About the Project
Participants are invited to create labels for anything they notice in the
park: a stone, a bench, a tree, a sound, a patch of grass, a piece of trash, or an everyday encounter.
These labels may take the form of observations, memories, questions, personal interpretations, or
cultural knowledge. Together, they allow the park to become a living guide shaped by visitors,
residents, objects, and non-human beings.
The labels are documented and developed into an online archive and interactive
guide, where visitors can browse the park through a map-based interface and encounter multiple
interpretations of the same place or object.
LABEL-ization asks: What can be included in a guide, an exhibition, or an archive?
Who gets to decide what matters? And how can labeling become a shared practice of attention, care, and
interpretation?
Who Gets to Define?
In museums, labels function as authoritative tools that define what an object
is, how it should be understood, and why it matters. However, they often condense complex histories into
singular narratives, reinforcing institutional control over interpretation and meaning.
LABEL-ization aims to rethink the authority of the museum and its systems of
selection and narrative construction through the open and collective act of labeling. What can be
included in a museum? Who decides, and what do they represent? This project reframes labeling as a form
of co-creation.
Project Team
LABEL-ization was developed through RPGA Studio’s BeTheMuseum Fellowship.
PROJECT
INITIATORSZijun Zhao & Siyang Dai
ENGINEERFrederic (Qian) Dai & Zijun Zhao