IMAGES Courtesy of V&A Museum
Join artists and designers for a weekend of free workshops, immersive experiences and demonstrations exploring the intersection of art, design and technology at V&A South Kensington’s Digital Design Weekend, offering visitors a unique opportunity for hands-on interaction with exciting creative practices.
Returning on 20th, 21st and 22nd September, this year’s packed schedule features 25 exhibitors for a weekend filled with immersive experiences, interactive installations, robotics, creative electronics, talks and family-friendly activities taking place around the museum. All events are free – and places are assigned on a first come, first-served basis, unless stated otherwise – so the V&A recommends arriving early to avoid disappointment. The weekend of events will take place in the V&A’s Learning Centre, located closest to the Blavatnik Entrance on Exhibition Road.
There will be “show & tell” and installations across the museum, including The SIM Project’s Memories in Motion, combining the histories of photography and jewellery through 3D-printed sculptures showcasing hundreds of unique SIM-scale glass prints, made by people with experience of displacement in workshops across seven countries.
At the John Lyon’s Charity Community Gallery, attendees can make new memories of questionable truthiness with Connor Turansky at his interactive photo booth installation, Memories with Connor, exploring the relationship between neurodivergence and its effects on the artist’s working memory. Meanwhile, in the Lunchroom, The Tickle invites viewers to investigate arts publishing on the blockchain and discover its issues in physical form for the first time alongside its online archive and select artworks from its 93 issues.
Other stand-out installations include Clare Strand and Sotheby’s Institute of Art’s participatory artwork A Butterfly and a Horse, Andres Salazar and Wenyi Zhang’s interactive 3D-generation tool Functionless, and Humanhood’s hypnotic full-body virtual reality experience Multiverse.
There will also be a number of Black Mirror-esque Special Showcases on display with a particular focus on Artificial Intelligence, including Yashika Goel’s Machine Yearning, imagining alternative futures with emerging AI, It is not what is in it but it is what it is by Nathan Smith, exploring how AI-powered computers use human data to assess and alter the world, and Marcus Round’s Conversation(A/I)symmetry, alluring audiences to role play a dinner date with a difference – instead of speaking, visitors must use their mouths to choose from a list of predicted words, while auto-generated social media comments discuss how the date is going.
The weekend also boasts a brimming schedule of talks that are also free to attend. There will be panel discussions on Is the Internet a monoculture? and Crafting an Internet for everyone, while The SIM Project hosts an interactive launch for its SIMPod, a portable camera and darkroom. Additionally, there will be Digital Art Screenings offering an inspiring glimpse into the future of technology-based art at an exclusive viewing of selected Lumen Prize 2024 finalists.
Finally, there will be a number of drop-in events also on offer, allowing guests to build ‘Re:Play’, a hands-on game repair toolkit with Generation Fix, design their own Internet Care Labels with hiCraft Projects, test out a brand-new mobile game tackling climate change with BOM, and experience the Museum of Hugging with Adobe Creative Resident Rachel Sale.
Digital Design Weekend comes as part of the V&A’s Digital Art Season, exploring the diverse realm of digital art. Taking place across the museum, artist talks, commissions, workshops and film screenings celebrate and ask critical questions about the future of technology, creativity and digital culture.
To visit the V&A this weekend and to see the full Digital Design Weekend programme, head to the V&A website.
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