Aram store

Curating Let’s Play with Chaos

United Matters was invited to hold an exhibition at the Aram Store for London Design Festival 2022. The luxury interiors retailer houses a gallery space on the top floor of their Covent Garden site that the use to promote innovative or experimental design work. Given the global events of the preceding two years, we wanted to a create a show that dealt with optimism in the face of adversity. The universe is built up of a vast array of unfathomable actions and reactions, but Chaos Theory tells us that underneath this lies deterministic laws that give moments of clarity and order. Let’s Play with Chaos was an exploration of how we can begin to work with the chaos rather then against it, using it as a collaborator as opposed to an agitator to create something new.

The show featured the work of 16 designers across 12 pieces, some of which were selected for the show with the majority being commissioned. The private view was held during London Design Festival and the show stayed open for 6 weeks, within which time it acted as the back drop for a Pardon book launch.

Storm Vessels - Sean T Ross & Brigitte Kock

Chaos theory teaches us that behind a seemingly chaotic world, there are deterministic laws that govern the universe. These patterns are infinitely complex and almost impossible to predict but when viewed with hindsight they reveal a certain beauty. For example, the fractal pattern of an individual snowflake is impossible to predict owing to the overwhelming amount of contributing factors that define its path through the clouds. On examination we can learn how it formed but we could not have predicted it.

Storm Vessels uses this retrospective examination of chaotic systems, in this case three storms that have recently hit the UK, and translates their data into 3D printed vases. The duration of each storm defines the vessel’s height, the wind speed decides its diameter, and the conditions create a jagged texture. We wanted to use an everyday object so that when it deviates from the expected form the effect becomes more pronounced. We were also charmed by the idiom “catching lightning in a bottle” as it described capturing something elusive, fleeting and chaotic. We’ve frozen the narrative of the storms into these vases, creating a physical marker of their passing. The filament used is made from recycled ghost nets, tying the vessel’s origins to the sea. Each piece is unique, crafted by chaos.

Graphic Design for the exhibition

Exhibition catalogues are often snatched up in a hurry before being absently discarded half an hour later. The cost and waste associated with this route seemed at odds with our design collectives ethos so I instead designed a set of banners. Each banner contained an abstracted image of the work, one that we intentionally corrupted through multiple digital processes, the project title and description, along with contact information. They were then large format printed onto a translucent fabric and hung from the ceiling. The end result was a striking yet ethereal piece that could sit next to the work without taking away from it. The text was situated at head height to easily allow visitors to engage. They could then take a photograph in order to capture any contact information.