from the UCA newsdesk….

Image from the Despite Efficiency: Labour exhibition in the Herbert Read Gallery, UCA Canterbury
Interior Architecture & Design students from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) have developed an ambitious exhibition with multidisciplinary studio Aberrant Architecture that challenges the efficiency of workplaces.
Currently on display in UCA Canterbury’s Herbert Read Gallery, Despite Efficiency: Labour is a participative exhibition thatlooks at the practical consequences and critical value of inefficiency in the context of work. Upon arrival, visitors are invited to sit underneath a 1.5 metre suspended ceiling on a desk chair in an area flooded with artificial light.
“Inefficiency can be understood as an effort without reward; as the negative result of a system designed to be profitable,” explained Emma Braso, UCA’s Cultural Programme Curator. “The project creates a working space where these ideas can be played out in different formats and shapes, independent of their utility.”
Openings in the grid ceiling also allow visits to stand up and enjoy a series of different micro-environments, which are naturally lit. A number of narrative panels, each individually designed by participating students and able to be viewed through binoculars placed by each opening, explore the history of office design.
The gallery is hosting a number of live performances, videos and projects as part of the exhibition, all presented by a group of international artists and related to situations and models of unprofitable, futile or ineffective work.
This project was supported by Recreate and ICR, two initiatives selected under the European Cross-border Cooperation Programme Interreg IV A France (Channel) – England, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

View over the top of the suspended ceiling – natural light

View of office desk with seats below suspended ceiling and video playing

View of visitors on seats underneath the suspended ceiling
For more information about Despite Efficiency: Labour, please visithttp://www.ucreative.ac.uk/galleries/herbert-read.
ICR was selected under the European Cross-border Cooperation Programme INTERREG IVA France (Channel) – England, co-funded by the ERDF