Exclusive interview with Dr Ulrike Oberlack, Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design
Wearable light researcher Dr Ulrike Oberlack discusses the restless future of design as Central Saint Martins celebrates its first London Design Festival exhibition
Kensuke Nakata, 'Japanese Stoicism', courtesy of Kensuke Nakata
With Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design’s first ever exhibition for London Design Festival, Culture Whisper sat down with the Head Curator Dr Ulrike Oberlack of ‘Restless Futures’ to hear just how fresh faced designers are planning on tackling the big issues of tomorrow.
Restless Futures LDF
‘Restless Futures’ stands out from the crowd in this year’s London Design Festival calendar with its unapologetic confrontation of big societal issues such as the exhaustion of earth’s resources. The show itself is organised according to the essential themes: Disruptive Technologies, No More Stuff?, Expanded Boundaries and Democratising Innovation, which came out of the ‘What’s the Point of Art School?’ series of events back in 2013. And of course at the heart is a light bulb of innovation that pulses with new ways to tackle the big questions of the future.
Designing for the future
For Oberlack, ‘design as an aesthetic styling exercise that does little to consider its impact on societal and environmental issues requires re-invigoration’. The creative students of CSM are doing just that, facing head on ‘issues that currently drive debates in societies around the globe’. Of course British design already has a sterling reputation of innovation for the future. ‘What has changed’ Oberlack claims, ‘is that many of the designers representing British design might not be British by birth. This shows the attraction of London and the UK as a global hub of design’.
‘No More Stuff?’
One of the many challenges considered in the exhibition is how to work sustainably in a world of diminishing resources. Oberlack explains that in this section, entitled ‘No More Stuff?’ designers have responded by using a little material to great effect and turned their attention to abundant, yet undervalued materials with fresh eyes. This is so true that the existing CSM’s display systems, furniture and materials have all become part of the exhibition.
Exhibition Highlights
A particular highlight for Dr Oberlack within this vibrant souk of innovation is Kensuke Nata’s incredible ceramic performance ‘Japanese Stoicism’: ‘Kensuke spent extended periods of time during the exhibition in meditative contemplation making ceramic cherry blossom petals that slowly increased the installation over the course of the exhibition’.
And as blossom falls in one corner of the exhibition, in another Elisabeth Rudolph is cutting and scoring food ingredients like smoked salmon skin with a laser to heighten the sense of value in our resources. Proudly Oberlack informs us that Rudolph produced these exhibits freshly for the exhibition and is in talks with Danish Michelin starred restaurants about taking the project forward.
Another moment of brilliance is Sarah da Costa’s ‘Material Pharmacy Project’ in which the designer reinvented ‘the micro-encapsulated dosage of the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen through a specially designed bra’.
Jewellery designers Flora Bhattachary and Ruivin Lin are making waves of their own with the popular idea of prototyping and additive manufacturing: a far cry from the days of traditional jewellery wax carving
Dr Ulrike Oberlack, wearable light
Oberlack herself is a visionary connoisseur of jewellery design and wearable light. ‘I am most inspired by artists and designers whose work expands the boundaries of their disciplines’, Oberlack muses, much like the influential jewellery designer Caroline Broadbent who migrated from studio jewellery to installation work. For those of us who are not au-fait with the idea of wearing light, Oberlack’s research turns the body into a three-dimensional projection surface: ‘I have always been fascinated by the way light shapes our very perception of the world and my practice deals with how our perception and understanding of the body can be influenced by artificial and wearable light sources’. Currently Oberlack is examining the future for organic LEDs and nano-tech applications and how they help us understand the interaction between light and the body. Simple right?
Will these designs stand of test of time? We’ll have to see. But in the meantime make sure you pay a visit to CSM’s inquisitive, creative and fundamentally joyful offering to the London Design Week 2014 calendar.
Restless Futures LDF
‘Restless Futures’ stands out from the crowd in this year’s London Design Festival calendar with its unapologetic confrontation of big societal issues such as the exhaustion of earth’s resources. The show itself is organised according to the essential themes: Disruptive Technologies, No More Stuff?, Expanded Boundaries and Democratising Innovation, which came out of the ‘What’s the Point of Art School?’ series of events back in 2013. And of course at the heart is a light bulb of innovation that pulses with new ways to tackle the big questions of the future.
Designing for the future
For Oberlack, ‘design as an aesthetic styling exercise that does little to consider its impact on societal and environmental issues requires re-invigoration’. The creative students of CSM are doing just that, facing head on ‘issues that currently drive debates in societies around the globe’. Of course British design already has a sterling reputation of innovation for the future. ‘What has changed’ Oberlack claims, ‘is that many of the designers representing British design might not be British by birth. This shows the attraction of London and the UK as a global hub of design’.
‘No More Stuff?’
One of the many challenges considered in the exhibition is how to work sustainably in a world of diminishing resources. Oberlack explains that in this section, entitled ‘No More Stuff?’ designers have responded by using a little material to great effect and turned their attention to abundant, yet undervalued materials with fresh eyes. This is so true that the existing CSM’s display systems, furniture and materials have all become part of the exhibition.
Exhibition Highlights
A particular highlight for Dr Oberlack within this vibrant souk of innovation is Kensuke Nata’s incredible ceramic performance ‘Japanese Stoicism’: ‘Kensuke spent extended periods of time during the exhibition in meditative contemplation making ceramic cherry blossom petals that slowly increased the installation over the course of the exhibition’.
And as blossom falls in one corner of the exhibition, in another Elisabeth Rudolph is cutting and scoring food ingredients like smoked salmon skin with a laser to heighten the sense of value in our resources. Proudly Oberlack informs us that Rudolph produced these exhibits freshly for the exhibition and is in talks with Danish Michelin starred restaurants about taking the project forward.
Another moment of brilliance is Sarah da Costa’s ‘Material Pharmacy Project’ in which the designer reinvented ‘the micro-encapsulated dosage of the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen through a specially designed bra’.
Jewellery designers Flora Bhattachary and Ruivin Lin are making waves of their own with the popular idea of prototyping and additive manufacturing: a far cry from the days of traditional jewellery wax carving
Dr Ulrike Oberlack, wearable light
Oberlack herself is a visionary connoisseur of jewellery design and wearable light. ‘I am most inspired by artists and designers whose work expands the boundaries of their disciplines’, Oberlack muses, much like the influential jewellery designer Caroline Broadbent who migrated from studio jewellery to installation work. For those of us who are not au-fait with the idea of wearing light, Oberlack’s research turns the body into a three-dimensional projection surface: ‘I have always been fascinated by the way light shapes our very perception of the world and my practice deals with how our perception and understanding of the body can be influenced by artificial and wearable light sources’. Currently Oberlack is examining the future for organic LEDs and nano-tech applications and how they help us understand the interaction between light and the body. Simple right?
Will these designs stand of test of time? We’ll have to see. But in the meantime make sure you pay a visit to CSM’s inquisitive, creative and fundamentally joyful offering to the London Design Week 2014 calendar.
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