Earthrise

The new edition of Earthrise looks at our current moment of planetary disorientation and sets out to find ways to overcome it. It does so by examining the threads that bind us all together, through our systems of social organisation. From the way we design bills, ballots, political campaigns or parliamentary spaces, design is intrinsically connected to our systems of government, having shaped and been shaped by them.

Indeed, all aspects of our western democracies are designed in some way – and therefore could be designed differently. How have we, as designers and as citizens, contributed to their creation? And how can they be transformed?

Through visualisations of data, images, objects and installations, the exhibition reveals the ways in which design and our systems of governance are intertwined. It examines how the spaces, artefacts, media and systems around us are representative of the narratives of social organisation we have imagined for ourselves. Finally, the exhibition reflects on the creation of alternatives to our twisted present. How can design, and each of us, play a role in changing these narratives, creating spaces, systems and ways of gathering that truly represent and include all of us?