Embodied Museum

The project explores cultural diversity and visitor experience in today’s museums, developed in dialogue with the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Museums often present curated narratives that can reinforce one-way storytelling, with authority centered on curators and institutions. Yet museums are not owners of culture, but stewards of its preservation and evolution. How can the artifacts they hold continue to grow, adapt, and respond to the people who engage with them?

The Embodied Adornment is a portable device that invites visitors to contribute their voices and stories to the museum experience. Inspired by the Japanese inrō and other Asian traditions of personal adornment worn close to the body—once used to carry items such as prayers, medicines, and heirlooms—the device acts as a cultural container. It gathers spoken reflections in response to artworks, capturing otherwise hidden or ephemeral responses and transforming them into novel historical and story-based experiences.

We celebrate San Francisco’s cultural diversity and propose a participatory future for museums, where everyone is invited to speak, be heard, and help shape the culture we share.