Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen was easily the highlight art museum of my trip, although it’s fair to assume I have a good deal of biases saying that because I am also a Designer.
The number one thing however, that I was very surprised to see, was that there was an exhibit on design fiction and design futures! By some incredible timing and miracle that was by no way intentional, I had stumbled right into exactly something that I needed to see.
The first turn into the exhibit greets you with these colorful hanging articles, all forms of design fiction presenting the world in what-if scenarios. It was near impossible to take a photo of it due to the people and the translucent panels they were printed on, but the issues tackled involved right to repair, bodily autonomy, rising global tensions, and many more. I think the articles are laid out in a way that is supposed to invoke overstimulation, which makes the user have a hard time focusing on one article alone. This could be to replicate what it’s like to surf the internet in the modern attention economy.
Something as simple as creating fake writings and hanging them on a plastic sheet to create an exhibit piece never even occurred to me, so many of these options give me inspiration on how I could exhibit my work when I have to create my own gallery. I was already wondering how I would hang or showcase pieces that were entirely digital or within digital space.
This next piece was really cool. It illustrated 4 separate short stories of people living in alternative future scenarios, voiced by ai text to speech. During the voicing, they shared small models of props or items that were involved in the stories, such as a pair of keys, or a letter from a loved one. Some were futuristic, and some were not.
In the one I was able to sit down at (the lines were too long to do multiple unfortunately), a young woman demonstrates what life is like for a future where the majority of people work from home, instead of owning each home individually, they share and collaborate with workspaces and office spaces using apps and services, allowing them to travel the world while still having shelter and space to work. The woman also goes on to explain many different services and means of transportation in this fictional version of the future.
It’s interesting that I was close to doing this myself and still could, I was essentially doing the same thing when I was creating the short stories in the dystopian world. This gives me many ideas for projects in the future.
Another interesting idea was the 3D printed art and architecture section, which demonstrates how artists and architects alike can use environmentally safe and biodegradable materials to create pieces as well as sculpture, or buildings. The part about Bio-Based Concrete was especially interesting.
I want to get a 3D printer soon and experiment with these topics and ideas, but I don’t know if that’s in my budget for the rest of this semester unfortunately, especially if I’m looking for a printer that can print harder and more interesting materials like this.
Next up was some classic Design Fiction branding projects relating to ideas like a lack of social security and retirement fund, manipulation of nature that should most likely be left alone, legalized lethal injection, and more.
This was very in line with what I wanted to do with a dystopian food brand or packaging. Seeing tangible versions of the projects makes me realize that may be more in line with what I should be doing, especially when I have the ability to do so. Making the labels for a bottle or for vacuum sealed bars or anything like that could be an interesting way to bring these projects to life rather than just remaining as mockups or digital.
This also included an exhibit on past and future and the relationship of technology, in the old side they showcased older or forgotten tech that went in and out of production like Shoulder Phones. They also talked about death and showed furniture that had multiple uses and concepts such as the paired decorative urns above.
Outside of the design futures exhibit, I got to see a really cool travelling micro-exhibit on Japanese Tsuba from the Samurai of Japan, as well as some cool fashion and some Danish typewriters and typing balls.
The museum gave me a ton of stuff to work with and really refreshed my thoughts on design fiction and my work as a whole. I could feel the ideas rapid firing while inside, so I’m really excited to get back to it and work a little more on this idea.
