THE FUTURE IS HERE: A NEW
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

24/7-29/10

Design Museum is collaborating with the UK’s innovation agency, the
Technology Strategy Board, to deliver a major new exhibition about the sweeping changes in manufacturing that are transforming our world.
New manufacturing techniques will involve the users of products as never before, revolutionising the role of the consumer. How we manufacture, fund, distribute, and buy everything from cars to shoes is progressing fast.

The Future is Here shows what that means for all of us.
The boundaries between designer, maker and consumer are disappearing with a growing movement of ‘hacktivists’, who share and download digital designs online in order to customise them for new uses.
In a highly experimental move the museum will house the first ‘Factory’ of its kind where visitors can discover how 3D printing works and witness live production.
The exhibition looks at what exactly drives innovation and how it can lead to increased productivity and economic growth. A visit will reveal how the new industrial revolution has the potential to affect everyone, radically altering our attitudes to the pace of change driven by new technology.
Mass customisation is a central story: from trainer manufacturers offering
personalised shoes on a global scale, to 3D printed dolls with features that consumers can design and order online. A carbon loom invented by Lexus to weave car parts such as steering wheels and dashboards from strong carbon fibre is represented, and other exhibits include an open-source approach to architecture, the WikiHouse.

Emerging technologies and platforms such as crowd funding, social networking digital looms, online marketplaces, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotech, networked manufacturing, CNC [computer numerical controlled] routing and open-source micro computing, are all removing the barriers of access to manufacturing. It is the role of designers and the design process to participate in exciting new technologies, so that more people than ever before can take part in the production of our physical world.

The Future is Here presents today's emerging technologies that will become the growth sectors of tomorrow.
Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum:
‘200 years ago what happened in Lancashire’s cotton mills and Cornwall’s tin mines changed the world. Now it’s the turn of Silicon Roundabout and
the hacktivists.’

Alex Newson, Curator, Design Museum:
‘Will changes in traditional manufacturing cause a reversal of the traditional
manufacturing powerbases? Small-scale makers and sellers have typically
produced the type of objects that factories don’t. But what if small
companies, or even individuals, began making objects that were previously
only viable, either technologically or economically, through massmanufacture?’

David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes at the Technology
Strategy Board:
‘The role of the Technology Strategy Board is to sponsor exciting and highvalue business-led innovation in the UK and we’re proud of the fact that over 60% of our R&D investment goes to small and medium sized companies, where so much innovation takes place. We’re delighted to support this exhibition as both a wonderful showcase for innovative, disruptive technologies – many of which are already having a profound effect on our lives - and as a snapshot of some of the businesses we’ve supported on their journey to commercial success.’

About the Design Museum
The Design Museum is the world’s leading museum devoted to architecture and industrial design. Founded in 1989 and currently located in Shad Thames, its work encompasses all elements of design, including product design, graphic design, and fashion. For the past 22 years, the museum has hosted exhibitions showcasing some of the most important pioneers of design including Paul Smith, Zaha Hadid, Jonathan Ive, and Dieter Rams.
The Design Museum plans to relocate from its current home at Shad
Thames to the former Commonwealth Institute building, in Kensington,
West London. The project is expected to be completed by 2015. Leading designer John Pawson will convert the interior of the Commonwealth
Institute building to create a new home for the Design Museum giving it three times more space in which to show a wider range of exhibitions, showcase its world class collection and extend its learning programme. For more information please visit: designmuseum.org

About the Technology Strategy Board
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit innovateuk.org.

DESIGN MUSEUM, SHAD THAMES, LONDON SE1 2YD
OPENING: 10.00 -17.45 daily. Last admission: 17.15
Admissions: £11.75 Adults, £10.70 Concessions, £7.50 Students, under
12s Free. PUBLIC INFORMATION: +44 (0)20-79408790,
designmuseum.org