Design Exquis was hosted at the Museum of the Order of St John as part of Clerkenwell Design Week. Whilst I’m not usually drawn to ‘design art’, I am fascinated by the creative process, and this exhibition gave a really interesting insight into the way creative minds work.
Based on the Surrealist method of collective idea generation, Exquisite Corpse (Cadavre (Exquis) in which each person builds on the last person’s creation leading to unpredictable results, the exhibition showcased four ideas by four designers in one space – and the whole process hand-illustrated by those designers on one long blackboard.
This being the Museum of the Order of St John, the object chosen to start the process was a stethoscope. This was given to British furniture design duo Plant & Moss.
Inspired by the shape and movement of the lungs, and the stethoscope’s role in ‘listening’ to them, they created an eerily beautiful light called Breathe that softly glows and dims as if it’s breathing; making “the audible visible.”
Dominic Wilcox challenged the idea that only lights should hang from ceiling electricity points – why not other things too?
This thought-process led him from light to sound and the Sound Bulb – a radio which hangs from the ceiling, and a table lamp inspired collection of radios too.
Next, Georg Oehler took inspiration simply from the handle of one of the radios Dominic Wilcox used, to create a light within a hinged oak chest.
The light within was hidden by a mass of feathers, creating another slightly haunting, delicate light source reminiscent of Plant & Moss’ Breathe.
Finally, Matthew Plummer-Fernandez photographed Georg Oehler’s Nagoire Light and put the image into Google Image Search.
He then created an algorithm that used 3D printing to create a model from one of the search results and named it Venus of Google.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- review :: london design in may
- out and about :: house of detention
- out and about :: farmiloe building
- photos of numbers :: 00005, 42 & 43
