Exhibitions with cool visions of the future are not so common nowadays. But Design Matters is actually about how we can adapt to things like climate change and digitalization. An example is a max boot - made of mushrooms - which Liz Ciokajlo thinks we can "grow" on Mars.
In the 2015 movie The Martian, Matt Damon is left behind on Mars and has to grow potatoes to survive. But, as usual, reality surpasses poetry; today we can "grow" a chair of mushrooms on Mars. Mushrooms need no sunlight; and waters are made with filtered sweat from the astronauts.
Sounds disgusting; At the international space station ISS, both sweat and urine are recycled; so it's probably just getting used to the idea that everything has to be reused. For example, old orange shells can be made from lampshades and building materials - a fact that the design collective Caracara's work proves.
The facial jewelry of Ewa Nowak has already aroused great interest; including in Hong Kong. The work is called Icognito and makes it impossible for surveillance cameras to recognize the faces of, for example, protesters. Nowak's jewelery is also considerably more dressy than the masks the protesters wear today.
This excellent exhibition shows that design can play a central role in the future as well; but that assumes that the role of designer is changing. The designers simply have to stop running the affairs of the manufacturing industry and instead become a kind of visionary who helps humanity to adapt to the future.