What happens next

Further Instructions, a critical design show by Revital Cohen and Tuur van Balen, explored the complexity of multiple urban narratives.

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The days of design equals artefact are long gone. The new design thinking and approach is concerned with interactions and emerging technologies.

Revital Cohen and Tuur van Balen are two designers at the forefront of this particular form of design interaction. Their recent exhibition, Further Instructions, which was “situated on the experimental edge of the London Design Festival”, was a critical examination of design interventions in the urban environment. The exhibition presented detailed blueprints for speculative interactions with emerging technologies.

The duo’s show featured two new projects. Cohen’s “Genetic Heirloom” explored the use of tumour targeting nano-gold particles as hypothetical family heirlooms.

"Pigeon D’Or" was Van Balen’s attempt at using feral pigeons and synthetic biology for aesthetic interventions in urban metabolisms.

Cohen and Van Balen’s work considered the manipulation of materials and social structures, by including the design of bacteria, rituals, behaviours, ethics and values. They describe the objective of their work: “The projects propose fragments of a future which, although, fictional, are not far-fetched. A logical extension of your present – only slightly further.”

The days of design equals artefact are long gone. The new design thinking and approach is concerned with interactions and emerging technologies.

Revital Cohen and Tuur van Balen are two designers at the forefront of this particular form of design interaction. Their recent exhibition, Further Instructions, which was “situated on the experimental edge of the London Design Festival”, was a critical examination of design interventions in the urban environment. The exhibition presented detailed blueprints for speculative interactions with emerging technologies.

The duo’s show featured two new projects. Cohen’s “Genetic Heirloom” explored the use of tumour targeting nano-gold particles as hypothetical family heirlooms.

"Pigeon D’Or" was Van Balen’s attempt at using feral pigeons and synthetic biology for aesthetic interventions in urban metabolisms.

Cohen and Van Balen’s work considered the manipulation of materials and social structures, by including the design of bacteria, rituals, behaviours, ethics and values. They describe the objective of their work: “The projects propose fragments of a future which, although, fictional, are not far-fetched. A logical extension of your present – only slightly further.”

Watch the Talk with Revital Cohen

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