news
  • ongoing
    exhibition

    MAK Design Lab at the Museum of applied Arts in Vienna. Within the permanent Design exhibition one can find a few of our projects like 'the idea of a tree', 'limited moths' or 'LeveL.

    MAK Design Lab

  • 15.September 2023 - 21. July 2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    exhibition, new project

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

prospects

using human curiosity to communicate important aspects of contemporary design tasks

detail of prospects

The installation prospects uses the human thirst for discovery to communicate various important aspects of contemporary design tasks in a playful way. Only by looking through a hanging circular disk do the roles that design can and should play become clear. In the process the respective animation interacts with the real physical object in front of it, thereby connecting the analogue with the digital world.
The 12 screens show some of design’s new tasks in the 21st century, which were identified in the context of the research project StadtFabrik [CityFactory] in a workshop with the participation of selected designers from various disciplines in May 2018.

Following twelve Design roles can be explored when examining prospects:
Design uses a holistic perspective / Design translates between disciplines / Design uses imagination to think laterally (and speculate) / Design is inclusive and invites us to co-design /Design can change our habits / Design creates solutions for the Post-Growth Society / Design reveals complex connections / Design produces sustainable functionality / Design connects humans and society / Design is a critical and creative self-empowering tool / Design preserves and repairs our environment / Design encourages social and democratic processes

 

main image above: MAK DESIGNLAB, reinstallation in the context of the vienna biennale for change 2019, mischertraxler + LWZ, Prospects 2019, image credit: Stefan Lux MAK

the screens appear to be blank, only by looking through the hanging disks, the colourful animations are revealed

visitors discover the animations on the screens

detail of one screen showing - Design connects humans and technology

without many words, each animation illustrates a “new role design can play” by having the graphics interact with small objects attached to the screen

working on prospects

  • material

    various LED screens, acrylic glass, polarization foil, pastic foil,

  • dimensions

    whole installation
    approx. 5,5 x 2 m

  • graphics & animations

  • team

    Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Elisa Polner, Monja Hirscher, Stephan Jäger

  • other

    prospects is a permanent installation at MAK DesignLAB at MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna