V&A Museum of Design Dundee are to tour Scotland in 2015 with ‘Design in Motion’ -an exhibition spanning Scotland’s design history and showcasing modern-day innovation in design. Based in the Travelling Gallery, a custom-built exhibition space housed inside a bus the museum visit over 70 locations across Scotland.
Departing in Dundee on February 13th the gallery will make stops at secondary schools and art colleges, museums, community centres and libraries across Scotland during it’s 17 week tour. Taking in rural locations such as Harris, Campbeltown, Elgin and Galashiels alongside Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. A final stop is planned at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in June.
Design in Motion will take exhibits, designers and the V&A Dundee team across the country, connecting communities with Scotland’s design heritage and raising awareness of the talent in Scotland’s present-day design industries. The exhibits will showcase seven leading designers currently working with digital technology to push the boundaries of their discipline within games, product, jewellery, fashion, textiles and built heritage.
In keeping with the theme of pushing the boundaries with digital technology the tour was curated in an equally innovative fashion with an expert advisory group contributing their suggestions for content online through a series of dedicated Pinterest boards.
Designers featured in the Design in Motion tour include Geoffrey Mann, Sophia George, Anarkik3D, Sara Robertson and Sarah Taylor, Lynne MacLachlan, the Digital Design Studio and leading fashion designer Holly Fulton.
“The designers in this exhibition have used digital technologies as a means of reconstructing our heritage, visualising the unseen, and creating new forms.” said Sarah Saunders, Head of Learning & Engagement for V&A Dundee. “To them, digital is a tool that enables them to experiment, play and create. There are also some shining examples of how today’s designers are using the innovations of the past to inspire the designs of the future.”
Sara Robertson, lecturer in Craft Innovation and Smart Materials at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and designer-maker and researcher in smart textiles Sarah Taylor are two such designers embedding new technologies within their traditional craft and design background. Using materials such as fiber-optics, liquid crystal and themochromic inks they are exploring how textiles can transform and respond to their wearer or environment.
V&A Dundee is working with Dundee-based developers eeGeo to develop an innovative new mobile app to be launched alongside the exhibition. Users can virtually track the tour and share their own stories about design in Scotland by pinning their favourite Scottish designers, objects and stories to the map.
“We look forward to seeing what our audiences pin to the map and are excited to think of the potential of this information in enabling audiences to inform our future programme” said Saunders.
You can visit the Design in Motion Exhibition when it visits the following locations next year:
Dundee | 13 – 27 February
Edinburgh | 2 – 13 March
Scottish Borders / Midlothian | 16 – 20 March
Falkirk / Stirling | 23 – 28 March
Fife / Perth | 30 March – 3 April
Angus / Aberdeen / Elgin | 6 – 10 April
Highlands | 20 – 24 April
Lewis / Harris / Skye | 27 April – 1 May
Fort William / Oban | 5 – 9 May
West Dunbartonshire | 11 – 15 May
Glasgow | 18 – 22 May
Paisley / Renfrewshire | 25 – 29 May
North and East Ayrshire | 1 – 5 June
Dumfries & Galloway | 8-12 June
London | 20-21 June
More information at: www.vandadundee.org