Learning Talk
Unseen by Design: Representation, Belonging and the Cultural Void
Join designer Simone Brewster in conversation with founder of A Vibe Called Tech, Charlene Prempeh, artist Joy Yamusangie, and architect Thomas Aquilina, exploring how design can tackle historical erasure and open spaces for representation, presence, belonging, and cultural visibility.
A timely conversation on absence, visibility, and the power of design to shape cultural narratives. Framed around the idea of the 'void', the historical and systemic gaps that have left many voices, bodies, and perspectives unseen. The discussion explores how design both reflects and challenges structures of exclusion.
From material choices and scale to personal narrative and community practice, designer Simone Brewster, artist Joy Yamusangie, and architect Thomas Aquilina, chaired by Charlene Prempeh will consider how creative work can transform erasure into presence.
The conversation moves from the intimate scale of the body to the public scale of objects, spaces, and institutions, asking who gets to take up space and how design can foster belonging. Rather than viewing voids only as loss, the panel reimagines them as openings for new forms, values, and ways of making and positioning design as a tool for representation, cultural visibility, and collective change.
This is an unmissable event for designers, architects, makers, creatives, educators, curators and anyone engaging in themes of decolonisation, race, diaspora, and class.
This conversation is part of the programme of PLATFORM, an annual display dedicated to showcasing contemporary design practice. In 2026, the second edition in the series presents the fascinating work of designer Simone Brewster curated by Displays Curator Hadeel Eltayeb.
Speakers
Charlene is the founder of A Vibe Called Tech, a creative agency and art consultancy applying an intersectional lens to design, technology, and culture. A Financial Times HTSI columnist and contributing editor, she previously worked with the BBC, The Guardian, and Frieze. She advises major arts institutions as a trustee, board member, and consultant, and currently curates her first institutional exhibition, 'Nue Black Aesthetic', opening at the Design Museum in November 2026.
Joy is a British Congolese artist living in the UK. Joy’s work exists both within dream and reality, creating fictional characters and worlds that provide insight into the artist's real life often touching on subjects of trans masculinity, intimacy and Blackness. Their work takes the form of drawings, paintings and print work. Previous works have included a public art installation commissioned by Tate and designing the cover of C. L. R. James' Minty Alley.
Simone is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, designer and cultural storyteller working across furniture, sculpture, painting and public art. Trained in architecture at the Bartlett (UCL) and Design Products at the Royal College of Art, her practice explores “intimate architectures” - objects that mediate space, memory and identity. Simone has been widely exhibited and collected internationally, featured by The New York Times, and her work is held in the V&A, Museum of London, Walker Art Gallery and the Smithsonian.
Thomas is an architect and academic dedicated to building communities of radical imagination and collective practice. He is an Associate Professor and co-director of Spatial Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). His current research draws on diasporic spatial experiences in both global and local contexts from downtown Kingston in Jamaica to North Kensington in London.
Book online
Adult: £12
Concession: £11
Members*: £10
Carer: Free
*Please note that this benefit applies only to the cardholding Member’s ticket and not to those of additional guests.
• Pre-booking is required
• Hearing Loop is available
• Assistance dogs are welcome
• If you require BSL interpretation, please book your ticket up to four weeks before the event date and indicate your request in the booking form
Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Visit our terms & conditions page for further information.
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Discover the display
Background image: Negrita bench by Simone Brewster. Photo credit: Kevin C Moore
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