Design often adds value or desirability to an object. When we add technology to design, it often implies that something becomes easier or empowers us to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. But the act of designing technologies can also be an act of (sometimes political) critique, for instance by experimenting with partly absurd solutions to tricky problems. In the course “Design as a critical practice” master’s students from Aarhus University have done this; in this exhibition you can explore their prototypes.
In this hands-on exhibition you will encounter physical prototypes that explore how design of technology might help us understand: fertility rates, labour conditions in the far east, food waste, the increasing pressure to perform better than everyone else, the gendering of robots, sustainable education within the competitive state, the next generation’s evolutionary step, society's demand for the elderly to use computers, legal abortion, friendship and respect, Syrian refugees, the religion of consumerism and voting integrity.
Led by associate professor Lone Koefoed Hansen, Aarhus University, the students will be available to tell you more about how we might understand design as a critical practice enabling discussions on societal issues that most people often find it hard to participate in. Designers exhibiting: Cissel Ene Bech, Henriette Rønne Rasmussen, Sarah Louise Zebis, Jacob Løfdahl, Mette Schou, Joakim Old Jensen, Johanna Müller, Jeppe Schmidt Nielsen, Henrik Aakjær Lundgren, André Gårsted Nielsen, Andreas Sørig Thomsen, Niels Bak, Simon Zinglersen, Julie Dall Andersen, Jakob Thestrup Eskildsen & Niels Lerbech Andersen.