More than Human touring exhibition

Why has design traditionally only focused on the needs of humans, when we exist alongside billions of animals, plants and other living beings? This groundbreaking exhibition offers a new perspective, one that will be crucial to enabling the planet to thrive.

This will be the first major exhibition on a growing movement of 'more-than-human' design, presenting a new generation of international designers whose practices embrace the idea that human activities can only flourish alongside other species and systems. It is created in collaboration with Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition.

Featuring art, design, architecture and technology, this thought-provoking show will present visitors with radical ideas on how to design with — and better understand — the living world. By bringing together over 140 works spanning contemporary and traditional practices, fine art, product design, architecture and interactive installations, the exhibition will explore how humans can relearn to design with and for the natural world in the face of climate emergency.

The exhibition features more than 50 artists, architects, and designers. Highlights include artworks for octopuses by Japanese artist Shimabuku and a new immersive seaweed installation by artist Julia Lohmann created for the exhibition.

Four recipients of a More than Human fellowship research grant, supported by Future Observatory, have developed new research. The outcomes range from a vast new tapestry that explores the perspectives of pollinators by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, an 8m mural by MOTH (More Than Human Life Project), depicting the growing movement to award legal rights to waterways around the world, to multimedia installations by Paulo Tavares and Feifei Zhou. Tavares has worked with Indigenous communities in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the development of mapping techniques used in the struggle for land recognition, and Zhou has observed the fishing practices of local communities in Timor, Indonesia, revealing the porosity multispecies exchange along coastal zones.

For more information on this touring exhibition, contact the Touring team by completing the enquiries form.

Background image credit: Sculpture for Octopuses: Exploring for Their Favorite Colours – Aquarium in Kobe, 2019, Shimabuku | Courtesy of Shimabuku, Barbara Wien, Berlin, Amanda Wilkinson, London and Air de Paris, Romainville