On public use: the practice of not an alternative: (In the Science Museum’s Contact Zone)

This paper proposes an examination of the work of American
art/activist collective Not an Alternative (NAA) as a third phase,
or “phase change” – as defined by Brian Holmes – in relation to
institutional critique in the arts. It locates their work within different the oretical approaches to socially engaged art pursuant to the domains of collaboration and participation, in relation to their artistic autonomy. The author contends that The Natural History Museum (TNHM), an ongoing NAA project, redefines the modus operandi of institutional critique through its establishment of temporary camps inside two major American science museums, targeting their museological contact zone and altering the museums’ functionality. Essential to NNA’s practice is their collaboration with the Native American Lummi Nation of the Pacific Northwest. The article is divided into three parts: first, theoretical contextualisation; second, past projects and relations with the Art Workers’ Coalition, Hans Haacke and activist art of New York City in the 1970s and 1980s; and, lastly, their emancipation from the museological contact zone.