Interactive Prototyping aims the production of pieces that make use of digital technology for the implementation of concepts, or part of those, in order to illustrate an idea for a product, service, or hybrid.

This exhibition looks into different interactive prototypes made by students at K3, the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University. The pieces here presented were developed by the students themselves, with the help of a team of designers and technologists.

In essence each one of these prototypes are small reflections on how we -as humans- live our lives. When looking to them we may think a bit more about how we understand collectiveness, and how we could interact with others.

These works are visions for the future, but also readopted contemporary devices that let foresee a strong generation of young designers with knowledge in form and function.

The exhibition start wednesday the 14 of June and runs the whole summer until the 31 of August.

Opening hours:

Exhibition fee:

At K3 we understand Interaction Design as the field that studies how to build meaningful, beautiful, and controversial relationships between humans and artefacts. We have chosen those three adjectives as an attempt to express in a single sentence three contemporary visions on what Interaction Design should be.

A functionalistic understanding of design will look into meaningful ways of bridging the gap between us (humans) and artificial objects through the use of interfaces. At the same time, we could concentrate in analyzing the aesthetical values of the object or even the interface itself, thus the beauty in it. Finally, looking into the friction that exists e.g. when introducing a new device in a social context, we will find the controversy.

It is in this conflict that we have focused a lot of K3's work during the last years. Digital artefacts are stretching our social environments and it is our duty as designers to understand how and why. This specific area of design linking human contexts to technological gadgetry is what we call Critical Design.

Interaction Design is such a young discipline, that there is no unified definition of the term or the skills an interaction designer should have. The blurriness of Interaction Design's boundaries makes it a real design discipline like the more established graphic design, or architecture. However, Interaction Design is in a constant state of change, due to its very close relationship to technology. An interaction designer has to be ready to adjust to the circumstances, foresee the technological shifts, and understand the new paradigms that the later will provoke in society.

Critical Design studies this very same playground, looking for possibilities in how to transform our present into sometimes utopian, sometimes undesirable, sometimes needed, visions of the future.

David J. Cuartielles