Who are experts? And who is to make decisions regarding our future cultural heritage? What knowledge and instruments are needed to assess the value of an object? These are questions the museum has taken on in the exhibition New Works in the Collections in collaboration with Design Lab S.
Design Lab S is a collective design studio in Skärholmen, Stockholm. Since 2013 they have engaged with professional designers and children between the ages of 8 and 15 in collaborative creative processes. People over 80 are also welcome. The groups investigate design processes, experiment with materials and manufacturing techniques and explore new aesthetic expression. The children visiting the lab are invited in as equals, with the same agency in the design process as the professional designers.
In June 2017 the museum and Design Lab S initiated a collaboration with children from Sjumilaskolan in Gothenburg and a group of pensioners who make up an expert panel. Their assignment is to assess a number of artefacts from the museum’s design collection using different criteria and perspectives which differs from the traditional.
The panel of expert’s Expert Machine.
Workshop with students from Sjumilaskolan. Photo: Linda Noreen.
Here the roles of who has the expert knowledge are switched and the objects are charged with new perspectives and stories. The group tests new methods and tools for assessing the artefacts and fabricate their own.
Read more on Design Lab S and about the exhibition New Works in the Collection.
Top image, photo: Mikael Lammgård