Conflict, Consensus and Confinement: On the Ontario Science Centre's A Question of Truth

In the 1990s, the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) undertook an exhibition, A Question of Truth, as a form of institutional redress for business discrimination under provincial law. The permanent multicultural exhibit invites its visitors to “explore how beliefs and biases can influence scientific research and test controversial theories related to race, gender and culture.” This paper focuses on the exhibit’s treatment of racial slavery, particularly in “The Confinement Box” which the curator describes as the culmination of the 37-part exhibition. It considers how the OSC’s consultation with advisory boards multiply reveals how conservative notions of scientific disinterest and affect overdetermine racial slavery’s representation such that it cannot be scientifically represented at all.