Kingston University MA Curating Contemporary Design

AH CDM 404: Theory of the Object

Is the White Cube approach an appropriate means of exhibiting contemporary design? Can design speak for itself or will interpretative strategies (display design, textual explanation, education) be needed?

Submitted 12 January 2015 Valentina Rito

Course Leader: Professor Catherine McDermott Course Tutor: Anthony Burton

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Abstract Introduction 1 The White Cube 4 Case Study 1: David Gill Gallery 7 Case Study 2: Collection Lab 13 Conclusion 21 Bibliography 24 Word Count: 4823

List of Illustrations Fig.1 Machine Art, MoMA, New York, 1934, Retrived from: 6

<https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/history-of-design- 236-midterm1/deck/9761711>

Fig.2 Mario Merz Exhibiton at Pace Gallery, London, 2014 6

Photo by Author Fig. 3 David Gill Gallery, London, December 2014 9

Photo by Author Fig. 4 David Gill Gallery, London, December 2014 9

Photo by Author

Fig.5 Mercuric Stools, nero marquina marble, Zaha Hadid, 2013 10 Photo by Author

Fig.6 Design Real, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2009-2010 12 Photo by Author Fig.7 Collection Lab Space, Design Museum, London, 2014 15 Photo by Author Fig.8 Collection Lab, Design Museum, 2014 17 Photo by Author Fig.9 User-Teapots, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 2014 18 Photo by Author Fig.10 Manufacturer, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 2014 18 Photo by Author Fig.11 Interactive tools, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 2014 19 Photo by Author

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to identify a successful system to display contemporary

design in museums and galleries. It considers whether the neutral setting of the

white cube approach can still be effective, or whether design should be

contextualised with the support of informative strategies.

This essay is established on the evidence that exhibition design is an interpretative

tool that, through the creation of a certain environment, can foster visitors’

understanding of the exhibition content, aims, and objectives.

This investigation has been conducted through two case studies that focus on

London institutions. The case studies illustrated are: David Gill Gallery and the

exhibition Collection Lab displayed at the Design Museum. David Gill Gallery, driven

by a market ethos, concentrates its activity on championing designers and promoting

them to connoisseurs. The analysis carried out reveals that its collection is organized

and displayed following the white cube ideology of sobriety and lack of information,

in order to highlight the design pieces aesthetic value.

Collection Lab, on the other hand, is driven by informative and educational purposes,

and acts as a laboratory that involves visitors. It comprises a large variety of

interpretative strategies, with the aim to test ideas and messages for general public.

This research draws upon museum studies literature and design curators’ opinions

and activities. It also looks at the developments in the fields of exhibition display

history, education and learning, and material culture studies.

This essay, finally, brings attention to the fact that museums and galleries spaces

and exhibition settings, are linked to cultural, social and economic factors; an

awareness of this, can implement and catalyse new approaches to curating

contemporary design.

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Introduction

When organising an exhibition, curators explore, select a theme, research, and then

communicate a message through objects. One of the most challenging parts of

putting together an exhibition is how to communicate the exhibition’s content to the

visitors; in that moment questions on the methods of display come into play. Can an

object speak for itself? Does it need labels, a plinth and a showcase? Should it be

grouped or contrasted with other objects? Should it be contextualized with the aid of

a specific setting? And so forth. Answers to these queries, can be likewise endless,

and each depending on many factors such as the exhibition content. However, a

further crucial element curators have to take in account, is the presence of an

audience with specific needs. Particularly, living in an era where information and

visual material is largely available on the web, people are increasingly interested in

the physicality of objects and demand an active engagement with the exhibits. On

this theme, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill stated that: “museums are changing from being

static storehouses for artefacts into active learning environments for people […] The

challenge today is to preserve traditional museum concerns, but to combine them

with the educational values that focus on how the objects cared for in museum can

add to the quality of life for all.”1

The challenge of exhibiting design objects is to shift people consumer behaviour

towards an interest for design as a practice that involves creativity, planning and

production and not exclusively function, aesthetic and monetary value. In order to

influence public awareness about design significance, and, at the same time,

respond to the needs of twenty-first century visitors, curators need to be deeply

conscious when choosing the display method for an exhibition.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and their Visitors (London & New York: Routledge 1994)

p.1

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This essay will answer the question about which is the most appropriate way of

displaying contemporary design, through two case studies.

The first case study focuses on the London based David Gill Gallery that exhibits

some of the most prominent contemporary designers such as, to cite a few, Zaha

Hadid, Mattia Bonetti and Fernando and Humberto Campana. This gallery follows the

principles of the white cube and, an analysis of its display, can be a useful resource

to compare and contrast with the second case study: the exhibition Collection Lab at

the Design Museum (September 2014 - Summer 2015). It features part of the

permanent collection that will be installed in 2016 in the new Design Museum in

South Kensington. This exhibition communicates to the public through an abundance

of interpretative strategies among which text is the most evident. Collection Lab has

been chosen as a case study because it demonstrates how the new Design Museum

will organise and display its collection; therefore it is a very striking example to draw

on, to evaluate which direction are design curators taking.

Both case studies are analysed addressing: the space structure, the objects

arrangement, the interpretative strategies used, and the audience involvement. The

comparison of the two will help understand the current happenings, the relationship

between content and display, and the visitors’ role.

To support the analysis of the selected galleries, and to elaborate final considerations

on this theme, the opinion of design and architecture curators and experts, will be

particularly important. An interesting source of reference is Bennett Simpson’s

interview with Paola Antonelli, senior curator of Design and Architecture at the

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York. Antonelli firmly believes in amazing

scenography to conceptualize design, embracing innovative settings.

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The interview “The White Cube and Beyond” between Niklas Maak, Charlotte Klonk

and Thomas Demand is another stimulating reading. Retracing the history of

museums, they advocate a fresh vision of museums as public spaces where people

meet and share experiences.

A “Companion to Museum Studies”, a bundle of essays edited by the social

anthropologist Sharon Macdonald, offers remarkable texts in the sections devoted to

“Architecture, Space and Media”, and “Visitors, Learning and Interacting”, that thus

fix the basis for this essay.

To frame the discourse about design, a theme to consider is also Material Culture.

Material Culture is a discipline that concentrates on everyday objects, materials and

techniques of production to investigate larger issues on culture and society

development. The meanings of objects has been the subject of a body of research

which reaches back immediately to the 1960s and beyond that, to the pioneers of

archaeology in the mid- and later nineteenth century2. The period since the late

1980s has witnessed a fast-expanding literature in ‘material culture studies’ in which

archaeology and anthropology have played a central role; today things are

everywhere in the social sciences and humanities3. It is vital to bear in mind that

design museums are strongly bounded with these concepts and, therefore, they not

only collect objects but also unravel their inner meanings.

Among books about history and philosophy of display, “Contemporary Cultures of

Display”, edited by Emma Barker, discusses through ten case studies, the impact of

museum displays in the public understanding of contemporary art.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!2 Susan M. Pearce, Interpreting Objects and Collections (London: Routledge 1994) p.2 3 Dan Hicks and Mary Carolyn Beaudry, The Oxford Handbook Of Material Culture Studies

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

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The view of Charlotte Klonk, which in the book “Spaces of Experience” argues that

museums have never effectively been white cubes but, rather, have always been

strongly bounded to society, economy and politics, will strongly support this essay.

The White Cube

One of the most significant moments in the history of display was the expansion of

the white cube method, a term devised by the art critic and artist Brian O’Doerthy

who, in the 1970s, informed by burgeoning movements on ‘institutional critique’4,

started discussing the theme of museum display. The term white cube was attributed

to the display approach used by Alfred Barr, at time director of the Museum of

Modern Art (MoMA) of New York, in the 1930s. Barr, influenced by the Bauhaus’

experiments on museums display and colours conducted during the 1920s in

Germany5, observed that avant-garde art was more striking when presented on white

plain walls and placed on a single row on the visitor’s eye level, rather than covering

the whole surface in the method of the nineteenth century6. In the century before, art

was displayed in decorated rooms with walls completely covered in paintings with

heavy frames. As O’Doherty argued: “the nineteenth century mind was taxonomic,

and the nineteenth century eye recognized hierarchies of genre and the authority of

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!4 Institutional criticism began in the late 1960s when artists began to create art in response to

the institutions that bought and exhibited their work. In the 1960s the art institution was often perceived as a place of ‘cultural confinement’ and thus something to attack aesthetically, politically and theoretically. Tate.org.uk, 'Institutional Critique', 2015 <http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/institutional-critique> [accessed 30 December 2014]

5 Charlotte Klonk, Spaces of Experience, (New Haven & London; Yale University Press, 2009) p.138

6 Eleonore Hugendubel, 'Moma | Small Steps Lead To Bigger Changes: Moma’S Shifting Wall Colors', Moma.org, 2010 <http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/11/small-steps-lead-to-bigger-changes-moma-s-shifting-wall-colors> [accessed 17 December 2014]

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the frame […] looking at a subject and not at its edges.”7 Modernism, instead,

developing an ideology of self-criticisms, looked at the limits of the field to extend

them 8 . Modernist art was to be experienced in a neutral space without any

interpretative strategy that could affect its task of self-assessment. The viewer itself

was passive and alienated in the sacredness of the gallery space.

Some principles of the white cube method, not only were considered pertinent for

contemporary art, but also for design. In the exhibition Art Machine curated by Philip

Johnson in 1934 at MoMA, appliances, tools and utilitarian objects produced by

machines, were displayed in a selective and aestheticized manner and elevated to

the status of works of art through isolated presentation on plinths; the effect of this

display was to make the objects seem even more desirable, effectively identifying the

museum visitor as a consumer.9

As Charlotte Klonk claimed: “[MoMA] was a space in which consumers could

cultivate their taste, update themselves in matters of style, and recognize themselves

as informed members of the consumer society that was then emerging in the United

States”10 Since the beginning design was collected and exhibited, with the purpose of

reforming taste. For instance, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) not only displayed its collection to show

technological innovations, but also to train makers and educate consumers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7 Brian O’Doherty, Inside The White Cube (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) p. 16 8 Brian O’Doherty, Inside The White Cube, p. 20 9 Cristoph Grunemberg “The Modern Art Museum” in Emma Barker (ed) Contemporary

Cultures of Display (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1999). p34 10 Charlotte Klonk, Spaces of Experience, p.149

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Fig.1 Machine Art, MoMA, New York, 1934

Fig.2 Mario Merz exhibiton at Pace Gallery, London, 2014

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Since then the white cube approach has been engaged by many institutions

worldwide to display modern and contemporary art. An up-to-date example is the

exhibition Mario Merz at Pace Gallery in London (September to November 2014).

The artworks of the Italian artist were installed and displayed in an open space room

with wooden floor and white walls.

Limited information was available on a pamphlet but, as the image shows (Fig.2), there were no labels or panels inside the gallery but only artworks hung on the wall or

installed in the middle of the room.

Although the white cube method is still considered successful, it is essential to

remember its origin, developed in the modern era and therefore following the notions

of self-criticism and progress. Particularly relevant in support of the latter statement,

and an important reference throughout the whole essay, is O’Doherty’s opinion that

the modernist ways of displaying art in a white cube was solely an historical

construct.11

Case study 1: David Gill Gallery

David Gill Gallery opened in 2012 in the heart of St James’s in London, founded by

the gallerist and curator David Gill. It champions the work of many renowned

designers. At present time the gallery does not have any show on, but it displays a

collection of works produced by the designers it has supported throughout the years:

Zaha Hadid, Mattia Bonetti, Campana Brothers, Barnaby Barford, and Fredrikson

Stallard.

Seen from the outside the gallery presents many large windows through which it is

possible to peek into the gallery. Entering the main door the space does not differ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 Simon Sheikh, 'Positively White Cube Revisited | E-Flux', E-flux.com, 2015 <http://www.e-

flux.com/journal/positively-white-cube-revisited/> [accessed 22 November 2014]

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much from what is seen from the outside: white walls, bare floor, open plan and

furniture pieces. What mostly strikes at first are the objects, with their colours and

attractive shapes. Tables, lamps, mirrors, sofas, armchairs, everything exudes

beauty and perfection, inviting visitors to get close to examine them. However, after

strolling around the two rooms and looking at the objects from all round, the visitor is

not given the opportunity to investigate further. There is not extra information, not

even a little label. It is not allowed to touch them, sit on them, or photograph them

closely. There is no chance to get deeper into the collection and interact with it.

Visitors can only use their sight appreciating and valuing objects’ outward

appearance and aesthetic.

Although objects are left to speak for themselves, their arrangement suggests the

presence of the curator’s intellect; furniture in fact, is assembled together in various

groups. On the left hand side (Fig. 3) there are a dark green table, two lamps hung

on the ceiling above the table, and a transparent table lean on a small pedestal.

The two tables are extremely different, the transparency and lightness of the first one

clash with the solidity and darkness of the second one. However, despite their

diversity, they both shine under the light emitted by the lamps hung above them. The

method of juxtaposition of two diverse, but also very contemporary pieces of furniture

is engaged to show visitors the differences of styles, structures, materials and forms

used by designers to create objects with same function.

On the right hand side (Fig.4) the setting is less bland, since the furniture’s

arrangement recalls a living room interior. Nonetheless the floor lamp is presented on

a plinth, which disconnects it from the surrounding setting.

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Fig. 3 and 4 David Gill Gallery, London, December 2014

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Fig.5 Mercuric Stools, Nero Marquina marble, Zaha Hadid, 2013

Valuing the aesthetic of things exclusively, and the occasional use of pedestals,

almost transforms furniture into works of art. Some pieces in particular, such as the

stools Mercuric (2013) can be easily be perceived as abstract marble sculptures

rather than utilitarian objects.

Putnam claimed that “[museums and galleries] can affect a more aesthetically

pleasing presentation merely by isolating an object from its original context and

reframing it for more considered viewing. Through their chosen mode of display,

using the traditional devices of plinth, vitrine, and label, they have the potential to

transform almost anything they exhibit into a work of art.”12

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!12 James Putnam, Art and Artifact: The Museum as a Medium (London: Thames & Hudson,

2009) p.36

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As stated before, the gallery does not provide any information about the collection,

however, it is available on the gallery website13. For instance, the green table (Fig.3)

is called Dune, is made of aluminium and polyurethane lacquer, and was designed

by Zaha Hadid in 2007. On the other hand, the transparent table, Bubblegum Acrylic,

was designed by Bonetti in 2014 and is made of acrylic and glass. Nevertheless the

information on the website are not very thorough, mentioning only the objects’ name,

dimensions and the designer. On the contrary, information on the designers’

biography is quite detailed. The focus on designers’ activity as well as the gallery

display, advocate the curator’s aim: to champion designers through the excellence of

their objects.

David Gill Gallery recalls both a showroom and a contemporary art gallery, giving a

focus on objects outside their original context and without addressing their

functionality. The absence of the usual interpretative strategies engaged by

museums, although quite frustrating, is, at the same time stimulating as it leads

visitors to look and question. In particular, the choice of grouping and juxtaposing

objects fosters an intellectual engagement and a desire to investigate further. As

Robert Storr states: “visitors should not come [to the exhibition] with the idea that

they are about to have a once-in-life experience, but rather think of an exhibition as

the beginning of a renewable acquaintance with someone or something it will take a

long time to know well and whom one will never know […] exit the exhibition

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!13 'David Gill Galleries | Art Gallery Mayfair, St. James | Furniture Design London | Modern

Design Mayfair', Davidgillgalleries.com, 2015 <http://www.davidgillgalleries.com/> [accessed 3 December 2014]

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convinced that there is more to be seen, and other ways to seeing it.”14 Because

David Gill Gallery displays internationally renowned designers whose works can be

found in many other places, they decided to rather offer an immaculate view on

designer’s activity. As the display suggests, the target audience is clearly not the

general public but, primarily, connoisseurs and collectors.

This analysis demonstrates that the white cube principles can still be valid in

contemporary society, however, abandoning the modernist features and acquiring

new significance. The white cube method fits well in the digital era because

information can be provided on the web whereas material objects can be appreciated

only for their aesthetic properties in a gallery space. Particularly relevant is the

opinion of the German curator Konstantine Grcic who, in 2009, curated Design Real

at Serpentine Gallery.

Fig. 6 Design Real, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2009-2010

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!14 Robert Storr, “Show and Tell” in Paula Marincola (ed.) What Makes A Great Exhibition?

(Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, 2006) p.14

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The exhibition featured forty-three mass manufactured products and industry robots

without explanations; they were decontextualized and reinterpreted as sculptural

pieces. However, an online database placed in a separate gallery was available as a

source of information about the collection. In an interview with Burkhard Meltzer,

Grcic explained that the exhibition’s objective was to take out of context things that

are quite ordinary and present them on a plinth to be viewed as exalted forms; on the

other hand the website reminded people that however beautiful a given object may

be, it is real and it is used15. The ideology of the white cube, was, in this case,

engaged to achieve a curatorial concept. The next case study will present, instead,

an exhibition, which focuses on the reality and functionality of objects, transcending

their aesthetic properties.

Case Study 2: Collection Lab at the Design Museum

This case study is a current exhibition at the Design Museum in London that has

been running from September 2014 until Summer 2015. The exhibition displays part

of the museum’s permanent collection that will be installed in the new South

Kensington building in 2016. Moving in a new and wider building in proximity of the

the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the V&A, the Design

Museum will become part of London’s museum quarter.

As the title suggests Collection Lab is a laboratory: a place of experimentation and

research. The objective of the exhibition is not only to display and explore design

objects but, as stated on their website “is a conversation about design that will evolve

over 2014 and 2015. By taking part in this exhibition, you [the visitor] can shape the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!15 Konstantin Grcic interview in 'Design Exhibited', OnCurating.org, 2013, 5 <http://www.on- curating.org/index.php/issue-17.html#.VLJZVWTz1ts> [accessed 13 December 2014]

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displays the Design Museum will create for its permanent collection.”16 An interesting

aspect of the latter statement is the involvement of the audience. Visitors become

prominent as they are invited to take part in the conversation about design, and in

shaping the layout that will be created at South Kensington. An analysis of this

exhibition, especially focusing on its display, as well as the audience role in

contemporary museums, will help answering the question of this essay.

Collection Lab takes place on the second level of the building where there is also

Designers in Residence. The title of the exhibition is printed in bright colours on

wooden sticks hang on a wall that is visible when getting up the stairs.

At the start of the gallery, which is set up in an open space, what mostly strikes is the

abundance of text and colours; the walls are filled with words printed in large

typeface or little dense lines. The majority of texts are combined with bright colours:

yellow, red, green and blue which each refers to a topic: Collection Lab, User,

Designer, Manufacturer. The use of different colours suggests that the collection is

not arranged diachronically but thematically. Although the visitor is ‘forced’ to look at

the collection from the thematic viewpoint, the plan democratises people’s physical

experience letting them explore the exhibition freely rather than walking through a

predetermined architectonic itinerary (entering room by room, passing by corridors,

or following specific routes).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!16 Design Museum, 'Collection Lab', 2014 <https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/collection-lab> [accessed 2 December 2014]

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Fig.7 Collection Lab Space, Design Museum, London, 2014

The space does not have a strong character either, as it has white walls and

therefore functions only as an empty container. This is a strong demonstration of the

importance of the white cube in the 21st century; especially nowadays, the white cube

is engaged for its structural versatility rather than following its principles.

As Charlotte Klonk claimed: “the main task today is to create a thematic framework

for the exhibition. In the past, curators guided the viewing process in a sensory way

through decoration of the gallery rooms, whereas today is carried out intellectually by

providing a problem-oriented context. For functional reasons, the artistic interventions

make the neutral museum-container even more necessary than before […] the

guideline for architects and museum curators continues to be the creation of

unarticulated, flexible, and adaptable exhibition spaces17.

The Design Museum, as well as many other institutions worldwide, has, so far, based

its activity on temporary exhibitions. Henceforth, changing its layout every few

months it is considered convenient to not have a fixed setting with strong features.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!17 Charlotte Klonk, interview in Niklas Maak, Charlotte Klonk, and Thomas Demand, 'The

White Cube And Beyond', Tate Etc., 2011 <http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/white-cube-and-beyond> [accessed 15 December 2014]

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This allowed designers to conceive and install the large wooden table in the room.

This, itself, acts as a communication medium; running through the room, it works as

a support to display objects, connects the exhibits one to the other, and then

becomes a desk where visitors can sit. As a laboratory setting, it shows objects and

invites to research, learn and experiment.

The first theme encountered, pointed by the yellow colour, is: Collection Lab, whose

purpose is to introduce the exhibition. The entrance panel on the wall, in fact,

explains what the exhibition is about, how it is organized, what design is, and the

curator’s choice of presenting a series of paired objects to explore some of the key

issues and ideas about design.

The first key subject about design is: design is for a purpose, and it is explained

through text, pictures, and two objects hanged on the wall inside a showcase: an AK-

47 Rifle and a plywood leg splint (Fig.8). The texts above the showcase, the images,

and the bold words kill and heal are used to support the objects and illustrate the

theme. Since the beginning, it is clear that the objects are arranged in pairs, in order

to show the similarities and differences between them. The first juxtaposition is

binary, defined as such because of the binarism it evokes, such as virtue/vice,

salutary/unsalutary, and harmonious/disharmonious18. Therefore it presents diverging

functions that design object can have: killing and healing.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!18 Tiffany Sutton, 'How Museums Do Things Without Words', J Aesth Art Crit, 61 (2003), 47-

52 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-6245.00091> [accessed 23 December 2014]

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Fig. 8 Collection Lab, Design Museum, 2014

Another pair, related to the issue: “design enables mass manufacturing” consists of

two plates produced sixty years apart with different techniques and materials; this

comparison is not binary but it is an alternative type called narrative abridgment19,

which evokes temporal themes such as before/after, condition/remedy,

suffering/vindication and so on. Binary juxtaposition and narrative abridgment, are

not the only two methods engaged by the curator, but advancing through the

exhibition visitors can see different ways in which the objects are showed and

interpreted. The exhibit about Designer (recognisable thanks to the red colour) for

instance, in addition to juxtapose objects, also features an on-site reproduction of

designer Robin Day’s studio supported by descriptive labels. The User section looks

at three ways we interact with objects as consumers: the hand, the eye and the

emotional communication between people and ordinary things. The objects are

subdivided in little groups and presented in showcases (Fig.9); here the interpretative

strategies used are text, images and videos available to listen individually with

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!19 Tiffany Sutton, 'How Museums Do Things Without Words'

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headphones. Similarly, the last exhibit: Manufacturer (Fig.10) explains the

manufacturing process with the aid of a short video as well as displaying distinct

components of the objects and final products.

Fig.9 User- Teapots, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 2014

Fig.10 Manufacturer, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 201

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Fig.11 Interactive tools, Collection Lab, Design Museum, London, 2014

The reason why the exhibition offers a large variety of interpretative strategies is

related to the aim of Collection Lab: to find the most suitable way to display the

museum’s permanent collection. Because of the multiplicity of approaches engaged,

this exhibition demonstrates that contemporary design requires interpretation.

Objects do not seem to be the principal feature of the gallery, and effectively, they

are never showed singularly. The ideas are put across through the combination of

objects, text, images and videos, arranged with various methods. Electronic mediums

can be very successful devices to stimulate audience understanding, because they

can break the monotony of the exhibition, enhancing the hearing sense. It is

important to encourage the use of all senses, because it generates a most satisfying

and memorable effect on the visitor and enables communication to take place

through the whole range of human receptors. 20 Posit that, Collection Lab also

includes a Material Lab that consists of a collection of materials that people can look

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!20 Michael Belcher, Exhibitions In Museums, (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1991)

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at and touch. Next to the Material Lab there is a desk with chairs where visitors can

read books or sketch. Each section, in addition, includes magnetic boards and panels

where visitors can answer questions or leave feedback (Fig.11)

Inviting audience to read, write, sketch, touch, listen and converse, Collection Lab

involves audience on a pedagogical level. As stated on the museum Annual Report

(2014), the objectives of the Design Museum are to advance the education of the

public in the study of all forms of design and architecture in the historical, social,

artistic, industrial, and commercial contexts21. The abundance of text, graphic, and

digital mediums – although sometimes interfering with the objects’ significance – is a

strategy that fosters learning. On this theme, Falk, Dierking, and Adams, explain that

societies are evolving into free-choice learning societies;22 becoming more and more

inundated with information, each individual needs to learn qualitatively and

quantitatively better strategies for dealing with information 23 outside the formal

education system.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!21 The Design Museum, Annual Report and Consolidated Accounts, 31 March 2014 p.2 22 John H. Falk, Lynn D. Dierking.and Marianna Adams, “Museums and Free-choice

Learning” in Sharon Macdonald (ed) A Companion To Museum Studies (Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006) p. 324

23 Shenk (1997) cited in John H. Falk, Lynn D. Dierking., and Marianna Adams, “Museums and Free-choice Learning” p. 324

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Conclusion

This essay focused on different methods of exhibiting contemporary design,

analysing two London based institutions: DavidGill Gallery and Collection Lab

exhibition at the Design Museum. The aim was to find an answer to which is the most

suitable means of displaying objects, and, specifically whether design necessitates

interpretation or it can communicate for itself. The examination has revealed that it is

not possible to stipulate a universal manual on how to arrange design objects in a

show, because it is mainly contingent on the exhibition content and the aims the

curator wants to achieve. Nonetheless, this essay has also disclosed what is

occurring in design museums and galleries, revealing that these institutions are

reflections of society, economy and, politics. As discussed in the introduction, in fact,

the white cube method arouse as a product of modernist dynamics. Today, if one

follows this method all-round, risks creating a rather simplistic exhibition experience.

However, the white cube has left a legacy in the contemporary approaches to

exhibiting display. DavidGill Galleries and the Design Museum both share the choice

of maintaining a simple and plain architectural structure. As said, in fact, this type of

setting becomes adaptable when rotating a variety of exhibitions every few months,

as each, individually, requires specific installations and collections’ arrangements.

Another element of the white cube that can still be found is the principle of focussing

on the exhibit with a lack of information on site. As David Gill Gallery analysis has

revealed, this can be successful because interpretative strategies have become more

subtle and intellectual, for instance, using the method of juxtaposition, grouping, and

comparison, which encourage thinking. Furthermore the availability of related

material on the web can allow a free access to information without the necessity of

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text. Text, and other devices used by curators to interpret collections and

communicate with visitors, on the one hand can interfere with the objects; on the

other hand, they can encourage audience understanding. Living in a free choice

learning society, audience requires an active engagement with the collection, not

only on a personal level, but also in the museum community. Hence, many museums

today operate with the aim to educate their visitors, engaging them in open-ended

discussions. As argued in the second case study, the interactive methods used in

Collection Lab (e.g. magnetic boards), the variety of display methods and devices,

and the call for visitors’ opinion, witness a new type of cultural institution.

Contemporary museums instead of educating visually a passive visitor (as the

MoMA did initially) are becoming laboratories. In regards to the latter statement the

words of the curator Iwona Blazwick are extremely appropriate: “To be relevant in the

twenty-first century, the gallery must be at once a permeable web, a black box, a

white cube, a temple, a laboratory, a situation. It must take the form of a creative

partnership, between a curator and the producer, object, or idea of art”24.

On the contrary, David Gill Gallery, subject to the socioeconomic context of private

patronage, promotes a connoisseurship which is both exclusive and market driven25.

A final feature that characterises design museums and galleries - that stems from

Material Culture theories- is the idea that objects are ‘alternative sources’ that can

complement documentary materials in answering the questions posed by economic

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!24 Iwona Blazwick, “Temple/White Cube/Laboratory”, in Paula Marincola (ed) What Makes a

Great Exhibition? ( Philadelphia Institute ) p. 133 25 “Government funding agreements and policy endorsements may promote accessibility and

cultural representation. But the impulses of democracy can also mask political agendas of vote winning and social engineering, Sponsorship and private patronage might be dedicated to the promotion of freedom and experimentation. Yeti t can promote a connoisseurship which is both exclusive and market driven” Iwona Blazwick, “Temple/White Cube/Laboratory”, in Paula Marincola, What Makes A Great Exhibition? p. 132

! 23!

history and social history.” 26 Therefore, contemporary design is collected and

exhibited to answer these questions and tell stories. In order to communicate these

messages the strategy of contextualizing the shows (with the aid of illustrations,

juxtaposition, and more), helps avoiding the “trade fair effect” and gets people

understand all the rich contexts and stories that are behind objects27. The influence

of Material Culture studies, the active behaviour of visitors, the rise of temporary

thematic exhibitions, and the shifting nature of museums into laboratories, explain the

trend of contextualizing objects instead of separating them from the outside-life in

empty white cubes.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!26 Harvey (2009) cited in Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry, The Oxford Handbook Of Material

Culture Studies p.3 27 Paola Antonelli Interview “Design and Architecture” in Paula Marincola (ed) What Makes a

Great Exhibition? pp. 86-93

! 24!

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