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Bureaucracy Turned On Its Head

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published September 9, 2014 at 11:49 AM EDT
Image of Artist Stacey Kirby playing the part of a Local Declarations Officer in The Declaration Project.
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Artist Stacey Kirby playing the part of a Local Declarations Officer in the performance art piece The Declaration Project.
Stacey Kirby
Image of John Watts playing the part of an Identification Constable interacting with a visitor.
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John Watts playing the part of an Identification Constable interacting with a visitor in the performance art piece The Power of the Ballot.
Stacey Kirby
Image of A participant filing their delcaration card as part of The Declaration Project.
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A participant filing their delcaration card as part of the performance art piece The Declaration Project.
Stacey Kirby
Image of Tina Kirby, Stacey's mom, playing the part of a Documentation Officer in the PARTicipate exhibit.
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Tina Kirby, Stacey's mom, playing the part of a Documentation Officer in the PARTicipate exhibit.
Stacey Kirby

Artist Stacey Kirby transformed CAM Raleigh’s Media Lab into the “Bureau of Personal Belonging”—a series of interactive performance art installations that explore themes of belonging, identity and validity. 

Visitors engage with Kirby and other performers in three fictitious bureaucratic departments that each critically examine a different governmental process: immigration and customs declarations, the acquisition of government identification and voting. 

Host Frank Stasio talks with Kirby about the exhibition and the more than 2,000 conversations it has inspired.  

Preview two of the performative interactions here:
Tags
Arts & Culture The State of Thingsperformance artCAM RaleighBureaucracyIdentityVotingAmmendment One
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio
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