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Disobedient Objects

Disobedient Objects is an exhibition about the art and design produced by grassroots social movements. It will show exhibits loaned from activist groups from all over the world, bringing together for the first time many objects rarely before seen in a museum. Here we chart the process of mounting the exhibition with contributions from curators, conservators, technicians and some of the people who are lending their objects. We’ll be telling the in-depth stories behind some of the exhibits and exploring the issues and challenges raised by the exhibition with guest bloggers. We’ll also be introducing a few new disobedient objects beyond the exhibition itself.

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Inflatable cobblestone, action of Eclectic Electric Collective in cooperation with Enmedio collective during the General Strike in Barcelona 2012. © Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info
Featured

Inflatables for protest: An interview with Artúr van Balen/ Tools for Action

Artúr van Balen has produced inflatables for protest as a member of former  group Eclectic Electric Collective and, now,  Tools for Action.  One such inflatable, a cobblestone...
null Steffi Duarte
Artists in Residence at the V&A

Community Engagement is a Paper Rainbow

null Rachel Feldman
Artists in Residence at the V&A

Things Unsaid and Unheard with Aqui Thami, VARI Artist in Residence

null Rachel Feldman
Design and society

Plane Stupid Compound Lock-On

null Catherine Flood
Design and society

‘The louder my voice the deeper the bury me’ (Herman Wallace)

null Catherine Flood
Design and society

The Guerrilla Girls: Fierce and Funny Feminists

null Catherine Flood
Design and society

Ferguson & The Design Dimension: Exploring Makeshift Tear-Gas Masks on BBC Radio 4

How to Guide: Makeshift Tear-Gas Mask. Illustrated by Marwan Kaabour, at Barnbrook
null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Tiki Love Truck celebrates Day of the Dead

The material used to decorate the truck laid out on the gallery floor.
null Sarah Jameson
Design and society

Umbrella Movement

New movements have grown in the time that Disobedient Objects has been open and new objects have been made. A key example is the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong where Occupy...

null Catherine Flood
Design and society

Art and Activism in the age of the Anthropocene

null Gavin Grindon
Design and society

‘Designing for the Common Goals of People’: An Interview with Common Practice

Inflatable General Assembly DIY Manual - Back Page. Created by Common Practice.
null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Made Possible by Squatting: Myth, memory, mimesis

Made Possible by Squatting on Dock St, 2013
null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Mounting Disobedient Objects

null Victoria Jessop
Design and society

Disobedient Objects How-To Guides

How to Guide: Book Bloc Shield. llustration by Marwan Kaabour at Barnbrook
null Steffi Duarte
Become the Bike Bloc poster, issued during the COP 15 Climate Summit.
Design and society

The Bike Bloc Sound Swarm

null Gavin Grindon
Design and society

Installing the Tiki Love Truck

null Victoria Jessop
Design and society

#DisobedientObjects

This exhibition is far from the final word on out-designing authority, and there are so many objects we wish we could have included from struggles past and present. There are...

null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Making Lock-ons with Greenpeace

null Victoria Jessop
Design and society

Spread the Red: solidarity in Quebec

Photograph by Jérémie Dubé-Lavigne. ©Jérémie Dubé-Lavigne
null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Inflatables for protest: An interview with Artúr van Balen/ Tools for Action

Inflatable cobblestone, action of Eclectic Electric Collective in cooperation with Enmedio collective during the General Strike in Barcelona 2012. © Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info
null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Museums and Protest

Goddess of democracy, Beijing, China, 1989
null Catherine Flood
Design and society

Placards and Pride in Russia

null Catherine Flood
Design and society

Defend The Right To Strike: The Grunwick Strike & Banner

null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Unpacking Disobedient Objects

null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

Signs of Respect: Karnataka State Farmers’ Association

null Steffi Duarte
Design and society

It’s a marathon not a sprint!: A very brief overview of exhibition delivery from a conservation point of view

null Clair Battisson
Design and society

Objecting to apartheid: building a non-stop protest in 1980s’ London

null Gavin Brown
Design and society

Banners and the 2011 Madrid Protest Camp: Reading the Signs of Revolt

null Julia Ramirez Blanco
Design and society

What are Disobedient Objects?

null Catherine Flood and Gavin Grindon
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