Missing Objects Library
Collaboration with Jill Miller and Kathy Wang
Website with public library of 3D models, 2023-24 (Work in Progress)
Presented at Gray Area, San Francisco / Goethe-Institute, 2023
Asma Kazmi, Jill Miller, and Kathy Wang, demo video of interactive Missing Objects Library website prototype, 2023
Missing Objects Library (MOL) is a curated, web-based repository of handmade 3D objects that are designed with an intersectional, feminist lens. MOL is displayed as both a physical video installation and a web-based, free model library. MOL offers an alternative to commercial, status quo storefronts that provide digital assets for game design and special effects. Objects sold in these spaces are typically devoid of provenance, and they continually reinscribe false notions of neutrality while privileging a white, cis, heteronormative dominance.
In contrast, MOL is an open platform with downloadable models that accurately represent the world we inhabit. MOL disrupts historical gatekeeping performed by “neutral” marketplaces by offering 3D modeled objects that span a wide range of identities, abilities, and affinities. In addition to critiquing existing 3D model storefronts, MOL builds community by offering an economic system of reciprocity, where technological representations of things are exchanged to produce meaningful relations and effects.
Note: this project is currently under technical development and curated collections have yet to launch. An initial prototype is available online:
The 3D objects are displayed online in curated, virtual “cabinets of curiosities,” a reference to and a reclamation of the Western European Renaissance era encyclopedic collections often said to be the precursors of natural history and art museums, whose histories are intertwined with scientific inquiry and colonialism.
Customized, themed collections are curated by the artists and their students. These include:
Invisible Cloud Infrastructure Gallery
The Invisible Cloud Infrastructure cabinet playfully visualizes the hidden architecture of the global internet. Server farms and the cloud computing industry have a larger carbon footprint than the airline industry, but the structures that house these technologies are hidden, shielding tech companies from social and ecological accountability. By making visible the power-hungry computer-servers with their webs of tangled coaxial cables, water cooling pipes, and massive air conditioners, this cabinet calls attention to the relentless materiality of the cloud.
This gallery grew from Carbonivore (Asma Kazmi and Jill Miller, 2023), a video installation and performance that speculatively and playfully visualizes the invisible infrastructure of the global internet.
Hidden Hygiene Gallery
Hidden Hygiene, curated by Jill Miller, focuses on personal care objects and practices, viewed through a lens of feminist technologies—from menstrual care innovations to breast binders to adaptive aids for mothers with disabilities. They illuminate the unique experiences of women and non-binary folks from diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Our Grandma’s Fridge: An Ode to Asian Diaspora through Kitchenware & Foodstuff
Our Grandma’s Fridge: An Ode to Asian Diaspora through Kitchenware & Foodstuff, curated by Cyrus Vachha, Jeremy Chen, Tony Wu, and Wan Nurul Naszeerah, delves into the heart of Asian diasporic culinary culture and history. An homage to authenticity and resilience, each artifact, from worn utensils to patched-up appliances, tells a personal story of identity, survival, and heritage.
Awards for Missing Objects Library
2023 C/Change Creative R&D Lab, Goethe Institut and Gray Area, San Francisco
2023 Berkeley Center for New Media Seed Grant, UC Berkeley