Drift. Sink. Emerge. Repeat. Diffracting the Critical through Multimodal Submersions

Diffractive submersion does not produce stable foundations but instead invites continuous reconfigurations of meaning and matter. Each iteration of drifting, sinking, emerging, and repeating reshapes the conditions of knowledge, making space for collaborative, inventive, and multimodal engagements that resist disciplinary enclosure. The works in this exhibition enact these movements of diffractive engagement, embodying the fragility, vitality, and persistence of multimodal inquiry. To drift is to move with the currents of thought and practice. To sink is to let go of certainty. To emerge is to surface transformed. And to repeat is to carry these encounters forward, sustaining the multimodal in an academic world that too often resists it.

By embracing submersion, we refuse to stand outside of knowledge. Instead, we move with it, shaping and being shaped, sensing its textures, and tracing its transformations. In this way, »Drift. Sink. Emerge. Repeat.« is not just an exhibition – it is an invitation to step into the currents of multimodal STS and allow its generative forces to take hold.

The exhibition was curated by Cluster members Maxime Le Calvé and Robert Stock, together with Petra Beck from the Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies..

A preprint publication of the exhibition catalog is now online here: https://drift-sink-emerge-repeat.pubpub.org/