‘Power of Making’ is the second exhibition in the V&A/Crafts Council partnership, presenting a cabinet of curiosities: a selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects by both amateurs and leading makers to celebrate the role of making in our lives.

‘POWER OF MAKING’, 6th September 2011 – 2nd January 2012

VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM

Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL (020 7942 2000)

Top: Rotational moulded shoe, courtesy of Marloes ten Bhömer. Above: Crochetdermy Bear, courtesy of Shauna Richardson

From a ceramic eye patch to a life-size crochet bear, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling, Power of Making showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explore how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways.

Nora Fok Jewellery © V&A images

Greeted by a giant gorilla made up of metal coat hangers standing in the V&A’s Grand Entrance situated next to the Porter Gallery, visitors are encouraged to consider the process of making, not just focusing on the end result. With no set path to follow, the Power of Making is intended to encourage exploration and imagination.

Urban Picnic, courtesy of Gareth Neal

Selected to highlight both traditional skills and contemporary techniques, the diverse display of works include moulded shoes by Marloes ten Bhömer, new Saville Row tailoring by Social Suicide, Thomas Heatherwick’s spun metal rotating chair, individual handcrafted puppets from the 2009 film Fantastic Mr Fox, bio-implant embroidering to aid surgical implants, a lion-shaped Ghanaian coffin and new technologies such as 3D printing.

Dressage Saddle, courtesy of Barnsby Saddlery

Power of Making comes at a time when the loss of skill is threatening cultural practice and impacting on commercial industries. The exhibition examines and celebrates the expertise, knowledge and innovation demonstrated in these objects, as curated by Daniel Charny.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has opened a stand alone, off-site bookshop – V&A Reading Rooms – which also incorporates a wine bar, enabling customers to read and shop with a glass in hand.

V&A READING ROOMS

8 Exhibition Road, London SW7 2HF (020 7225 0594)

The Reading Rooms stock a changing range of over 1,000 book titles covering the topics of fashion, design, architecture, photography, graphics and art as well as biographies, fiction and history.

Out of print, vintage and early editions are also for sale, as well as the V&A’s own list of over 120 art and design books.

The space is small and intimate, retaining the original architectural features of high ceilings, fine cornices and bay windows. David Collins Studio advised the V&A on the interior design with Lucy Woodward creating the graphics in response to the V&A brand.

Behind the menu is Duncan Ackery who has put together an edited range of wines and delicious snacks, which have all been chosen for easy consumption while reading.

The V&A Reading Rooms are open daily, from midday until 10pm.

Decode: Digital Design Sensations is a new exhibition at the V&A that shows the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small screen-based  graphics to large-scale installations.

DECODE: DIGITAL DESIGN SENSATIONS

open 8th December 2009 – 11th April 2010

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL (020 7942 2000)

Imagine digitally grown plants and a mechanical eye that mirrors the blink of a visitor’s gaze. Such digital works are centred in the Porter Gallery with a series of interventions throughout the Museum and garden as well as a number of specially commissioned one-off performances. 

Decode is curated in collaboration with leading digital arts organisation onedotzero and includes works by established international artists and designers including Daniel Brown, Golan Levin and Daniel Rozin, as well as emerging designers such as Troika and Simon Heijdens. 

The exhibition explores three themes. Code as a Raw Material  presents pieces that use computer code to create new designs. This section looks at how code can be programmed to create constantly fluid and ever-changing objects. On display is a new piece by Daniel Brown from his On Growth and Form series. Brown uses advanced mathematics to generate organic depictions of imaginary plants that continuously grow, producing new buds, blossoms and stalks. As soft, organic digital images, these generative flowers will continue to develop and grow over the course of the exhibition.

The second theme, Interactivity, looks at designs where the viewer directly influences the work. Visitors are invited to interact with and contribute to the development of the works, many of which show designers playing with the boundaries of design and performance. One object is Golan Levin’s Opto-Isolator, a human-sized mechanical eye which follows the gaze of the viewer, blinking one second after its visitor blinks.

Weave Mirror by Daniel Rozin is a responsive sculpture that recreates an image of the viewer on its 768 motorized planes. A smoky portrait comes into focus as the planes rotate into place.

The final theme, The Network, focusses on works that comment on and utilise the digital traces left behind by everyday communications, from blogs in social media communities to mobile communications or satellite tracked GPS systems. This section explores how advanced technologies and the internet have enabled new types of social interaction and media for self expression. Designers reinterpret this information to create works that translate data into striking forms. One such example is Aaron Koblin‘s live, real-time visualisations of flight patterns.

Furthermore, the V&A has commissioned a number of new works, which are installed in various locations around the Museum.

Images supplied by V&A: from top – Dandelion by Sennep; Dune (2006-2009) by Daan Roosegaarde; Tree by Simon Heijdens; Prototypes from the Flowers series (2009) by Daniel Brown; Opto-Isolator (2007) by Golan Levin with Greg Balthus (image copyright John Berens, courtesy bitforms gallery nyc); Weave Mirror (2007) by Daniel Rozin (image copyright John Berens, courtesy bitforms gallery nyc); Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin.