Impact case study database

DC: Semiramis is an overtly political work and an immersive, crafted artistic experience that is socially engaged, accessible and generates debate. Its novelty, political sensibility and immersive qualities have generated impact by inspiring curators and benefitting galleries, artists and activists, as well as by inspiring a political and emotional response in the public. Between 2018 and 2020 Shani’s exhibitions and events were attended by over 240,000 visitors.

Effect on audiences

When the project was exhibited at the Glasgow International in 2018, it was singled out as the stand-out commission of the festival and was written about extensively in national newspapers and specialist publications, as well as being covered by the BBC. The various iterations have been reviewed in the Guardian four times, and in Art Monthly, Frieze, Artforum, Tank Magazine, the Independent, The White Review, the Telegraph, Vogue, The White Pube, Wire Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Corridor8, and Apollo Magazine (5.1).The Director of The Tetley noted that she has never worked on a show that was reviewed so extensively (5.2).

Some reviewers acknowledged challenges in responding to the exhibition: a review in the Guardian described DC: Semiramis as: ‘One of the bravest, edgiest works in this year’s GI [Glasgow International], it repels as much as it compels’, while also listing it as one of the top ten art exhibitions of 2018 (5.1a). Responses to Shani’s work from critics, curators, artists and the public are diverse but fall into three groups: responding to spectacle and themes; new ways to understand the world and change the future; and engaging with emotions.

Responding to spectacle and themes

The scale and ambition of the work and the striking aesthetic combination of visual and political themes generate a response in visitors and others who engage with the work. A separate review of Semiramis in the Guardian acknowledged: ‘Writer, director, costume designer, sculptor and all-round visionary, Shani’s chamber of the mind is spectacular’ (5.1b). The combination of visual effects with political content was also noted by The Institute of Things to Come: ‘[…] an evident political agenda but also preserves an aesthetic which has a very strong visual impact’ (5.3). The work’s combination of film, art, academic and historical thinking, and politics led to Shani’s co-curation of a day-long symposium at the Serpentine Gallery, London, for 250 people (5.4). The curator of the Turner Prize 2019 stated that the ‘melding of disparate aesthetic and conceptual worlds makes Shani a profoundly important artistic voice right now’ (5.5), while the Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion, among other reviewers, artists and curators, noted how this epic approach leads us to consider the potential for creating a better world. The work ‘harnesses a fantastical sensibility to think through how we can make our world different and better’ (5.6).

New ways to understand the world and the future

The content and presentation of Shani’s work give audiences the space and context to understand the past anew and to consider alternative futures. The exhibition’s curator at the Serpentine Gallery, said: ‘I think that audiences who have been exposed to Tai’s work will have become considerably more engaged with the history of feminism and the history of women across time as a result of engaging in her work…Her work gives audiences the tools to then interpret that knowledge and therefore gives audiences new ways of thinking and understanding the world’ (5.4). Corridor8 noted: ‘The scale and ambition of Semiramis is impressive in this respect: in a world where women still have to fight for the right to take up space in the world on their own terms, this is a bold and assertive act’ (5.1c). For the curator of the Turner Prize 2019, Shani’s work ‘exemplifies what art can do, to shift or change how one sees the world’ (5.5). And for the Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion, the work inspires action: ‘The exhibition gave me a sense of hope in acts of resistance which I think is particularly important in the context of our current socio-political reality’ (5.6). Artforum similarly considered that ‘Shani’s energetic efforts reflect an impulse to act, and to do so collectively. Progress toward racial and gender equality would have been impossible without spontaneous grassroots activity in small communities, and Shani’s work represents a kind of DIY activism, not just to recover the long and rich history of feminist art and thought but to inject it with new urgency and free it from the fixed institutionalized forms it has taken over time’ (5.1d). According to the curator at the Serpentine Gallery, ‘Her work helps us imagine the future and different possibilities for the future and this is important since how we think about the future influences how we do actually make futures happen’ (5.4).

Engaging audiences’ emotions

The spectacular aesthetic and political content of the work merges with the personal to engender a more intimate response, with audiences recording a powerful emotional reaction. This was noted by curators observing visitors: ‘There is an emotional engagement evident in the way audiences respond to her work which is quite rare in the visual arts in my opinion’ (Turner Prize 2019 curator, 5.5). ‘We had a high number of visitors and many incredible responses, with many people considerably moved’ (Temple Bar Gallery, 5.7). Some individuals found it an overwhelming experience: ‘I was desperate to escape, but couldn’t bring myself to break away. It’s the very strong visual which often draws/seduces you into the work and then the very dense, mesmerising and disorientating dialogue which is very powerful, but can leave audience confused or intrigued, and for others it is a quite transformative experience’ (Turner Prize 2019 curator, 5.5). ‘I was something approaching inconsolable and shell shocked […] There were elements of it that addressed traumas I have been through that I try and leave on the back seat of my mind, but the way that you handled them left me with hope’ (artist correspondence, 5.7). The curator of Tragodía at Temple Bar Gallery acknowledged the unexpectedness of this effect: ‘It perhaps permitted these feelings to come to the surface in a gallery setting where visitors wouldn’t necessarily be expecting to feel that way’ (5.8). A reviewer of the exhibition in This is Tomorrow described being in tears visiting the exhibition (5.1e). Even Vogue noted the emotional response Semiramis elicited: ‘an effervescent, hypnotic and deeply-moving encounter’ (5.1f).

Benefits for curators and galleries

Shani’s work has also brought benefits to organisations and galleries by leading them to work in new ways. These benefits include enhanced reputations, success in grant applications, and collaborations with other galleries, often internationally, as a direct result of the ambition and scale of Shani’s work (5.8). The Tetley benefitted from an enhanced reputation for commissioning successful new work, from high-profile reviews they had not previously received (such as in Artforum), and from success in a Jerwood Art Development fund application. ‘Undoubtedly, working with Tai was a significant factor in our success in obtaining this grant’ (Director of The Tetley, 5.2). Galleries have also benefitted from increased footfall and attracting new and younger audiences. The Turner Prize 2019 curator noted that the multiple routes through which Shani’s work is accessed ‘can have the effect of bringing newer (and sometimes younger) audiences into contemporary art spaces […] who might not have felt welcome in more institutional spaces otherwise’ (5.5). These routes include social media engagement with Shani’s 11,000 followers on Instagram, where her posts regularly get 50–100 comments. The Turner Prize 2019 curator observed: ‘She is constantly having a conversation with the public and her work is conceived via collaboration and conversation which is opened as broadly as possible’ (5.5). Nottingham Contemporary also noted that the exhibition of Shani’s work drew in younger audiences (5.9a). Some curators and galleries built on the ways of working that Shani established by developing similar events. Inspired by the experience of working with Shani, the curator of The Institute of Things to Come, which hosted Semiramis, established a new strand of the leading art fair in Italy (Artissima) called New Entries (5.3), while The Tetley used its Jerwood grant to support artists in the north with solo exhibitions (5.2). The Temple Bar Gallery developed work in their artists’ studio spaces, which built on physical making and experimentation with materials developed by Shani (5.8).

Impact on artists

Shani’s work has been an inspiration to other practitioners, in terms of developing both a bold feminist aesthetic and a multi-dimensional methodology. Her work in Still I Rise ‘was a key moment in developing new understandings of the methodology of feminist art practice. It was a moment of change and Tai’s work was a central and integral part of that’ (Head of Exhibitions, Nottingham Contemporary, 5.9). Practitioners have changed their activity as a direct result of working closely with Shani, for example during the three-day workshops with Shani run by The Institute of Things to Come in Turin: ‘We loved Tai’s way of teaching and how she was able to engage the participants enthusiastically in the workshops and get them to produce work in such a short timeframe. Participants come to our workshops from all over the world […] They go back to their countries and take what they have learnt from our workshops into their future practice so the influence of these workshops is significant and the reach is international’ (5.3). Individual artists reported specific influence on their work: ‘At the time […] I was very turned off by a prevalence of CGI or any practice that relied too heavily on new technologies. Tai's ability to incorporate 3D printing, virtual reality etc. into her work without compromising the overall work has given me the confidence to include technologies I would otherwise wince away from. I accredit this to her understanding of materiality’ (5.10). Some artists found the multidimensional element of the work a prompt to action: ‘Then I found Tai Shani's work, her practice seemed to seek similar things and it gave me the push I needed to keep challenging my own work and how I would think about my next projects’ (5.10). It also affected artists’ work thematically: ‘Tai Shani's use of allegory and connection with ancient ritual and symbolism has had a profound influence on my sculptural practice.’ (5.10); and for another artist whose own realisations were inspired by Shani’s work: ‘Demands for moderation are usually based on gendered notions of minimalist good taste’, as well as by how to ‘integrate object-making practice with live work’ (5.10).

Public acknowledgement of the work’s value

The Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Shani was nominated for her participation in Glasgow International 2018, her solo exhibition DC: Semiramis at The Tetley, Leeds, and participation in Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance at Nottingham Contemporary and the De Le Warr Pavilion. Reflective of the collaborative and cooperative elements of Shani’s work, the nominated artists successfully lobbied to share the prize as ‘a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity’. Over 140,000 people visited the Turner Prize exhibition at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, making it one of the most popular Turner Prize shows held outside London (5.5). Sharing the Turner Prize altered people’s perception of what the prize could be, and ‘has succeeded in making it more relevant to new and younger audiences’ (5.5, 5.1g). Collectors rarely invest in performance art but the Arts Council England acquired the protocol for Shani’s performances: 12 videos of the performances, the script, some of the hand-made costumes, 3D plans for the floor, and some of the hand-made sculptures (5.1h). The work exhibited in Turin was acquired by the founder of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, who owns one of the biggest collections in Europe, which travels around the world for museum exhibitions once or twice a year (5.3).

The impact of Ramanathan’s research has been twofold. It has enabled the preservation of and access to Indic classical texts and Indic scripts by providing typographic frameworks and design guidelines for publication of bilingual books in Indic and Latin scripts by the Murty Classical Library of India. And it developed for Tara Books an approach to typography that empowers marginalised communities of readers as well as expanding readership in inclusive and decolonial ways.

4.1. Impact on preserving and expanding access and readership of content from India and/or in Indic scriptsThe Murty Classical Library of India aims to make available the great literary works of India from the past two millennia, reintroducing them to a new generation of readers. Many classic Indic texts have never reached a global audience, while others are becoming increasingly inaccessible even to Indian readers. HUP used Ramanathan’s research and resulting guidelines in the design of 29 books to date (2015-2020) [5.1] supporting the preservation of content in 10 different languages. The Director of Design and Production at HUP described the collaboration with Ramanathan as essential to the publication of the series: ‘The Murty Classical Library of India is the most challenging project that Harvard University Press has undertaken, and without Dr Ramanathan’s outstanding work I cannot imagine that we could have achieved such success’ [5.2], He noted Ramanathan’s research contribution as ‘addressing everything from the historical design traditions across myriad cultures and formats to addressing the critical need for a unified design approach for the series that could encompass a wide array of variation and many disparate requirements' [5.2].

Ramanathan’s research on the complex challenges underpinning the Murty Classical Library project changed HUP’s approach to book design. In this respect, the Director of Design and Production at HUP stated: ‘One rewarding aspect of the collaboration with Dr Ramanathan came from the certainty that the work we were doing would have an impact in a long timescale, probably after our careers. We were looking at scripts that historically did not belong in a book whilst creating a framework robust enough to address design questions that will come up in the future. The books of the Murty Library are themselves the documentation of the design choices we are making today, trying to answer the questions for designers who will work on the series a hundred years from now’ [5.3].

The research insights also had an impact on translators, requiring them to move beyond seeing the non-Latin scripts as dictated by metal type. ‘This is a battle that we might not win every time but there is now an openness and flexibility to that embedded in the design about the way the original scripts should look’ [5.3].

Making the books available in a form and design that will work well into the future enables the press to meet its fundamental aim of expanding readership of the texts and widening accessibility [5.3]. The detail of how Ramanathan’s design work supports this is elucidated in a review of one of the books, The Epic of Ram: the reviewer noted that the ‘question of layout is probably the first aspect of these books to hit the eye (and then the mind and heart)’ [5.4]. He describes the traditional setting out of the text and compares it with the new layout, as directed by Ramanathan’s guidelines, concluding: ‘This reviewer huffed and puffed for a while at the sight of such a radical change, but was mollified when the reason for it became apparent: the new arrangement allows for an exact match between the layout of the Awadhi on the left-hand page and that of the English translation on the right-hand page, where the translator has, in most cases, artfully maximized this connection in his deployment of the English phrasing. This foot-for-foot equivalence greatly facilitates the dual reading of mūla [original text] and translation, and turns out to be one of the most successful and attractive aspects of the translator’s approach’ [5.4].

The series has prompted positive reactions from critical reviewers, including recognition of the contribution of the research to social impact [5.5], and in the media, acknowledging the ambition and cultural impact of the project: ‘One of the great benefits of this kind of project is that it illuminates lost things, brings back to recognition texts that were once crucial’ [5.6]. The Guardian review stated that: ‘It is worth noting that some of these texts are not only unknown to western readers; very few Indians have read them either. This makes for a significant opportunity for rediscovery; it also points to the millennial silence from which some of these authors emerge’ [5.7].

The series prompted a debate in the public realm on issues of cultural appropriation, voice and identity in Indian culture. The Director of Design and Production at HUP stated that ‘In terms of immediate impacts—apart from how much Harvard University Press learned from it and the straightforward effect it has had in the preservation and accessibility to classical Indian text in Indic scripts—the series opened up, in the public realm, pressing discussions about diverse approaches to designing, translating and publishing classical Indian texts. Our model should be one of many other possible models and we are fortunate to be part of this constructive debate’ [5.3].

4.2. Impact on changing attitudes to typography and to design research, and publishing practicesRamanathan worked with the Indian publisher Tara Books, applying her research in intercultural communication, decoloniality, graphic design and typography, encompassed in I Want to Be. Tara Books has employed Ramanathan’s approach to typography in several titles including Hic, Mother Steals a Bicycle, Tail Tale, Brer Rabbit Retold and Tree Matters [5.10]. The publisher has sold books produced in India to a global audience, as well as featuring in international exhibitions and the press. The company’s founder and publisher confirmed that Ramanathan's contribution was paramount in supporting the publisher to expand readership: ‘Rathna was responsible for using typography and communication design to expand readership, bridging social divides such as class and caste, and that is how her approach was taken up, not as a progression, but as an ongoing conversation. It’s about a commitment to building and expanding a community of readers around the globe, and bringing more people to the conversation whilst also building our own communities and livelihoods’ [5.11].

An article in the Hindu newspaper reviewing Tara Books’ social and cultural achievements described Ramanathan as having ‘revolutionised’ [5.12] Tara’s work. The company’s founder explained that: ’What we have done in focusing on the visual as a language is to bring access into people’s lives who don't speak or read or write the same language, or who don't read and write at all. This has an impact on both sides of the book as a process: the side of the readership, and the side of the story-tellers’ [5.11].

Ramanathan’s research is recognised as having changed attitudes to typography within Tara Books with the result that other practitioners have taken up her framework and applied it, including through Ramanathan’s mentoring [5.11] . The company’s founder concluded that: ‘Rathna's legacy can be seen in terms of the strength she brought to typography as a process, an ongoing conversation in which typography is a voice’ [5.11].

4.1 Changing public understanding of art as protest

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) programmed a major exhibition of Kennard’s work in acknowledgement of his contribution to the nation’s visual culture in relation to conflict. Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist, including the Boardroom installation, ran for 12 months from 2015 to 2016 and was seen by nearly 250,000 people. The exhibition was reviewed over 60 times in creative practitioner journals and blogs, and by every UK broadsheet newspaper. Laura Cumming in the Guardian said: ‘His questions hover in the air, and on the page, with undiminished urgency’; Jonathan Jones in the Guardian described it as, ‘a thrillingly grotesque montage of modern times’ (5.1). IWM estimated the total reach of media coverage at more than 16 million people (5.2).

The exhibition was aimed at a non-specialist, general audience, a large proportion of whom were young people from a different demographic from IWM’s usual visitors (5.3). The presentation of the material was designed to engage a younger audience and to show them the possibilities of using art as a form of protest. For one week, Kennard created a ‘protest camp’ in a huge open gallery at the IWM, where visitors could make campaign posters about issues they cared about, which were then fed back into the display. At times, there were as many as 200 people simultaneously making art in this way (5.3).

After seeing the exhibition, the art director for the poet and recording artist Kae Tempest put Tempest and Kennard in touch. As a result, Kennard was commissioned to create the artwork for Tempest’s book, album and show Let Them Eat Chaos. Tempest said: ‘I feel like everything I was trying to say with Europe is Lost or Tunnel Vision was there in Peter’s images, it felt like our intentions were harmonious…Peter Kennard forces us to take stock, to be present with the greater ills committed in our name. His work is an antidote to forgetting, to convenient numbness and to willful ignorance. Someone is bearing witness which encourages us to do the same’ (5.4). Kennard’s artwork formed the cover of the book album, street posters and animations to accompany live performances, a BBC2 programme, and Tempest’s Mercury Prize show (5.4).

Further presentations of Boardroom in Sheffield, Dublin, Birmingham and Somerset House, London, drew audiences totalling almost 100,000. The singer Jarvis Cocker said of the Sheffield exhibition: ‘This art is uncompromising, brutal and hard-hitting – but also very beautiful. It’s beautiful because it wants to keep us alive. All of us. (Even the lazy ones). It’s a jolt of electricity. A shot in the arm. A kick up the backside. You know what? It’s a wake-up call’ (5.5). Audience feedback from the Dublin exhibition reflected Cocker’s comments: ‘I am now awake!’ and ‘an inspiration and call to art action!’ (5.6).

4.2 Empowering communities with the tools of contemporary art

The collaborative nature Phillipps and Kennard’s installations drew in new participants to consider and discuss the issues and topics covered in the work. The installations included: Demotalk, Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival 2014; Living with War: Artists on War and Conflict, Glasgow Museum of Modern Art 2014; and, Here Comes Everybody, Stills Gallery and St James Shopping Centre, Edinburgh Festival 2015, Travelling Gallery, on tour Scotland, 2016. The installations consisted of exhibitions of Kennard’s work incorporating work created by participants, with each given equal prominence.

In 2015, the exhibition hosted by the Stills Gallery (Edinburgh) attracted 10,524 visitors, a 40 per cent increase in numbers for the gallery for that period, drawing in a much more representative cross section of society (5.7). Phillipps and Kennard took over an empty shop to hold workshops where art was produced and became content for the exhibition. The workshops involved organisations working with people not usually engaged in the arts, which attracted new audiences and enabled them to become active participants in protest art (5.7). The organisations involved included Edinburgh Young Carers, Great Feats (youth not in employment, education or training), those supported by mental health workers, North Edinburgh Arts community organisation, The Rock Trust for homeless young people, Crisis (working with homeless people) and Shakti (supporting BAME women) (5.7). The Director of the Stills Gallery noted: ‘They were very different from our usual audience, much younger, lots of families and community groups…that whole different mix of people being here in the gallery was really special and quite unique to that particular exhibition’ (5.7).

A similar approach at the Red Rua gallery (Dublin) resulted in higher footfall than usual (5.6), as well as intercultural events with refugee and migrants’ groups, and residents in a socially-marginalised housing estate. This group worked on a series of posters and statements visually expressing their concerns, which led to a meeting with the local head of housing. According to the Executive Director of Red Rua, ‘The project helped provide a means for them to communicate their difficulties…being able to do that through visual art is massive’ (5.6). Participants echoed this view: ‘We found it great to be given a voice and given tools to speak because we generally feel forgotten about’ (5.6).

4.3 Changing museum approaches

IWM wanted to use the Kennard exhibition to challenge assumptions about the museum itself as ‘people didn’t expect to see something so anti-war at the museum’ (5.3). The Guardian review noted that IWM had ‘done a brave thing in putting on an exhibition of pacifist art just as we mark another reverent anniversary of the 20th-century wars this museum so vividly documents’ (5.1). Both the Stills Gallery and Rua Red used the Boardroom exhibition as a springboard to increase audience numbers, to draw in groups that normally feel excluded, and to change the nature of visitor engagement. Each gallery has sustained this new approach. As the Director of the Stills Gallery noted: ‘Every year since Peter’s exhibition… we have used that slot to show our most powerful and challenging work. I feel our programming would not have developed in that way unless we had worked with Peter on that exhibition in 2015’ (5.7). The Executive Director of Rua Red gallery stated: ‘The work they did here was to create an open studio space which then informed the exhibition…we continue to use the second gallery as a workshop space, and we have followed that model’ (5.6).

4.4 Supporting campaigning organisations to mobilise protest

In 2018, as part of CND’s 60^th anniversary celebrations, Kennard was featured as one of the ‘60 Faces of CND’ (5.8). In 2018, work to agree a UN Treaty for the Resolution of Nuclear Weapons was supported by the exhibition Peter Kennard and the CND Movement in Sheffield, which featured Boardroom and the Nuclear Clock, and was accompanied by the free newspaper Art Against War (5.5). In this publication, the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) described Kennard’s work as the outstanding example of how visual images ‘challenge ideas and change the discourse on war and peace’ (5.5). It does this by continually evolving to support the changing dimensions of dissent, with a re-issue of his Trident image for a Stop Trident demonstration in 2016 attended by 60,000 protesters. Kennard created a new image for a CND collaboration with Extinction Rebellion (XR) Peace, which was unveiled at a protest on Westminster Bridge in October 2019 (5.9).

Greenpeace commissioned kennardphillipps to create A Song of Oil, Ice and Fire for a video to challenge Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. The video was used in Greenpeace’s social media campaign, with almost 800,000 views and 10,000 shared on Facebook in a single day (5.10), and it has had over 670,000 views on YouTube. An Arctic campaigner for Greenpeace said: ‘Shell could be risking disaster by drilling for oil in Arctic waters in less than six weeks. We made this video to expose that…We need everyone to watch and share this video, to show Shell it won’t get away with destroying the world we love’ (5.10).

4.5 Acquisitions by national galleries

As well as engaging directly with the public, acting as a call to arms on behalf of campaigning organisations, and mobilising the broader general public to take part in protest, Kennard’s work has been recognised by the UK’s national art institutions as central to the representation of dissent, and as ‘defining the visual and cultural response to conflict and crisis’ (5.11). As a result, in the period covered by this case study, four kennardphillipps pieces have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, including Study for a Head (5.11), and work by Kennard from their collection has been included in the Tate’s ‘Walk through British Art’ display.

The research to advance a human-centred agenda for workplace design as a route to achieving better organisational performance has had a far-reaching impact on key stakeholders in the design, construction and management of offices. These include developers, manufacturers, architects and occupiers of office buildings. Examples in these four areas will be discussed:

Developers – example: marketing The Shard

RCA research has influenced developers of office buildings by prompting them to address the dimensions of user experience, behaviour and wellbeing in their projects, rather than just space utilisation. For example, research led by Myerson (see 3.4) to determine the optimum workplace conditions for older knowledge workers provided the basis for imaginative new office layout in The Shard, a 95-storey skyscraper at London Bridge and the tallest building in the UK, by developer Irvine Sellar and designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. The Shard was completed in 2013 prior to an extensive marketing campaign to attract corporate occupiers. Myerson’s zonal model of Concentration, Collaboration and Contemplation (the 3Cs) as three primary areas for knowledge work was translated in 2014 into three large exhibit spaces (termed ‘Winter Gardens’) created on one floor by architects Morey Smith, to demonstrate how the space could be used in a more human-centric way. Myerson worked with The Shard’s marketing and design teams to develop the concept. He spoke at a seminar on the research in June 2014 (5.1) and was interviewed and photographed in situ for The Shard’s in-house publication, The Shard: A Beacon for Modern London. The research was on display in the marketing suite. The Shard subsequently let all 28 office floors of the building to commercial occupiers (a total of 600,000 sq ft) at an average of £65 per sq ft, generating £39m in revenue. The Leasing Director of The Shard explained: ‘When it was first built, The Shard was labelled a white elephant, a folly. Its floorplates were an odd shape and not easy to fit out. We needed people to see it differently, and to shift the discussion from floorplate configuration to experience and behaviour. We used Myerson’s 3Cs research model as the basis to show how The Shard could meet real business needs and to shift perceptions of the building in the market.’ (5.2)

Manufacturers – example: Haworth product

RCA research has influenced manufacturers in the workspace supply chain such as Haworth, Herman Miller, Philips Lighting, Kinnarps and Milliken, by alerting them to a more sensory and experiential approach to office interiors. As a result of the research, they have developed new products, marketing strategies and showrooms. For example, HHCD collaborated with the furniture manufacturer Haworth between 2009 and 2014 to explore how non-office spaces (e.g theatres, libraries, temporary event spaces) could influence workplace design to become more people-centred (3.2). Haworth, based in Michigan, USA, is the world’s third-largest office furniture manufacturer; it markets to 120 countries and recorded sales of US $2.04 billion in 2017. Based on RCA research, Haworth revised its fabrics and finishes on product lines globally to become warmer and more residential. In particular, RCA research informed the 2015 launch of an entirely new furniture range, YourSpace, aimed at ‘individual expression in the office’, which now accounts for 5 per cent of all Haworth sales in Europe (5.3). According to Haworth’s Vice President, Western Europe: ‘Influenced by the RCA, we moved the look and feel of our existing ranges from cold and clinical to warmer colours and materials, and we launched YourSpace. This more domestic-looking approach brought us into line with what customers are demanding.’

Architects and designers – example: Gensler focus on wellbeing

RCA research has informed the design of offices by architects including Arup, Sheppard Robson, Reid Architecture, Studio Tilt, Studio Banana and Fletcher Priest Architects, by creating an evidence base to persuade clients to adopt a more human-centric approach and involve employees in a co-design process (5.4). For example, an HHCD research team partnered with the architecture firm Gensler to recruit an industrial consortium (Shell, RBS, Milliken, Kinnarps and Bupa) to fund joint research into aspects of workplace wellbeing. Gensler has 48 offices in 16 countries, revenues of US $1.2 billion and more than 6,000 employees. The research (3.5) generated a joint RCA/Gensler toolkit to measure workforce wellbeing and propose design interventions to improve it (see 5.5). Gensler subsequently used the wellbeing research to support the launch of a new office in Munich in 2017 to service the German and Swiss markets. The wellbeing toolkit was used to attract large companies such as Roche Group, Bayer, Adidas and Telefonica, which have an interest in improving employee experience. The Munich office generated design fees of €2.5m in its first full year of operation. Gensler’s Head of Consulting, Europe, said: ‘I have no doubt that our collaboration with RCA on wellbeing research played a key role in supporting our new German office. It gave us a valid reason to engage with client companies.’ (5.6).

Occupiers – example: Plantronics redesigns its facility

RCA research has also influenced occupiers of office space, such as Shell, Bupa, RBS, Unicredit and GlaxoSmithkline, encouraging a move away from traditional engineering-led workplace planning. For example, Plantronics is a US audio-electronics company headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, with revenues of US $520m and 3,800 employees worldwide. Between 2012 and 2016, it redeveloped the interior of its Swindon UK headquarters office to improve acoustics, using Myerson’s 3Cs zoning model as the basis for redesign. This approach proved successful, with user satisfaction rising from 63 to 84 on the Leeson Index, a standard post-occupancy measure in the office industry; and the model was subsequently replicated in Plantronics offices in Madrid, Amsterdam, Cologne, Milan and Paris (5.7), between 2016 and 2018. The Managing Director of Plantronics, Europe and Africa, noted that ‘the RCA research was highly actionable’.

A key vehicle for ensuring research impact has been the WORKTECH global conference series on the future of work and workplace, co-founded by Myerson in 2003 and now active in 25 cities around the world. Since 2014, there have been 120 WORKTECH events (5.8) aimed at senior workplace professionals; many have featured RCA research in the field, and Myerson has spoken at WORKTECH Berlin, New York, Toronto, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, San Francisco and others. In September 2016, Myerson established WORKTECH Academy, a spinout business to share research into human-centred workspace design with a global industry network. WORKTECH Academy (5.8) is an online platform and membership club, with more than 40 corporate partners, including many of the companies participating in RCA research. Since launch, the business has generated c. £1.2m in revenues and created five new jobs. Myerson is Director of the Academy, in which capacity he networks with leading players to continue advancing human-based workplace design (5.9–5.10).

The My NatureWatch project used an open access, affordable DIY camera trap kit to engage diverse audiences and organisations with a combination of technology and nature. The provision of the camera together with scalable workshops and training-the-trainer events increased participants’ learning about and participation in the natural world as a result of using technology to engage with their environment. Participants were aged between 6 and 83, from diverse backgrounds, and ranged from technophobes to techno geeks, wildlife activists to novices. Engagement work using these toolkits also influenced partner organisations’ ongoing public participation and learning activities. The My NatureWatch camera toolkit and workshops produced continuing benefits in major national and local organisations by combining the distinctive Open Design approach with public participation in ecology and conservation. Data shows that the instructions have been downloaded nearly 5,000 times since 2017 (5.1) with nearly 2,200 camera kits purchased from the main supplier since June 2018 (5.2).

National museums

The Design Museum in London adopted the My Naturewatch approach to encourage participation ‘outside the four walls’ of the Museum and engage visitors from different demographics (5.3). Activities included a workshops series, a participant-led pop-up exhibition and two expert panel sessions, which shared the experiences and insights from an RCA-designed training programme (5.3). The sessions were run in cooperation with the Holland Park Ecology Centre, and involved a group of over-60s who would not usually engage in technology creation. This has led to a reconsideration of the museum’s strategy for participation, design and ecology: ‘This provided the opportunity for the museum's widening participation strand to deliver activity both on- and off-site, and to think about the opportunities for design-led activities in parks and other areas of ecological interest’ (5.3). The work transformed the Design Museum outreach team’s approach to sustainability: ‘It opened up new ways of thinking within the Learning Department on how the museum can collaborate with HEIs on practice-led design research […] The course also demonstrated that there is a crucial role for museums to play in introducing contemporary design issues and technologies to older audiences’ (5.3). My NatureWatch also worked with the Natural History Museum’s citizen science team, building volunteers’ confidence in technology, and added a new dimension to scientific monitoring of the Wildlife Garden as well as inspiring NHM to plan the install of environmental sensors at their eleven partners across the UK to support learning activities as part of their national learning programme Explore: Urban Nature (5.4). The Victoria & Albert Museum included My NatureWatch in its Digital Design Weekend, which attracted 25,000 visitors, increasing engagement with public audiences (5.5).

Conservation organisations

The RCA team developed a ‘Training the Trainers’ scheme and worked with 16 leading wildlife groups whose staff were trained to use the My NatureWatch toolkit, including: National Wildlife Trusts, National Wetlands Centres, Kew Gardens, Spitalfields City Farm, The Durrell Trust and The Conservation Volunteers UK (TCV). This led to at least 15 workshops (for which there is data) being run independently with participants, expanding the project’s reach substantially. A review meeting held at the Design Museum showed that the My NatureWatch project led to increased deployment of the technology among volunteers, improved understanding of biodiversity, encouraged new technology/nature strategies and spurred greater progress towards achieving conservation aims (5.3).

The Durrell Trust adopted My NatureWatch as part of its ‘Conservation Learning’ strategy, and has become part of the Knepp Estate’s world-leading rewilding project to re-introduce storks to the UK, using the My NatureWatch toolkit to log and tag flighted birds, providing valuable insights into animal activity. The reduced toolkit cost enabled The Durrell Trust to train volunteers (who feed the storks) to use the My NatureWatch equipment, increasing public engagement as well as cataloguing opportunities (5.6). Following the success of this project, The Durrell Trust is planning to use My NatureWatch in schools with up to 1,000 11-16 year old participants who would not normally have engaged in conservation activities. The Trust has submitted a lottery bid for £235,500 (5.6) for a ‘Beauty in Nature project’, which will start in Jersey and roll out to rewilding sites around the world. Other examples of the impact of this research include The Ouse & Adur Trust, an independent charity developing a new waterway, which created a rental scheme to enable local families and schools to use the My NatureWatch toolkit, as a way of increasing participation and local interest in, and obtaining a better picture of, wildlife behaviour in the area (5.7); and The Wildlife Trusts (WT) supporting local volunteers to monitor hedgehogs using My NatureWatch (5.3), with a further planned large-scale project for ‘#30dayswild’ (June 2021, delayed due to Covid). My NatureWatch has also transformed the way the 46 senior staff at The WT (directors and heads of policy) view technology as a way to engage a more diverse audience in a new ‘ground-up’ approach. The WT Head of Policy reported that: ‘Without the My Naturewatch project we would not be thinking like this, and/or encouraging the use of technological approaches within our means.’ This approach underpins the planning for their 2021–2031 Wilder Future strategy, providing a lasting legacy (5.8).

Engaging the general public with technology and nature via the media

On 11 June 2018, BBC SpringWatch dedicated nearly a quarter of their programme to My NatureWatch, with 2 million live viewers. On the programme, Chris Packham said, ‘It’s fantastic, to be honest with you, the fact that we can all be involved with this is brilliant, they do work really well’ (5.9a). Since the SpringWatch broadcast, thousands of My Naturewatch camera photographs have been posted to the online forum and social media sites (5.9b). It is evident from forum and social media comments that these are a tiny fraction of the pictures taken, and it is not unusual for hundreds of pictures to be taken in a single session, most containing animals. The BBC Wild Academy for young people and schools featured the project, and presenter Maddie Moate independently created a YouTube video about making and using the camera trap (5.9c), posting the resulting wildlife pictures on Twitter and Facebook. The technology was also used on GardenWatch (5.9d). BBC SpringWatch’s producer noted that, ‘Since its inception, SpringWatch has tried to innovate in terms of finding ways to interact with its audience and in finding ways for them to interact with wildlife, and the My Naturewatch project allowed us to do both in new and lasting ways’ (5.9d). In addition, it ‘continues to provide content to this day as well as being a benchmark and inspiration for developing new ideas’ (5.9d).

Impact on participants

Engagement activities, using the three key principles of Phillips’ Open Design work, have been held with at least 3,500 participants, run directly by the project team and indirectly by other participating organisations, between April 2018 and March 2020. Evaluations with participants investigated how their knowledge of the natural world and the environment had changed as a result (5.10, 5.11). Richmond University, Kingston University, University of Bristol, EPSRC Young Researchers, Pearl Institute (India), Schumacher College, Lewes Old Grammar School, Westmeads School London and Coder Dojo extra-curricular schools have all used the My Naturewatch approach to engage students with biodiversity through technology. Westmeads School noted the beneficial impact on pupil attendance and punctuality as well as curriculum development (5.12), and a CoderDojo lesson plan for constructing and using the My Naturewatch camera was published in HelloWorld (5.13). The University of Sussex Ecology Department used the My Naturewatch toolkit for their ‘Watch and Learn’ project involving students at 10 primary schools in Brighton and Hove: ‘Passing it onto the schools was pretty cool, seeing the artwork that they’ve generated and the poems that they’ve written was pretty cool. That wouldn’t have been created without the initial spark. First from you guys, obviously, making the camera, and then me taking the idea and forcing it onto the schools’ (5.14).

Amateur participants reported increased awareness of biodiversity or lack thereof in their environments, and reported capturing images of wildlife they didn’t know existed in their gardens or immediate environment. Participants also reported making changes to improve the biodiversity of their garden or immediate environment in order to increase their chances of taking more and better wildlife photographs (5.11). Technological benefits were particularly prevalent in the over-60s, who reported feeling digitally ‘re-skilled’, with reduced fear of technology and greater engagement with outdoor spaces and species: ‘The process has made me feel re-skilled and I am keen to learn more’; ‘I know more about this technology than my grandchildren, which is empowering’ (5.10).

In terms of engagement with biodiversity and conservation, the recorded impacts include: participants developing new understandings of the local environment, changing their landscape architecture and adding ponds to encourage wildlife: ‘I’ve come to some sort of acceptance of the foxes and the squirrels, and I’ve adapted my behaviour to accommodate their lifestyle, to protect my plants, and things like that’; ‘This project has allowed me to look at things in a completely different way in my tiny little garden’ (5.11). The experiences of the hundreds of people who made and used the cameras demonstrates the profound impact of this approach on public participation in design.

The research has resulted in demonstrable impact on clinical practice.

Clinical practice impact

The ‘Safety = Design’ research resulted in two design outputs: the ‘Wee Wheel’, a pocket guide for nurses to assess urine output; and the ‘KidneySafe’ bracelet for patients to self-assess urine output. More than 10,000 ’Wee Wheels’, paid for by Public Health Wales, are now in use across Wales, with further units in use internationally. Frontline staff and patients have noted the benefits, with the Programme Lead for Acute Deterioration at Public Health Wales confirming that: ‘ ‘The Wee Wheels have been extremely popular with participants… [and] have been an important factor in raising awareness of acute kidney injury’ (5.2). The ‘KidneySafe’ bracelets are in use in community health settings, gaining particular traction in care homes. Further clinical research has shown that patient engagement with self-assessment increased after deployment of the bracelets (5.1).

The ‘SlowMo’ digital platform to support the uptake of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for people with paranoid and suspicious thoughts has now completed clinical trials (5.3) involving 362 people from three NHS areas (London, Sussex and Oxford), funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC). The results were positive in terms of clinical outcomes, with excellent indicators of usability (adherence, acceptability, usefulness, enjoyment) (5.4). These results are of particular significance given the widely acknowledged lack of evidence of the quality and efficacy of currently available mental health apps.

Commercial development impact

The research has led to commercial impact. The ‘Flomark’ redesign of the hospital drip has been developed to improve fluid management: one in five patients suffer complications or morbidity due to inappropriate administration (NCEPOD, 1999); 24% of incidents relate to flow rate errors, and 15% involve harm. The clinical benefits of the Flomark are primarily that it reduces error in drip set-up. It has been subject to extensive bench tests, which proved its reliability and its accuracy across different viscosities, and to user testing on a hospital ward, which showed statistically significant improvements in set-up time. Thirteen frontline staff (doctors and nurses at a London teaching hospital) were asked to set a flow rate using the Flomark prototype, without any prior training in the product: they were found to have set an accurate rate 69% faster (25 seconds v 80 seconds) than with standard drips. Flomark not only reduces set-up time, but also increases reliability, maintaining a prescribed rate for twice as long as standard drips (a series of head-to-head infusions over 12 hours). Flomark would thus save the NHS an estimated £20 million per annum in nursing time (based on 50s/rate setting, band 5 nurse = 20p/use, 100 million drips used in UK NHS per annum).

West, as lead researcher, has established a spin-out company (Flowmark Ltd.) to commercialise the Flomark innovation. It has been granted patents in Europe, US, China and Japan, with further territories pending and further patents filed, and secured £55,000 investment from Venrex Investment Management in 2017. The spin-out company has had licensing offers from two multinationals, with a licensing deal now agreed (5.5), and leading figures in the industry have confirmed that the innovation has both commercial merit and demand. A further £350,000 has been pledged from angel investors, and £200,000 from a commercial investor, which will support progress towards obtaining a CE mark, further clinical testing, and final design for manufacture and tooling. The pre-company valuation of Flowmark Ltd. is [text removed for publication] (5.5).

COVID-19 design interventions

The insights into healthcare design and deliver gained through these inclusive design research projects (Section 2) built up a knowledge base and a network of designers and clinicians on which the HHCD team was able to draw to create rapid and highly effective design-led interventions which impacted directly on clinical practice during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For example, noting that innovations in visor design were proliferating early in the pandemic, the HHCD team, working with Great Ormond Street Hospital, coordinated efforts in the design community to produce one single version, which was approved for use.

When University College Hospital had to convert its theatre suites into a Covid-19 recovery complex, the altered layout and function of the space, combined with redeployed staff working in unfamiliar settings, meant that there was an urgent need to establish an agreed layout that would be immediately comprehensible to all users. Engaging over Zoom with clinical staff, the HHCD team led by West designed layout posters detailing where the PPE zones, defibrillator, and other vital equipment was located. An anaesthetist at UCH stated that the maps ‘were really helpful… and helped us visualise the space as a whole and work out where best to place our emergency equipment’ (5.6). These remained in use at UCH during the second wave of the pandemic.

Public Health Wales was required to assemble Covid-19 testing kits for both drive-through locations and the home mailing. A high level of accuracy by the user in the swabbing and packing procedures was essential, and while Public Health Wales had a variety of photographs and internet-sourced images available to use, it had no agreed steps for the user to follow. The HHCD team converted these materials into two user-friendly sets of instructions, which were also translated into Welsh, and were rolled out for us in the testing sites (5.7).

RCA inclusive design research for social equity in the built environment has had a direct impact on public audiences and communities. It has also has fed significantly into UK policymaking in the areas of open data and services, regional health investment and innovation for healthy ageing, leading to social policy changes through new tools, initiatives and investments.

Public benefits with open data Work by HHCD researchers Ramster and Bichard as part of the TACT3 study (New Dynamics of Ageing 2008–11, see 3.1) led to the creation of The Great British Public Toilet Map (TGBPTM). This is a citizen-driven website ( www.toiletmap.org.uk) that uses open data from local councils to provide information about public toilets in the UK, including availability and opening times, thus making the built environment more accessible to people with different medical and social needs. It was conceived in response to information about publicly accessible toilets being incomplete, out of date and fragmented across hundreds of websites.

TGBPTM has given direct benefit to public audiences and there have been more than 500,000 visitors since it was launched in 2014. A well-received pilot in the London area was followed by an expansion of TGBPTM across the UK, which now lists more than 13,500 facilities and includes ‘crowd-sourced’ contributions, i.e., people adding toilets through the website interface. TGBPTM identified government open-data initiatives as an opportunity to transform public toilet information through local councils (5.1). In the policy sphere, the project campaigned for local councils to publish open data, leading to a change in Ordinance Survey policy (5.2) and 90 UK councils publishing toilet data (compared to just one in 2010). TGBPTM has frequently been recognised as a people-centred application for open data to address a social need and identified by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee for the reliable collection of public toilet data from local authorities.

TGBPTM was recognised as a finalist in the 2016 ESRC Outstanding Impact in Society Awards (5.3), and led to a spin-out company, Public Convenience Ltd, set up by researchers Bichard and Ramster, which has run TGPBTM since 2018. Public Convenience has an ongoing sponsorship deal for TGBPTM with Domestos/Unilever, as part of the Use Our Loos campaign to create a national community toilet scheme. Health services and charities now routinely include details about the map when giving information to patients and it is endorsed by the Crohns and Colitis Association (5.4). The company also offers consultancy services and contributed to new toilet provision at the Wellcome Gallery in London, extending the impact of the research on communities in the public realm. Bichard has been a member of two British Standard Institute committees which established new standards (BS6465 and BS8300) for sanitaryware for disabled people in the built environment, bringing her public toilets research to the policy sphere.

Health, tourism and economic benefits

HHCD research at the River Foyle in Northern Ireland had a direct impact on local communities traumatised by the legacy of The Troubles. More than 15,000 people engaged with a series of temporary interactive design installations to improve wellbeing and inclusion. Practical research to develop a suicide prevention strategy for the entire area, involving giant digital ‘reeds’ on the bridge and community ‘bubbles’ along the riverbank, has led directly to a commitment to spend more than £25m on permanent design improvements to the River Foyle (5.5).

In 2018, ‘Our Future Foyle’, led by Bichard, Alwani and Spencer for RCA in partnership with Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, moved from research and feasibility to planning and delivery of three key design interventions on the River Foyle identified and explored by the study. A new non-profit vehicle was established to raise more than £25m of infrastructure investment to achieve significant health, tourism and economic benefits for the City of Derry/Londonderry and the wider region, funded by government and overseen by senior civil servants in Northern Ireland. The project is supported by a cross-departmental board, with representation from all government departments, to oversee its implementation. RCA researchers Alwani and Spencer are part of this delivery mechanism, having moved to Derry/Londonderry, set up a design studio and initiated Urban Scale Interventions ( https://urbanscaleinterventions.com/index.html), and won the tender to deliver the public consultation for the new inclusive design strategy.

The project is cited in the Community Plan for Derry and Strabane (November 2017), with a vision to create a thriving, prosperous and sustainable city and district with equality of opportunity for all; the Foyle Bridge location and work is also outlined as a key action (one of 10 objectives) in the Protect Life 2 strategy document for suicide prevention issued by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, with ‘Our Future Foyle’ initiatives flagged as a solution to technical and cost barriers (5.6). Urban Scale Interventions is now engaged in other government policy-directed public procurement projects such as The Westlink, using inclusive design techniques pioneered on River Foyle.

Investing in innovation for an ageing population

Myerson’s 2017 New Old exhibition (3.4) has had an impact on public audiences, drawing more than 1000,000 visitors worldwide and receiving extensive media coverage (5.7); reviewers noted how innovation and technology could enable older people to work and travel more easily, reducing care costs. The exhibition then toured (5.7) to Poland (2017), Taiwan (2018) and USA (2020). Key messages in the New Old research about the need to address mental wellbeing and identity in older people, and not just physical access, helped to inform the Foresight report Future of an Ageing Population, including a commitment to inclusive design as a ‘policy implication’ (5.8). This briefed policymakers across government on ageing implications; Myerson served on the report’s expert advisory group as academic lead for environment and infrastructure.

The findings of the Foresight report on ageing (2016) catalysed an exchange of letters in autumn 2017 between the Council for Science and Technology and Prime Minister Theresa May (5.9); this exchange led directly to the announcement of a Grand Challenge of Ageing in the Industrial Strategy, with the UK Government committing to create a £300m fund for innovation and technology that will make the UK a global leader in innovation for healthy ageing. The prime minister said: ‘I agree with your conclusions that successful scale innovation will require a range of players to work together.’ The Council for Science and Technology also recommended ‘the establishment of a National Centre of Excellence in Ageing and Design, bringing together academia and industry to embed inclusive, age-friendly design in the development of mainstream technology’ (5.9). Subsequently, in 2019, the RCA was awarded a £4.9m grant by Research England through a competitive process for HHCD to set up the Design Age Institute (5.10), a specialist unit dedicated to working with academic partners and industry to develop new age-friendly products and services for homes, neighbourhoods and workspaces. The new Institute began work in June 2020, further extending the impact of HHCD inclusive design research around social equity in the built environment.

‘bauhaus imaginista’ has had significant and wide-ranging impacts on understanding of international and regional modernisms and of the school’s relevance for contemporary society. Through the project’s international programme of exhibitions, workshops and discursive events, taking place in 11 locations across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, ‘bauhaus imaginista’ was able to change perceptions of the Bauhaus for broad publics internationally. As a result of international collaborations with museums, art institutes, cultural centres and academies of art, design and architecture, the project has also impacted on curatorial practice, perspectives and methods for mediating the Bauhaus legacy. As the Senior Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, wrote: ‘The range and subtlety with which the legacy has been explored and teased out is fascinating: whether in India at Santinikitan in the late 1920s or Morocco in the 1960s, it opens unexpected avenues of enquiry [...] In short, it left me excited for more, and eager to keep thinking about the longevity of this institution so fragile and experimental in its lifetime and yet so enduring in its impact.’ (5.1). Key impacts are described below.

China Design Museum, Hangzhou

The exhibition bauhaus imaginista: Moving Away, 8 April–26 August 2018, formed part of the inauguration of the $25.35 million China Design Museum (CDM) in Hangzhou. This exhibition and symposium focused on design disciplines from the Bauhaus workshops, and how concepts, methods and forms were adapted and transformed in China, India and the Soviet Union. This facilitated a reconceptualising of early 20th-century modernism as a transnational phenomenon, with an emphasis on a China Bauhaus connection. The bauhaus imaginista collaboration impacted on the curatorial work of the CDM and led to subsequent Bauhaus-related exhibitions at the museum, including A Face of Second Modernity: The Braun-Design 1951–1967, 2019, which included the Ulm School of Design (5.2). The Assistant Curator of the CDM states: ‘One of the most important features of the exhibition ( bauhaus imaginista) is not to study the history of the Bauhaus itself, but to focus on the transformation and acceptance of Bauhaus concepts in non-European regions. All of us agree that the decentralised research method will be very valuable to China Design Museum for research and curatorial work in the future. We not only understand the importance of Bauhaus history, but also focus on its localisation process in China’ (5.2). bauhaus imaginista: Moving Away also put Bauhaus designs and prototypes on display in the context of the Chinese Art Academy (where the CDM is located), responding to the museum’s aim to enhance public understanding of the Bauhaus and modernism in Asia, and using Bauhaus design to inform young designers entering the sector. Of the 122,300 people who attended the exhibition during its 12-week run, the Assistant Director of CDM has stated that 60 per cent were classed as ‘young people’, including students training as industrial designers and architects at the Chinese Art Academy (5.3).

Haus der Kulturen de Welt, Berlin

The bauhaus imaginista presentation in Germany in the centenary year was at the Haus der Kulturen de Welt, Germany's national centre for international contemporary arts, in Berlin. Here the research was brought together in a large-scale exhibition featuring exhibits from the locations visited in phase 2, providing a unique opportunity to cross-reference the transcultural legacy of the Bauhaus from Asia, Africa and the Americas. The Director of the London office of the Munich Institute observed that: ‘The exhibition in Berlin at the HKW was where all the chapters came together, like a big world meeting of all imaginations of Bauhaus […] the effect was a very interesting one as the exhibition didn’t teach about Bauhaus but invited the audience to “learn together” about an interactive Bauhaus, about the interactions of cultures. Bauhaus wasn’t the historic epoch of modern design any more, but a dynamic source for intercultural dialogues ’ (5.4). The impact of this exhibition was to transform public understanding of the Bauhaus, which had been tied to German heritage and cultural identity, and broaden it to include an extraordinary network in art, design, architecture and pedagogy. bauhaus imaginista reinterpreted modernism as a political multicultural and international movement, as Pablo Larios, senior editor of Frieze magazine, noted: ‘ bauhaus imaginista tells a different tale, of an intellectual and artistic cosmopolitanism during the interbellum years, in which pedagogy was political and in which the school’s activities in multicultural Weimar resonated with similar reformist educational movements well beyond Germany. This version views the school as a diasporic formation’ (5.5).

In addition to the historic material on display, bauhaus imaginista commissioned seven artists, including the Otolith Group, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Zwi Efrat, Alice Criescher, Kader Attia, Doreen Mende and Luca Frei, to research how the Bauhaus legacy exists in the present. For example, van Oldenborgh’s film invited urbanists and present-day inhabitants of buildings by Bauhaus architect Lotta Stam Beese, in Khrakov and Rotterdam, to reflect on the current use of modernist architecture, including questions of housing policy, migrant communities and structural racism. The ‘political imaginista’ conference at the HKW addressed contemporary far-right populism and xenophobia with reference to the National Socialists’ hostility to the school, as reflected in Iwao Yamawaki’s 1932 collage, Attack on the Bauhaus, which featured in the exhibition. The HKW director agreed that bauhaus imaginista ‘provided the historical frame through which contemporary urgencies could be addressed’ (5.6). The project’s overall impact can also be tracked through its record-breaking attendance: bauhaus imaginista drew some of the largest audience figures ever seen at the HKW – 32,000 visitors, with many reporting that they were first-time visitors (5.7). Further impact was achieved by the production of new audio guides and tours for the partially sighted, in response to the exhibition’s popularity (5.7). HKW reported not just large visitor numbers but also evidence of good engagement via social media, and positive feedback. One typical social media post stated: ‘The current show at @hkw is for me the perfect intersection of art and knowledge production. I spent most of the time reading the books they provided and will come back with more time on my hands and a notebook. Perfect environment to get inspired. #withinexhibitions #bauhaus #design #hkw #hausderkulturenderwelt #berlin’ (5.7).

Nottingham Contemporary, UK

Nottingham Contemporary’s exhibition Still Undead: Popular Culture in Britain Beyond the Bauhaus was the most significant exhibition of the Bauhaus in the UK during the school’s centenary year (5.8). Through a collaboration between bauhaus imaginista and the Nottingham Contemporary curatorial team, this exhibition explored the little-known reception and influence of the Bauhaus in the UK during the 1930s, 60s and 80s. The exhibition changed visitor understanding, with audiences expressing surprise and appreciation for this unique account of an alternative history. The Director of Nottingham Contemporary noted: ‘We were very much aware that, 100 years on, most ways of doing an exhibition about the Bauhaus had been done. We had also seen a number of books and exhibitions that had tried to make the claim that the Bauhaus had a real impact in the UK in the 1930s. It felt to us that using the centenary could become a much more generative and idiosyncratic way of asking questions about cultural education today [...] In the event, it wound up that this was the largest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in the centenary year […] We’ve really had a huge response, from mainstream critics and art historians and art critics ’ (5.8).

The exhibition drew 60,976 visitors during its 16-week run, making it the fifth most attended exhibition in the gallery’s history. Visitor responses and survey feedback demonstrate its success in presenting a new picture of Bauhaus influence: ‘Its aim was to show the legacy of the Bauhaus in education, art and design in the UK from the 1930s to the 1980s and it certainly succeeded. Although the Bauhaus is perhaps best known for its modernist architecture and iconic furniture, who would have guessed its direct influence on 1960s hairstyling or the teaching of music to primary school children, to name just two of many possible examples? Above all it was informative and fun’ (5.9).

This new interpretation of Bauhaus was also noted by Will Gompertz in his review of the exhibition for the BBC: ‘[...] the curators have served up a very different but utterly compelling show [...] It leaves you thinking that is what we need now: a revolutionary approach to art and education. There's no reason it shouldn't start here in the UK. After all, that's where the seeds of the original Bauhaus were sown’ (5.10).

Recognising and Preserving Ile Ife Campus, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

A specific impact of bauhaus imaginista comes in the decision of Obafemi Awolowo University to seek UNESCO World Heritage Site status for its campus buildings designed by Bauhaus architect Arieh Sharon. This follows the bauhaus imaginista symposium ‘Decolonising the Campus’, held in Lagos in November 2018, which focussed on the campus architecture and a film commissioned from Zwi Efrat. As the project developer points out: ‘It was entirely due to the bauhaus imaginista project that the status of the Ile Ife campus was recognised. It is now considered one of the most interesting Bauhaus sites in the world’ (5.11). As a result, the project has received to date a Getty grant of $180,000 (5.12) as well as multiple in-kind donations and commitments from organisations such as the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation towards the UNESCO application.

Further impacts

Through its specific curatorial approach and meaningful collaborations with local partners, bauhaus imaginista was able to galvanise research into regional art histories in multiple sites, including in Turkey, where the presentation of Moving Away at SALT Istanbul inspired the curatorial team to investigate pioneering approaches in Turkish art and design education, presented in the exhibition Pedagogical Adaptations in Turkey (2020). As the Director of SALT explains: ‘This multi-layered research enabled us to look into particular subjects taught, and unique environments formed, at the academy from the 1950s to 1980s. The overall project framework and its methods of questioning the memorised facts of the Bauhaus encouraged this line of research’ (5.13).

This transcultural approach was also noted by the Director of the London office of the Munich Institute, who observed that in São Paulo, the project’s ‘curatorial strategy had a great impact on the audience […] It was a totally new view on the influence of Bauhaus on local design and – what was even more important – the influence of indigenous and original arts and crafts on the Bauhaus’ (5.4).