LONDON.- Somerset House is now exploring the possibilities of design and invention for radical social and environmental change in a new exhibition, Makerversity: Designing for the Real World. Curated by Paul Smyth, Director and Co-Founder of the Somerset House based community of designers, Makerversity, and one half of artistic duo Something & Son, the interactive exhibition featuring a live workshop space, gives a behind-the-scenes into the world of innovative creative design.

Blending disciplines and new technology with traditional methods, the show looks to the future of design and how we can make a better world. The exhibition showcases works of design from initial ideation and prototyping to the making process and real-life application in areas as diverse as pollution reduction, sustainable materials, accessibility, robotics and more. At the heart of the exhibition is Makerversity’s ethos of designing and inventing with a social purpose, aiming to solve problems in the present to create a better way to live in the future. The exhibition takes its name - ‘designing for the real world’ - from the 1971 book of the same name by educator and designer Victor Papanek. This groundbreaking text shows how socially and ecologically responsible design can radically disrupt the status quo and make a real impact on the way we live, ideals that are central to the purpose of Makerversity.

The exhibition also marks the ten-year anniversary of Makerversity, one of Somerset House’s first creative residents and a pioneering community of over 300 creatives working at the intersection of design, engineering and digital practice, developing ground-breaking solutions for the world’s biggest societal challenges, including climate change, health and inequality. Over 30 contributors, including current residents and alumni, take visitors on a journey through the process of bringing creative solutions from the Makerversity lab and workshop in Somerset House to life.

The exhibition opened by showcasing prototypes – either in progress or as examples of early-stage designs gathered in an open-call to the Makerversity community. Early test-concepts of now successful works of design are being presented alongside documentation of the design process, in an ode to the essential role that trial-and-error plays in developing solutions to the challenges facing the world today. Contributors include The Tyre Collective, who use electrostatics and airflow to reduce microplastics created by tyre wear; Samudra, who have created a water monitoring device for seaweed farmers; Enayball, a tool that allows anyone in a wheelchair to independently create large scale drawings, and AMPHIBIO, a 3D printed amphibious garment which functions as a gill designed for a future where humankind lives underwater.

The second part of the exhibition introduces audiences to the workshop environment through the Workshop of the Future – a live project space fitted with state-of-the-art machinery where new innovations were created for the first time in front of visitors. This space shows how workshops and making have adapted to new technologies, subverting traditional ideas about what a workshop should be. Led by Makerversity member Rickie Cheuk and Paul Smyth, with a rotating group of makers joining them throughout the course of the exhibition, the workshop demonstrates the hugely varied making processes that find their home in Makerversity. Cheuk, an artisan whose practice explores peculiar ways of making, particularly through ‘circular design’ (producing objects using waste materials from different industries), collaborates with other Makerversity residents whose expertise span AI, biomaterials, robotics and beyond. After the closing of the exhibition, the experimental works and equipment will become a resource for the whole of Makerversity, continuing the legacy of the show within the community.

The final section of the exhibition shows a series of short films to spotlight projects that began in Makerversity, now scaled up and solving problems in the real world. Films spotlight projects including EL Warcha (Arabic for workshop), a collective founded in 2016 in Tunisia that aims to promote hands-on education and civic actions through the making of temporary urban furniture, art installations and public events with local inhabitants. This space features custom designed furniture by Makerversity members, as well as a reading area where visitors can view materials that inspired the exhibition’s contributors to get involved in making.

Paul Smyth states: “Makerversity has been at the forefront of the maker movement since it opened at Somerset House 10 years ago. Our shared lab spaces and workshops put cutting edge tools and industrial processes into the hands of small businesses and designers without the means to access them as individuals. Part of what is sometimes called the fourth industrial revolution – the new era that builds and extends the impact of digitization in new and unanticipated ways - we have been part of bringing the life changing power of making back into the hands of millions of people, leading to a resurgence in the role of design, inventing and creating the tools for a better world.

When finding a home in 2013 we were thrilled to find Somerset House with a mission to bring the best creative minds back into the centre of London. Makerversity has grown alongside the introduction of artist studios and creative workspaces, that make Somerset House today the home of cultural innovators, transforming this historical building into a powerful force for change - where makers, engineers, designers, artists and creators are joining forces to unleash new waves of creative and innovative practice.”

Somerset House
Makerversity: Designing for the Real World
November 1st, 2023 - February 2024