagement activity which wants to showcase and convey some information. But, this is just the visible front-end and the lowest possible level of experience that an exhibition can achieve.

Let’s break down the idea of the exhibition and identify different things that they can offer. Exhibitions are complex and multi-dimensional events that touch our sensory and experiential body. If we know how to be present, we know how to read an exhibition. An exhibition gives us ways to be present intensely.

But the question is, do we even know how to appreciate this intensity?

How can we raise the levels of our awareness so that we can be sensitive to a more significant amount of detail? This question has always been a point to ponder in our quest to extend our limits and enhance our capacities. As a race, we have tried drugs, spirituality and chased after all kinds of magical promises to achieve a heightened level of awareness.

But nothing has worked.

The only reliable method of doing this through what can be called “episodes of active learning.” What are these episodes of active learning? And more importantly, how can they be performed at will?

An episode of active learning is an event in which we actively and consciously process the information (in the form of sensory impulses and coherently articulations) that is presented to us. It might sound like something that we do all the time, but actually, we do not. Most of our waking life is spent in a very passive and inattentive manner. It takes a distinctive effort on our part to even pay attention to what we are experiencing. To attempt to learn from this experience is something of a high point.

Exhibitions present an opportunity to us to train ourselves and raise our levels of awareness just by making an effort to process and learn from our personal experience.