The world premiere of The Museum of Ambiguous Objects was held in August 2025 at Style Machine in Riverwest during the Center Street Daze street festival.
The Museum featured 48 ambiguous objects from Style Machine artist Neil Horsky’s vast collection. “Ambiguous objects” are mass-produced items that serve unknown, not readily apparent, mysterious functions. The event also included large-scale video projections of select ambiguous objects rotating to an original musical score, Ontological Shack, performed by experimental musician Free Agent (Wes Buckley), and released in 2025 by Condiment Records in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Visitors to the Museum were asked to respond to the following prompt via a written form: consider an ambiguous object as if it were an imaginary consumer product, name that product (“schlock”), then create an advertising slogan and sales pitch for their product idea. Our favorite name, slogan and sales pitch ideas will become the Museum labels for the next iteration of the Museum at Style Machine.
We received an impressive number of completed forms that we are currently processing. No date has been set yet for the next iteration but we’ll be sure to invite you all.
For other projects employing ambiguous objects, see Make a Place For Them, Name That Schlock, Name That Schlock: The Parlor Game, Home Schlocking, and Soundcrafting with Wes Buckley, Episode 7.
*All photos by Amanda Fish*