DESIGN DOES. For better and worse

The Exhibition entitled DESIGN DOES. For better and worse, has been co-produced by ELISAVA, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, and the Barcelona Design Museum. Design does reflect on how design shapes and meets the global challenges of our society. The exhibition invites us to analyse and question the responsibility of design and its impact on society, industry, human beings and cultural values. Curated by ELISAVA and Domestic Data Streamers, a Barcelona start-up made up of ELISAVA's former students which explores new communication formats through data, Design Does analyses the role that design plays in today's society, a design whose eagerness to improve the world has a positive impact, though occasionally has a negative effect on our environment.

The exhibition revolves around 15 questions linked to topical issues and future challenges such as sustainability, connectivity, consumerism, innovation, new materials and disadvantaged groups: Where do things come from? How are we going to feed 10 billion people? Can we live without plastic? How can a material change our lives? Can we design what is not seen? Each of these 15 questions is answered by a specific project, developed by local or international designers, which brings an unconventional approach. The exhibition does not aim to define what design is but rather to question universal issues and the role designers play and will be playing as humanist and strategic solution providers and agents of change. The exhibition boasts a very high technological component and is conceived as a dynamic interaction and experimentation space that promotes dialogue with visitors.

It is through a system of real-time data collection and display that visitors will interact with the items and share their sensations, reactions and opinions. Design Does breaks with the usual structure of exhibitions in monologue format and empowers visitors, who through their contributions, will take part in content creation. The exhibition will change and evolve each day through these contributions, which will become part of the collective reflection constructed from day to day and which will reflect the challenges that, according to the public, design will have to face in the future. The exhibition will thereby promote the generation of knowledge for nourishing transdisciplinary design practices. The alliance between the Barcelona Design Museum and ELISAVA on a project of this scale strengthens the positioning of design and research through design as key tools for innovating and offering sustainable solutions for building a better future. The exhibition also brings the general public a more dynamic and current vision of design.

where: Barcelona Design Museum, Barcelona
when: 24 marzo - 13 maggio 2018
co-production: ELISAVA e Barcelona Design Museum
curators: ELISAVA research (Laura Clèries) e Domestic Data Streamers (Pau Garcia e Dani Pearson)
free admission

ELISAVA
ELISAVA, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, is offering bachelor's degrees in Design and Engineering in Industrial Design as well as a wide range of master's and postgraduate programmes. ELISAVA is affiliated to the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The School’s research department, ELISAVA Research, analyses, explores and defines future challenges in design, society and businesses. The School is also collaborating with national and international institutions and companies to promote the transfer of knowledge, crucial to promote change and innovation processes in educational and professional environments.

Barcelona Design Museum
The Barcelona Design Museum (Museu del Disseny de Barcelona) is the city’s design and arts of the object museum. The Museum has four permanent exhibitions displaying collections related to product design, fashion design, graphic design, decorative arts, textile and clothing arts, and graphic arts. The museum conserves heritage comprising more than 70,000 objects, which range in date from the fourth century AD to the present. It hosts temporary exhibitions and activities that offer a critical reflection on what design's real contribution to 21st-century society should be.

Domestic Data Streamers
Data changes the way we see our world. We can learn more from ourselves and nature surrounding us than ever before in human history. For this reason, we need new tools to reach and translate this information into a universal language. Domestic Data Streamers is a team of developers from Barcelona that have taken on the challenge of transforming raw data into interactive systems and experiences. With a background in new media and interaction design they play in the boundaries of arts, science and sociology to explore and create new data languages. The team was created in October 2013 and since then has been working doing data experiences for several national and international museums and cultural institutions including the United Nations, Spotify or the California Academy of Sciences.