Makoto Takahashi curates exhibit at Royal Geographical Society: Picturing the Invisible

Picturing the Invisible provides a striking photographic portrait of communities living with radiation and trauma in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures, 10 years on. How does one photograph radiation? Trauma? Or the resilience of communities forced to contend with both? A collaboration between the Royal Geographical Society and the Department for STS, TU Munich, Picturing the Invisible brings together six celebrated photographers to examine the lasting legacy of the 2011 North East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.

A note from Makato Takahashi, exhibit curator: Like so many projects, this exhibition has been moulded by COVID-19. The pandemic has not only determined when and where the exhibition might be hung, but who has been involved in its curation. At a time when the pandemic robbed my students of so much of their university experience, I saw in this project an opportunity to offer them something extra. To this end, I chose to integrate the curation of this exhibition into my teaching at the Department for Science and Technology Studies. Students from the Responsibility in Science, Engineering, and Technology (RESET) course have been involved at every stage of Picturing the Invisible’s organisation and you will find some of their reflections on the exhibited works hosted on this site. The exhibition will come to TUM in June 2022 (02/06/2022-29/06/2022). A new crop of Immersion Project students are working on building on the success of the first group and trying to create more immersive forms of engagement e.g. soundscaping, tours, etc