Level 2 Tri-wall Free display
Fables for our Time
Displayed on Level 2, Fables for our Time is a triptych of stories about environmental urgencies, that uses folktales and a new collection of emoji to examine humanity’s relationship with the natural environment.
Background
Fables for our Time features three panels, each of which tells a particular story about an ecosystem that is vital to a thriving planet: the ecosystems of bees, coral and mushrooms.
Each artwork in the display consists of three layers presented across 176 rotating prisms. The foreground layer is for storytelling, the midground depicts environments in friezes, and the background offers a glimpse of another world. The three moving scenes are presented as contemporary folktales, with narrators in the foreground advocating for the primacy of natural systems in the human story.
From afar, the artworks show a meadow with flowers, mushrooms, or a coral reef. Up close, they reveal hundreds of icons representing ecosystems and human interactions, including elements that change, pollute, or mimic nature.
Each of the panels is made up of hundreds of emoji in a mosaic-like pattern, or a pixellated form of cross-stitch embroidery. The emoji represent both natural systems and human ones, from cells and species to pesticides and waste. There is insect, plant and marine life alongside batteries, cigarette butts and Wi-Fi symbols. All have been designed specially for this commission.
Tri-wall Photographs © 2024 Rob Harris for the Design Museum
The three environmental systems in which the stories are set are based on bee colonies, coral reefs, and mycelium networks.
Bee colonies
Bee colonies are an example of efficient organisation, fair resource allocation, and resilience within complex systems and cooperative ecosystems. The decline of bee populations, known as Colony Collapse Disorder, will lead to broader ecological and societal imbalances.
The sound oscillation patterns, revealed behind the floral frieze, represent bee-hearing. Flowers emit electrowaves bees buzz around them, telling them that they are ready to be pollinated. The low electric hum can only be heard from a short distance, so the bees dance close to flowers, carefully listening to their sweet songs.
Coral reefs
Coral reefs offer lessons about interconnectedness, adaptability, and the importance of preserving biodiversity within complex ecosystems, highlighting the need for sustainable conservation practices to safeguard marine life and the many threatened or already bleached coral reefs.
Coral larvae are attracted to the tingling, bubbly sound of healthy reefs. In fact, this sound can be played in dead reefs to attract larvae to revive them. The bubbly quality of these sounds is translated into patterns revealed behind the coral reef frieze.
Mycelia
Mycelia teach us about decentralised communication networks, nutrient cycling, and symbiotic relationships, offering lessons on efficient resource utilisation and interconnectedness within ecosystems. The "wood wide web" faces threats from activities like mass agriculture and urbanisation, which disrupt its balance and functionality.
Behind the mushroom frieze we can see a pattern representing Mycorrhizal Information Highways: that’s the name given to chemical communication channels between trees, plants and microorganisms.
Commissioned by Future Observatory
Conceived as a piece of visual research and communication, the work has been commissioned by Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition. The triptych has been made possible through funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. The work is a striking addition to the museum’s iconic atrium space, and it sits within the Future Observatory display space and alongside the permanent collection gallery Design Maker User.
Background image and tri-wall designs by Space Popular. Photography by Rob Harris.