Talk and Exhibition: Unidentified Acts of Design, London Design Festival

Unidentified Acts of Design is an exhibition and research project funded by a Design Trust Feature Grant that seeks out instances of design intelligence in Shenzhen and in the Pearl River Delta, outside of the design studio.

In a region of unprecedented growth, which has long served as the factory of the world, design acts can take unconventional forms and occur in unpredictable places. By seeking out new definitions of what constitutes design, new actors and new objects are able to enter into the region’s design history.

As part of London Design Festival 2016, an exhibition and series of special events were held. This included a talk and panel discussion at London Design Festival. Exhibition curators Brendan Cormier and Luisa Mengoni discussed eight diverse case studies which range from entrepreneurial engineers to the Shanzhai mobile phone industry. The talk was interspersed with short documentary films created as part of this research project chaired by Ole Bouman, Director of Design Society. 

Design Society will include a new museum of design opening in Shenzhen in 2017 that is being developed in collaboration with the V&A.