A new exhibition applying innovative approaches and creative thinking to the pressing social and environmental issues of our time is opening this week at the Griffith University Art Gallery.
Some of the artworks navigating this complex area include a poetry generating robot, a strategy game using Australian census data and a machine that plants seeds in visually stunning patterns across fields, as if printed on to the landscape.
“Experimental Thinking / Design Practices” mixes design and research through investigating how hybrid practices and collaborations are negotiating complex issues such as global warming, online surveillance and personal protection through wearable technology.
One exhibiting artist, Sang Mun, once served in the military decoding online communication, and as a result, has created a typeface that can’t be detected by web surveillance. A wearable BIOdress reacts to the environmental quality as sensed by a plant.
Curator Dr Katherine Moline says the exhibition presents new ways to think about these issues through a multi-disciplinary approach.
“This exhibition finds ‘holes in the fence’ of categorisation, and through these openings connections are made and disciplines communicate with each other to develop new approaches to pressing contemporary concerns.
“I’ve seen increasingly heated debates defending narrow categories in art and design and the emergent strategies of cultural probes, design games, prototypes, and the frontrunners of critical and speculative design present new ways to think about these issues,” she says.
Griffith Artworks Director, Angela Goddard, says the exhibition works across the frontiers of contemporary art and experimental design.
“The exhibition includes robotics, interactives, gaming platforms, mapping devices, typography and most importantly, innovative approaches and creative thinking by a host of extraordinary individuals and collaborative groups from around the world.”
“Experimental Thinking / Design Practices” is the third iteration of a touring exhibition reworked for each venue, having previously featured at the University of New South Wales and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University Design Hub.
A range of fascinating and free public programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition.
Exhibition Opens: Thursday 17 September 6 pm – 8 pm
Exhibition Runs: 18 September — 7 November
Griffith University Art Gallery, South Bank Campus
Panel Discussion: 18 September
10 am — 12 pm: Curator Katherine Moline, Design Convener Peter Hall, Product Design Convener Beck Davis and Design Futures Convener Eleni Kalantidou
Workshops: 18 September
1 pm — 3 pm: Myths of Near Future 2 by curator Katherine Moline
3 pm — 5 pm: Cognitive Redirective Mapping by Tristan Schultz
RSVP for workshops by email: [email protected]
Curator’s Talk: 19 September
1 pm — 2 pm: Curator Katherine Moline, Design Convener Peter Hall and Product Design Convener Beck Davis
