Designing modernity

Fear and Love examines the nature of design and humanity’s relationship with technology. Mass production often obscures the role of the designer and the exhibition highlights the importance of design in modern society, both commercially and in relation to primal instincts such as love and fear.

Designer Madeline Gannon’s robotic arm Mimus addresses concerns around the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in a world in which robotics are becoming increasingly sophisticated and sentient. The 1,200kg machine reacts aggressively to movements in the galley space, but softens its behaviour as it grows accustomed to the visitor’s presence.

‘When the Design Museum first opened in 1989, the first exhibition, Commerce and Culture, was about the value of industrial products,’ McGuirk told Dezeen. ‘We now take that value for granted. Fear and Love goes further and proposes that design is implicated in wider issues that reflect the state of the world.’