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7 June 2023
In a new interactive exhibition at the London Design Biennale, Lab4Living explores the role of design in re-imagining the 100-year life. The exhibition is part of EUREKA which showcases design-led innovation from the UK’s leading research centres and runs at Somerset House until 25 June 2023.
One in three individuals born in the West today can expect to live to be 100
(ONS)
Through film, photography, and poetry, we have created an immersive experience where visitors can hear the voices of participants in our research. This space allows visitors to reflect on and navigate the transitions that ageing brings, to the meaning of home, our relationship with the natural environment and the essence of what it is to be human.
EUREKA
The EUREKA showcase at the London Design Biennale spotlights the ground-breaking creative thinking taking place inside the UK’s university research departments for our society and the economy. The invitation to take part has provided Lab4Living an opportunity to demonstrate how we are addressing ideas around health and ageing.
Lab4Living’s approach
Central to Lab4Living’s approach are the methodological principles which engage with diverse communities of stakeholders from the outset of a research programme. These focus on the experiences of service-users to inform alternative futures and generate pathways to impact.
We consider explore the inter relationships, challenges and opportunities presented by ageing, climate change, technology, housing, policy, culture, and the economy. Mapping and remapping these domains to understand and establish new insights is a complex and iterative process but core to our research. Through this we identify, shape and test the important questions before we respond with answers and solutions.
But how can we share the complexity of this process effectively?
In developing this exhibition, we try to convey some of the ‘messiness’ of design research. We give the visitor the chance to experience the multitude of voices and some of the uncertainties. In this exhibition we present some of the many, often conflicting, voices engaged in the research.
Projects over the last 17 years have considered the many facets of health, wellbeing and ageing. More recently, with funding through Research England’s E3 programme, they have focussed on the 100-year life the the Future Home.
Rather than us presenting each project in isolation, this exhibition invites visitors to map their own connections within, between and across projects and to engage in their own process of discovery to imagine the 100-year life.
Prof Paul Chamberlain
Developing an exhibition platform
Lab4Living researcher Nick Dulake has been working with documentary content makers Optical Jukebox to develop a platform that allows us to explain research in accessible ways to a wide audience. While exhibitions have always been an important vehicle in Lab4Living to bring people together and create spaces where meaningful conversations can occur, taking a more sustainable approach has also been a motivation.
We are taking our first steps in developing a platform that reduces our reliance on resource-heavy construction and shipping.
Nick Dulake
By using film, imagery and the written word, the exhibition designers have been able to convey a myriad of material from service users, clinicians, researchers and projects in small chunks. The content has been structured in a way to allow for different levels of engagement.
The platform’s intuitive system means that visitors can quickly gain a good impression of the Lab’s work, no matter what amount of time they spend interacting with it. The content has relatable connections to their own stories and experiences of ageing and the home. We’ll continue to develop this platform as we feel it has impact and can really help us share our research.
Nick Dulake, exhibition designer
EUREKA at London Design Biennale
London Design Biennale’s fourth edition, ‘The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations’, takes place this year from 1 to 25 June at Somerset House, London. Over 40 exhibitors from around the world will showcase world-leading design, confronting global challenges and inspiring audiences with thought-provoking installations. Launching this year, EUREKA showcases design-led innovation from the UK’s leading research centres, featuring cross-disciplinary invention and creativity from academics and problem solvers.
- Related news >> Lab4Living invited to 10 Downing Street for London Design Biennale showcase
- SHU Press release 8 June 2023 >> Sheffield Hallam re-imagines the 100-year life at London Design Festival
- Design Week 1 June 2023: London Design Biennale 2023 questions role of pavilions
Acknowledgements
Exhibition design: Nick Dulake, Cathy Soreny, Emma Vickers
Curator: Paul Chamberlain
Exhibition content: Lab4Living, Laura Page – Photographer, and Optical Jukebox
Supported by: Julie Roe
Funders: Research England, Sheffield Hallam University
