CABINETS OF CURIOSITIES | STOREFRONT FOR ART & ARCHITECTURE
Storefront for Art and Architecture’s On the Ground is a yearlong research project and exhibition series about New York City’s ground floor. Through a close look at the urban typology of the storefront, this expansive endeavor presents newly commissioned artistic explorations and dialogues about the critical role storefronts play in shaping public life.
WE-DESIGNS’ Design Approach
Cabinet of curiosities celebrates the artistry of wonderment and curiosity of design through the storefront, using both the physical and digital interactivities that engage with the ground floor with the wider public. Penetrating (think digital X-ray) through the traditional “storefront/retail windows display”, our concept takes on a new life of XR allowing visitors to use their mobile devices to engage with both the storefront/ground floor and the collective identities within the shop itself.
Historically, Cabinet of curiosities was a term for a collection of rare, exotic, or unusual objects displayed in a room or a piece of furniture.
Formally, these “cabinets” are a nod to Steven Holl, and take a new life through an interactive (XR) and storytelling physical display. The wireframed displays host both physical and digital objects. For the duration of the exhibition (even when the showroom is closed), visitors can scan their mobile devices and activate the WebAR “portals” to look into the shop. Acting as a digital-twin, voyeurs can both enjoy (purchase) objects from the exhibition in-person or in augmented reality.
Using both the exhibition space and interactive devices, the XR display will be a form of storytelling mediator and also a transformative complement to the “collective of notable objects” within the display. In tandem with the exhibition, is a curated collection of design objects in a plethora of media that will be displayed within the cabinets.
To highlight both emerging and established designers around the world, this exhibition will work with the existing curators and jury members, and solicit displayed works by emerging designers through partnerships with frieze partners and gallerists. This selection will bridge a larger community of work (in and around NYC), and create better momentum on the partnership between the Storefront of Art and Architecture and the ongoing Frieze partnership.
Easily reconfigurable, the modular cabinets within the exhibition will open itself to reconfigurable opportunities for the On the Ground Radio show and ongoing Open Sessions that will take place within the space. The XR engagement will allow users to play with WebAR digital-twin that provides a more in-depth curated storytelling experience for the individual objects, of which voyeurs could “bring home”.
Our broader design practice has focused on collaborations with retail and cultural institutions for many years, including those of the French houses commissioned by Comite Colbert. We have practiced critical analysis and cross-pollination on the future of retail for over a decade. Our first commission in the early-2000s for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, for their storefront windows critically titled, “Dualism in America”, looked into the multiplicities in the consumerist and capitalistic definitions of being an immigrant, and “buying the American dream”. To our recent and more matured series of exhibitions for DesignTO that explored the storefront window of Relative Space which engaged in XR and AR storytelling and WebAR content using digital-twins. Our team and our design lead would like to use this opportunity with Storefront for Art and Architecture x Frieze to articulate a deeper understanding of how low-brow retail engages with high-brow store development, and critical theories that expand the markers of social, political, and economic transformation in retail.
For more information:
Reference of Programming – On the Ground Storefront for Art & Architecture
ClientStorefront for Art & ArchitectureLocationNew York, NYYear2023Status Concept (Longlisted)OrganizerOn the Ground