Output details

engagingaging

The concept of 'The Exhibition' is embedded in the culture of Art & Design and has a long history as a form of 'gathering' to prompt discourse. This research explores the role of the exhibition as a ‘theatre for conversation’ and its role and format as a research tool as well as a means of dissemination.

This exhibition was one of an iterative series of exhibitions at venues including Taipei Cultural Centre; Building Centre, London, and SIA gallery, Sheffield, and underpins a collaborative project with Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan (British Council PMI CONNECT funded).

The research is based on the principle of engaging users through a programme of workshops, integrated with the exhibition, to elicit a better understanding of user-needs, which in turn inform design activity. The enquiry was predicated on the premise that older people offer a valued resource and asset to families, communities, and society.

A collection of furniture entitled 'Stigmas' was a focal point of the exhibitions, which embodied issues relating to the physical, cognitive, and attitudinal challenges older people face in everyday life. These 'critical artefacts’ do not present solutions but a series of considered questions that illuminate a landscape of old age. The research was presented at the NIHR Health Service Research Network Symposium (2012). The STIGMA chairs won a major prize in the ‘Imagining chairs’ category of the ‘Art on Chairs’ international Design Competition (Paredes Furniture Design Pole & Institute for Design, Media and Culture Research, Portugal). The chairs also featured as an anchor point in the ‘Art on Chairs’ exhibition, Parades, Portugal (2012), and Bilbao, Spain (2013), resulting in collaboration with furniture manufacturer Jose Fernando Loureiro Dos Santos Ltd to produce the chairs. 'Stigmas' were exhibited at InSight2 : engaging the health humanities exhibition, University of Alberta (2013).