Freedom TV by Neville Brody, photo by Antonia Halse

Super Contemporary opened last week at the Design Museum, showcasing 15 designs commissioned specifically for the exhibition. Designers, including David Adjaye, Ron Arad, BarberOsgerby, Neville Brody and Thomas Heatherwick, were provided with the opportunity to give something back to the city that inspires them. The exhibition, curated by Daniel Charny, champions post 1960s free-thinking as the catalyst for London’s ‘creative magnetism’.

Charny’s open brief brought out personal responses to a number of design problems. Charny was clear that the works shown are not prototypes, but rather, a series of messages which would have a life beyond the exhibition. This could come as a relief to some, including Paul Smith who admitted, ‘I’m not sure that London wants 400 5ft bunny rabbits’. The fashion designer’s contribution ‘New London Bin’, offered a fun, behavioural solution to phase out litter dropping by rewarding people using the bin with motion sensor activated flashing bunny ears.

Looking towards the future, Paul Cocksedge explored the use of an electrical current with ‘Rain it In’, diverting rain from cycle paths and green spaces during London’s rainy seasons, while Industrial Facility‘s ‘K9 Post Office Kiosk’, proposes to support the shrinking network of post offices by using public sites occupied by unprofitable telephone boxes, reportedly a staggering 60 per cent across the UK. Using the same dimensions of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s original cast iron design, the K9 is made from wood and glass, with a solar panel on the roof. Featuring a credit card entry system the user is served by a real employee. Tele-connected at a 1:1 scale on a glass-covered LCD screen inside, the member of staff can see and communicate with the customer.

Wayne Hemingway’s Kioskiosk, also stood out, practically, as a relevant realtime project. Gaining inspiration from his early career as a market trader selling fashion, which led to the launch of Red or Dead, Hemingway has created a space which will be available to designer-makers and other creative practitioners to set up shop at no cost for a day, a series of days, or a regular slot. The pop-up-shop will be situated at More London throughout the summer, and is a reportedly low cost endeavour at approximately £2,000. This has led to requests for the concept to be replicated internationally. 

Listening Station by BarberOsgerby, photo by Luke Hayes

A trend for demanding more small-scale public architecture was echoed by Neville Brody, who sees London as ‘much more subversive and covert’ than it was 20 or 30 years ago. In response Brody has created ‘Freedom Space’. A small room filled with cameras and containing a microphone, broadcasting your thoughts and movements to those watching outside. Rightfully raising questions surrounding the surveillance of public life, the idea could be criticised as being outdated, in this generation of self-broadcasting video-bloggers, flash mobbers and fame seekers.

The use of multimedia throughout the exhibition was engaging. Websites such as The Collabregator  invite the design community to mark up their alliances, while a series of 14 maps chart current practitioners and networks of times gone by. Ross Phillips, from pioneering art project SHOWstudio, has created a live game of consequences. Following up on the success of his earlier projects such as The Replenishing Body, 2007, Head to Toe engages the public, inviting them to capture 3 second video clips of body parts, contributing to the online archive.

With a timeline detailing the capital’s achievements over the last 40 years in architecture, fashion, product design and communication, and a strong supporting events calendar fitting seamlessly with the exhibition, Super Contemporary works well as both an introduction, and update, to British design leaving viewers to speculate on what will come next.

Design Museum and Beefeater 24 present Super Contemporary 3 June – 4 October 2009.