The short film series Unidentified Acts of Design is part of an exhibition and research project that seeks out instances of design intelligence in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta outside of the design studio. In a region of unprecedented growth, which has long served as the factory of the world, design acts can take on unconventional forms and occur in unpredictable places. By seeking out new definitions of what constitutes design, new actors and new objects are able to enter into the region’s design history.
The series, produced by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), was a key-component of the Unidentified Acts of Design exhibition, curated by Brendan Cormier and Luisa E. Mengoni and originally presented at the 2015 Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale (UABB) in Shenzhen. The exhibition was also featured in the T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art at the V&A during London Design Festival last September. The project was part of a wider collaboration between the V&A and China Merchants Shekou (CMSK) in the lead-up to the opening of the V&A Gallery at Design Society in 2017 and helped in exploring more thoroughly Shenzhen’s design and production landscape.
The eight stories presented in the exhibition highlight innovative or creative practices within an expanded notion of design, each of them exemplifying key moments in Shenzhen’s urban and manufacturing history. The accompanying eight short films feature interviews and footage introducing the personal experiences and perspectives of key players in this expanded field — inventors, manufacturers, web developers, engineers, and hobbyists — people not typically considered in discourses about design.
Part 1: The Painters / Dafen
Part 2: The Facilitators / Seeed
Part 3: The Engineers / Makeblock
Part 4: The Aviators / DJI
Part 5: The Samplers / Rose Knitting Sample Factory
Part 6: The Platform / WeChat
Part 7: The Pirates and the Makers / Shanzhai
Part 8: The Workers / Urban Villages