An expanded subject for design
Massive Change is an exhibition and book by Bruce Mau and the Institute without Boundaries, with Jennifer Leonard contributing edited interviews and co-authorship. Commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the exhibition opened there in 2004 before travelling to other venues.
An exhibition and a book
Its multimedia displays addressed areas including transport, energy, materials, manufacturing and health. Examples included a room constructed from discarded objects such as computer keyboards and VHS tapes. The project examined design as a method for addressing social, economic and political problems.
Questions for a reader
Its breadth makes selection an important subject of study. Choose one example and ask how the exhibition connects it with a larger system, whose work receives attention, and what evidence supports the proposed connection. Compare that encounter with an interview in the book. This provides a way to evaluate the project’s framing without assuming that showing a technology establishes its consequences.