Digital Museum Explores New Realms in Interactive Designs

The exhibition includes works by established international artists and designers including Daniel Brown and Daniel Rozin as well as by some of the most exciting, younger designers such as Troika and Simon Heijdens.

Curated by Louise Shannon, Deputy Head of Contemporary Programmes, V&A and Shane Walter, the exhibition explores three themes: codes, interactivity and network.

Included in the list of exhibits are digitally growing flowers and a mirror where falling snowflakes make a portrait of the viewer.

The theme code presents pieces that use computer code to create new designs in the same way a sculptor works with materials such as clay or wood. This section looks at how code can be programmed to create constantly fluid and ever-changing objects.

On display is a piece from Daniel Brown's On Growth and Form series where advanced mathematics is used to generate organic depictions of imaginary plants that continuously grow, producing new buds, blossoms and stalks. As soft, organic digital images, these generative flowers will continue to develop and grow over the course of the exhibition.

The second theme, Interactivity, looks at designs that have been directly influenced by the viewer. Visitors will be invited to interact with and contribute to the development of the works, many of which show designers playing with the boundaries of design and performance.

The final theme, Network, focuses on works that comment on and utilize the digital traces left behind by everyday communications, from blogs in social media communities to mobile communications or satellite tracked GPS systems. This section explores how advanced technologies and the internet have enabled new types of social interaction and media for self expression. Designers then reinterpret this information to create works that translate data into striking forms.