Through the Design Club Open Call, Design Museum looked for a proposal that tackles the subject of new knowledge through the lens of design. The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra’s proposal Future Objects was selected as the winner out of nearly 40 applications. Through an international search, the call out for new knowledge reached applicants from several different countries. In addition to Finland, applications were received from Italy, the United States and China. The exhibition opens at the Helsinki Design Week on September 9, 2022.
The exhibition Future Objects is based on Sitra’s study on Weak Signals. The foresight specialists have identified and interpreted surprising phenomena and outlined their possible effects in the future. The study was published in January 2022.
– Future objects are a fascinating tool for challenging our assumptions about the future. Sometimes future thinking can seem a bit distant, but with this exhibition, we hope to create experiences about everyday futures. In this cooperation between Sitra and the Design Museum, foresight, and design meet in an ambitious and unique way. That makes me very excited, notes Christopher Rowley, the Foresight Specialist at Sitra.
The Future Objects exhibition is carried out as a process of speculative co-design: in the spring of 2022, Sitra will organize a series of workshops in collaboration with the Design Museum. The idea is to imagine different kinds of worlds, ideate, and co-design objects and things for the future. Anyone interested in future thinking is welcome to attend the online workshop in February. Over the course of the exhibition, the audience is invited to join the discussion and reimagine possible futures.
The exhibition is open at the Design Museum’s Gallery space from 9 September 2022 to 8 January 2023.
Sitra’s Future Objects is offering three open workshops, which will be held online in February 2022. Registration will begin in January 2022. (The workshops are now fully booked, thank you for your interest!).
Photo: The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra
