081012401 There is something peculiar about the manner in which slavery is framed, discussed and understood in contemporary society. Slavery is ever so safely relegated to the past, ever so reductively evaluated as the problem of one race and one society, and ever so gratuitously acknowledged as a battle that has been won. We distance ourselves from the subject in much the same way that a doctor detaches from his or her patients. We isolate the issues of slavery to the elitist confines of the museum or to the intoxicating abstraction of the memorial, but have we really overcome slavery? Or, are we simply in denial? The subject of slavery, both as a continued legacy and as a contemporary problem, is a blindsight in the cognizance of many Americans—in addition to the global population. A critical review of slavery solely through the lens of history alone is an act of repudiation that only serves to condemn the multifarious social injustices of slavery to the antiquarian confines of the past. Thus history is a problematic medium, ignorant to the true horrors of slavery and wrought with internal biases. Furthermore, history alone cannot adequately convey how the ghosts of slavery (e.g. racism, discrimination, sexism, mass- media representation and stereotyping, etc.) have surreptitiously concealed themselves within our culture to such a degree that we no longer notice them. Additionally, to diminish the complexity of slavery, reducing it down to single-point perspectives, is to miss the bigger picture; an understanding of how these social issues work in conjunction with one another and how they are all masquerading within contemporary society. Rather than looking back at slavery we must, instead, look at the legacy of slavery. We must look within ourselves and within our contemporary national and global societies in order to see the lasting effects of this poison. We also need to acknowledge the existence of contemporary slavery and the various ways in which we directly and indirectly collude. Palimpsest is not a conventional memorial. To propose a memorial that not only confines slavery to the past but is also ignorant of the present global crisis is to, in effect; contribute to the continuation of slavery and to become a passive voice drowning in the society of the spectacle. Palimpsest is a site less, viral, audio-video installation that records, archives, transmits, plays, and replays academic discussions, informal conversations, and the experiences of its visitors. The intent of Palimpsest is to further the discourse concerning the legacies of American slavery as well as to highlight contemporary forms of global slavery. Broadly, there are six dominant themes used to categorize/archive the video footage: Racism + Slavery, Sexism + Slavery, Contemporary forms of Slavery, Pop-culture + media representation, Religion + Slavery, and Torture Practices + Slavery. Palimpsest consists of a series of spatially disturbed corridors that are actively haunted by audio-video equipment explicating the various ghosts of slavery. These specters are intended to challenge the passive cognizance of visitors and to actively engage them in the discourse. The video equipment plays both archival footage in addition to recording the reactions and viewpoints of visitors. The newly recorded footage is archived and then broadcasted to other viral Palimpsests around the globe in order illustrate how various cultures view slavery. Thus Palimpsest firmly locates slavery within the contemporary condition as well as serves as a scaffold for social activism and communication.