It’s a crisp, blue skied, wintery day and I’m walking past the Natural History Museum on my way to the Design Real exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park. The winter wonderland ice rink outside the museum looks about as christmasy as a big frozen puddle at a construction site. It’s fairly busy with tourists, but I don’t mind them at all, they’re a part of what makes London so special.
Down in Hyde Park, it’s a hive of activity with people playing roller blade hockey like Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World, and what looks like a full American Football game on the go. When I finally make it down to the Serpentine Gallery, taken aback by how small the building looks from the outside, I’m instantly hit by its good intentions. Free admission, devotion to art and a cool layout jump out at you as you walk in.
The exhibition is curated by Konstantin Grcic in collaboration with Alex Rich & Jurg Lehni and ushers in The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Programme’s 10 year anniversary in 2010. The Design Real exhibition, which ran up until the 7th February 2010, is a display of some of the most beautifully designed and useful products they could lay their ergonomic little mitts on; including body armour (pictured), a straw that purifies water as you drink and an electronic trumpet.
One of the coolest sections is the sand bag encrusted central chamber that has white, slimline electronic hand held doo dars that you can use to research all of the products (a design beauty in themselves). I spend most of the rest of my short stay reading about the robot on display and about some of the robotic developments that are being made and the debate they are causing. For example, some robots can now locate their own power source to recharge themselves (I find this a bit frightening). I also read about Marshall Brain’s theory (which I have long held myself) that robots will take over more and more tasks leading to increasing unemployment. Frankly, the only way out is mecha-socialism (I’ll write my thesis on my theory one day) where robotics and mechanical production feed, cloth and produce for society, while we all aim for the development of societal excellence.
Anyway, when my mind wonders back to the Serpentine Gallery, I realise that I’d pretty much done everything, and after getting told that photo’s weren’t aloud I hightail it out of the place after a quick look around the shop (luckily I circled round the building and took the pic above through the window like some kind of art pervert voyeur slag).
The Design Real exhibition is well worth a visit, as it’s free (not including the voluntary quid donation), but it’ll probably be a short visit, what with it being so small. However, it’ll give you a chance to have a walk beside the serpentine. My trip included hearing a father telling his befuddled son that “today is not a good day for football is it?” (huh!). However, the dinosaur like sounds of construction surrounding the park and the crappy fair by Hyde Park corner were a bit of a downer.
The Design Real exhibition review: 3.2/5
