In Media Res: An Exhibition of Critical Design Practice

In Media Res is a new exhibition of product, furniture, spatial, and lighting design. The collection of built work and associated catalogue contribute to the development of a critical discourse on the design of material objects and the ways they circulate in contemporary societies. By reflecting on the relationships between designers, materials, objects, technologies, and users, the project highlights both the transformative agency of material praxis and the role of design in the definition of social realities. This collection of objects—critical, speculative, and reflexive—by a group that includes both emerging and established designers, has been curated by the Industrial Design Research Lab (IDRL). It is part of a broad, longer-term interrogation of contemporary material-based design, its many forms and permutations.