The Book of Thugs

‘The Book of Thugs’ is an interactive transmedia installation. The project is interested in decolonizing and recovering alternate histories. The word thug, in a traditional context, refers to a brutal and violent person, and a more recent turn tries to reclaim the word in a celebratory perspective. This interactive transmedia art piece, however, invites viewers and spectators to engage with a book that provides an alternate historical origin story and meaning of the word ‘thug’ – one that is more rooted in South-Asian nationalism and decolonial resistance rather than how we normatively understand the word to mean today. As the participants navigate through the pages of the book, often uncovering hidden sections, they contend with the multiplicity of meanings surrounding the word ‘thug’ and are compelled to think through the politics and materiality of meaning-making.