Victoria and Albert Museum · South Kensington
V&A x LDF: Awakenings
This exhibition has ended.
A London Design Festival installation at the V&A South Kensington.
Museum websiteMore in London
In the V&A's gilded 18th-century mirrored room, a longcase clock painted with Ndebele and Bamiléké motifs plays a mixtape. Andre Williams built it as a clock and a soundsystem in one, and the mixtapes he picks change daily.
It's one of nine free installations from this year's London Design Festival, set into the permanent galleries on three floors and linked by a trail the V&A says takes about 25 minutes. Most of the pieces are about AI. In Eunjo Lee's room, clay deities partly 3D-printed from recycled clay carry sensors, and you follow instructions to set them off. In the Photography Centre, Playfool asks you to clean a server, the one data-centre job that resists automation. It's a rare V&A exhibit with a "Please Touch!" sign, and what it wants from you is the dusting.
Everything closes on 18 October, except Aziza Kadyri's AI-designed, hand-embroidered suzani in Room 42, on until 10 January. The artists and curators give a free talk on Saturday 17 October.
Look for
Time After Time
Look for Andre Williams's longcase clock with built-in speakers in the mirrored Room 2a, playing his daily mixtape beside Dawn Wilson's drawing of a Birmingham sound system.
The Server
In Room 108 you take turns cleaning a server, and your movements are tracked and printed out on a slip.
Metamorphic Modulation
Over 700 hand-modelled, unglazed red terracotta pieces in Room 21a form a leaf and a flower that change with the light as you walk round them.
When the Void Gazes Back
In Room 4, the Globe, Eunjo Lee's film of Buddhist-inspired digital deities plays beside clay versions of them that react through sensors.
Lovers Hold
In Room 50a, Henry Svendsen hangs viscous, grotto-like seats from stainless steel frames, shaped like loveseats for several bodies at once.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
About 25 min
Skip if
You want one room of work: the pieces are scattered through permanent galleries on three floors.
Also at Victoria and Albert Museum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Becoming America: How Science Shaped a NationCourtesy of Science Museum
- Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the DeepCourtesy of Natural History Museum
- Sir Richard Owen: A Natural LegacyCourtesy of Natural History Museum
- Victoria and Albert MuseumDiliff / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Science MuseumChristine Matthews / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Natural History MuseumDiliff / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Serpentine GalleryTxllxt TxllxT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Saatchi GalleryAnthony O'Neil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0