An architecture of rewards: a new poetics to exhibition design?

This paper argues that the influence of multimedia on exhibition practices can be felt not only by the presence of multimedia interactives in the exhibition itself but more generally by the presence of similar structural principles. The argument is conducted by borrowing from Stephen Johnson’s (2005) thesis that contemporary forms of popular culture, particularly those found in video games, television and film, are based on an ‘architecture of rewards’. In taking this term across to exhibition practices, I use it to analyse an approach to the interpretation of a heritage site, which attempts neither to reconstruct its former uses nor to insert traditional forms of ‘contextual’ displays. Instead, I argue that the curatorial attempt to find ways in which the site could become the principal object of display resulted in the conscious production of narrative gaps which become the structural armature for the encouragement of game playing in a similar process to that discussed by Johnson in relation to video games.

Spatial design 3.0

Spatial Design 3.0 forms a new dialogue between the artist and design artefacts, lens-based practice and the entanglements of contemporary critical theory. The artist was invited to exhibit at the Peninsula Art Gallery in Plymouth, UK at the Envelop Exhibition as part of the UK Festival of Design 2015. The artwork involves wire, photography, printing, mark making, typography and patterns negotiated and frozen within spatial arrangements. These elements are manipulated as a means to engage the traditional tools and instruments of art and design methodology in contemporary practice. The work was published and internationally distributed in the accompanying catalogue.