From Live to Future
Edited by Charlotte Flint and Jen Forakis
Contemporary and future design rarely receive the same calibre of critical analysis that is poured upon historical objects, systems and projects by historians. ‘From Live to Future’ focuses on examples of contemporary activities and future designs, and seeks to comment upon social practice with a critical theoretical perspective. From co-design to imagined utopias, and fictionalised futures to design activism, this column will explore and speculate upon the methods, processes and products of live and future design.
If you are interested in contributing or have any queries, please contact:
jennifer.forakis@network.rca.ac.uk / charlotte.flint@network.rca.ac.uk
Making From Below: Disobedient Objects
Charlotte Flint “These objects disclose hidden moments in which, even if only in brief flashes, we find the possibility that thing might be otherwise: that in fact, the world may also be made from below, by collective, organized disobedience against the world as it is”.[1] What do cups and saucers, bicycle locks, shopping trollies
Futurecamp Review
Joanne Pilcher “The future is too complex to understand – no – it is the present that is too complex to understand.”[1] As part of their twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, The Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge is running a series of events and lectures entitled Futurecamp. These look at “pressing concerns in present times”;[2] issues
Show RCA: History of Design 2014
Charlotte Flint With the end of the academic year rapidly approaching, art and design institutions are frantically preparing for their final year degree shows, one of the most important events in the calendar of soon to be graduates. The Royal College of Art show is one such example and has opened to the
Design history in Milan – A study trip
Chloe Frechette and Miriam Phelan Milan is often regarded as a global capital of industrial design, fashion, and architecture. For first year students on the modern strand, visits to the city’s museums, universities, factories, and shops offered the opportunity to explore the cultural, aesthetic, technological and social contexts for Milanese design and to critically
Brazilian Contemporary:A Roundtable Discussion – Part One
Jen Forakis Contemporary Brazilian art, design and architecture has seen a growth in popularity and international influence in the past decade. Hosted in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Research Department, with support from the Embassy of Brazil in London, the roundtable event brought together practitioners, writers, academics and curators working in Brazil and the UK
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Rosannagh Maddock “Yeah. It’s just the way I was consuming information in my life at the time. … going to furniture exhibits and understanding that, trying to open up and do interviews with this, learning more about architecture. Taking one thousand meetings, attempting to get backing to do clothing and different things like that. Like,
New Contemporary : Adam Hogarth
Jen Forakis Adam Hogarth’s art work isn’t art-rock[1] but his explorations demonstrate the open-ended conversations on the digital platforms that pervade our lives with a corresponding object-centred, music-loaded vigour. Selected to exhibit at the ICA as one of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries[2] Hogarth’s recent body of work looks at social media, language and it’s relationship to the
Snap to Grid: Heterogeneous networks among Architecture, Fashion, and Technology in the modern era
Dr. Matina Kousidi Similarly to fashion, which has been defined as a “combination of different elements bearing details of the past intermingled with the needs, tastes, technology, experiments in fabric and design of the present,”[1] architecture is a blend of past, present, and well-anticipated phenomena. Comprising a gradual intervention into the human environment,
Society, Design, Culture
Charlotte Flint One of the main aims of ‘From Live to Future’ is to provide a critical theoretical perspective on contemporary and future design, an area that seldom receives the same degree of critical analysis compared to more traditional ‘historical’ design. However, in November 2012, a series of talks began which have engaged with
Elmgreen and Dragset: Tomorrow
Edward Ball Buried deep within the disused textile galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum, something is stirring; a life is being charted. The Scandinavian duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, as part of an ambitious site-specific installation that blurs lines between art, architecture and design, subtly reconfigure ideas of display by framing the