London Calling: The London Design Festival 2012

"Celebrating 10 Years of Design"

Each September London hosts their annual design festival with events all throughout the city, showcasing some of the most innovative ideas in the UK and the world. With over 300 events in total, we decided to see some breathtaking exhibits at the V&A, the world's greatest art and design museum.

The most stunning installation was Prism by Keiichi Matsuda, a London-based digital designer who has won international awards in filmmaking, drawing, and design. His research focuses on "the integration of media into everyday life." The V&A opened up a new space for the Prism installation - in the V&A Cupola, the highest point in the museum. After a dizzy climb of 137 steps up very narrow, winding stone and wrought iron Victorian staircases (never before opened to the public), we reached the exhibit which resembled a giant lantern suspended from the ceiling, colorfully lit from the inside. The lights and colors in each screen are triggered by fast moving, live feeds of city data (i.e. transport updates, traffic webcams, environmental data) creating a gorgeous visual representation of the vastness and complexity of London. The artists described it as "an investigation into the virtual life of the city, and ... our ambiguous relationship with the data that controls our lives."

It was difficult to capture the entire sculpture all in one shot since it was so high, so we captured each section ... enjoy!

A view below the exhibit ...

To give you an idea of the narrow width of the staircase we had to climb up ...

... and a view from the very top! The highest point of the museum.

A view of London from the top of the museum looking east.
Cromwell Road is below, and in the distance you can see the London Eye
(the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe) on the River Thames as well as
The Shard (the "London Bridge Tower" and the tallest completed building in Europe).

From the top, looking west down Cromwell Road with a view of the Museum of Natural History next door.

Ice Angel: by Dominic Harris and Cinimod Studio
Ice Angel is an interactive artwork at the V&A that reverses the role of the viewer to the performer, allowing you to view yourself in angelic form. Inspired by the way children create snow angels, it responded to the movement of our arms and our physical proportions, creating a digital pair of angel's wings. Interestingly, the artwork has a memory - if an individual returns after a month or a year, it remembers them and recreates your angel wings again and again. Based on a simple, nostalgic idea, the effect was still magical.

Out of the Woods: Adventures of 12 Hardwood Chairs
In an inspiring collaboration between the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and the Royal College of Art (RCA), RCA students look at new ways of working with age old material - American hardwood - examining the entire lifecycle of each product. Each student was instructed to design a functional object for sitting, using American hardwood, while being monitored by sustainability experts in order to fully understand the environmental implications of their design and material choices. The designs will be developed into working prototypes. [Side note: the AHEC is in the process of producing the first-ever Environmental Product Declaration for American hardwood lumber and veneer.]

Leftovers Chair by Lauren Davies
A traditional Windsor chair created with a variety of hardwoods. The artist, who has a strong interest in cooking and noted that many American hardwoods are used for maple syrup extract, fruits, nuts and smoking, subsequently 'pickled' the seat with vinegar, 'smoked' the legs, and 'flavored' the spindles with fruit.


Tree Furniture by Anton Alvarez We loved this piece! The harsh lines of the bench create a beautiful contrast with the piece of untouched American cherry log on the end. The artist's idea was that the bench should be carved simply from a cut tree and "left on the forest floor where it has been cut" and that "it would be a pleasure to happen on such a bench during a walk through the woods."

Well Proven Chair by James Shaw and Marjan van Aubel
An experiment using timber waste from factories (timber shavings from the floor,
water, dye, and bio-resin).

Designed Legacy by Michael Warren
This artist, who sought to reduce the environmental footprint, designed this chair using 1 piece of kiln-dried timber which uses much less energy than thicker timber.
Weighs 1.5kg.

Beeeench by Petter Thörne
The artist was concerned with making a simple yet elegant bench using
thin strips of strong, flexible American ash.

The Journey of a Drop: by Rolf Sachs
Solitary drops of bright red and blue ink are choreographed to fall from an IV drip at the top of the Henry Cole Wing Grand Staircase into a large, brightly lit tank of detergent-infused water. With a microphone inside the tank, the sound of each drop hitting the water is magnified and the colors burst, then disappear inside the water. The artist describes the experience as "a sense of anticipation, followed by a visual spectacle." It's simple, yet beautiful to watch!

Bench Years: The John Madejski Garden
In the serene garden of the V&A, a series of unique benches are displayed - each made by a different designer, from a different material.

Infinity Bench: by Martino Gamper

Using several hardwood species, this Italian designer created a functional bench made from thermally modified hardwood (a process which improves stability, durability

and prevents decay).