RAW DESIGN

The biggest story in 21st-century design has undoubtedly been the rise of the digital. Armed with new tools, we are connecting to each other in unprecedented ways. This powerful reshaping of human experience has brought many positive changes, but also a sense of unease. Digital experiences are not necessarily scaled to the human body. They often bring with them a dizzying sense of being unmoored from physicality, lost in a maze of constant mediation.

Raw Design marks an interesting moment in the history of technique. Rather than turning to long-established, complex repertoires like those of wood joinery and glass blowing, designers seem to prefer inventing new techniques, or else act as if their medium were being discovered for the first time.

Karin Forslund, Glass Bowls, 2016, Glass. Photo courtesy of Russel Johnson