EXHIBITION&installations

The design team also developed an interactive role-playing game for visitors to explore Shichahai in different perspectives by following the instructions on the character card to collect facts and clues in the exhibition to finish a task. We invite participants to leave their new findings and comments on a wall for sharing, which enriches and renews the exhibition constantly and feeds the knowledge accumulation of this place.

A desk is as much an essential space where ideas get translated into realities as it is an intimate and private arena of thought. This exhibition examines our collective relationships with where we work and explores the expanding definition of a workplace in contemporary life.

Dressed up by different people and their works, studio desks are expressions of varying identities and conditions. A revolution in the layout and structure of desks is not only a request for an ideal working condition, but also a reflection on interpersonal relationships. While maintaining transparency for intellectual exchange, it is on the other hand a public space under surveillance further related to socialphobia and peer pressure.

The installation and imagery collected in the exhibition reveal the politics of workspaces in institutional settings and perpetuate a particular image of design education. Separating a Gund desk from its natural environment prompts a sense of estrangement that reveals questions about the workplace.

An ever-pervasive desire for focus andefficiency breeds neutral and unchanging workspaces that eliminates both distractions and our connections to the real world. Wandering across senses of alienation and familarity, a normadic desk in the gallery space is relocated in two alternative settings: both “domestic” and “natural”.

This section also represents real-world interventions around its key issue. Whether through watching the video or physically interacting with the wiered objects or imagined furnitures, we invite you to explore these dual settings of alienation, mediate a working space of your own, and share your reflections on being present.