The Things We Made Next re-frames our Dispatches from the Future in an exhibition of newly imagined design works.
How can designers orient their practice towards care and community? How do they work when the traditional designer-client relationship is disrupted? Can designers democratise their practice and embody interconnectedness?
In 2020, 250 future-building participants came together with 40 artists, thinkers, provocateurs and cultural operators for Assembly for the Future to envision, describe and explore the year 2029. Those gathered entered one of three parallel futures and generated the stories of the watershed moments that led to more than 50 Dispatches from the Future.
The Things We Made Next is five commissioned works from established and emerging designers; each responding to one of these multi-artform Dispatches. The collection connects the social and the political and simultaneously questions conventional modes of practice, whilst embedding designers in collective visions from the future.
Curated by Elliat Rich, David Pledger & Alex Kelly; Produced by Sophia Marinos.
DESIGNERS FOR THE FUTURE
Alison Page // Damien Wright // Ella Cutler // Su san Cohn // Tessa Zettel
PRESENTATIONS
Melbourne Design Week 2021 – Poster Exhibition on the streets of Narrm (Melbourne) & Online Panel Discussion, ‘Tomorrow’s thoughts, Today’s possibilities’.
Castlemaine Fringe Festival 2021 – Poster Exhibition
RAFT Artspace Alice Springs – Exhibition of objects & Artist Talk
Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine – Exhibition of objects & Artist Talk
TTWMNext was supported by Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV, Arts NT and Regional Arts Victoria.