craft x tech spotlights collaborative craftsmanship at V&A museum

craft x tech 2024 edition opens during london design festival

From September 14th until October 13th, 2024, the Victoria & Albert Museum will host the cultural project Craft x Tech as part of the London Design Festival within the Prince Consort Gallery. Promoted by Hideki Yoshimoto, founder of engineering design studio Tangent, and curated by Maria Cristina Didero, the exhibition showcases the transformative power of collaborative craftsmanship and cutting-edge art and design, bringing together six craft districts from Japan’s Tohoku region with creators including Sabine Marcelis, Studio SWINE, Ini Archibong, Yoichi Ochiai, Michael Young and Yoshimoto himself.

image © Ed Reeve | all courtesy Craft x Tech and V&A Museum

V&A museum traces six craft districts from Tohoku in japan

Following its successful Tokyo debut at Kudan House in May and fresh off, winning the Best Curio Presentation Award at Design Miami.Basel in June, the 2024 edition of Craft x Tech at the Victoria & Albert Museum gallery continues founder Hideki Yoshimoto’s vision to bridge the gap between traditional Japanese craft and contemporary technology, all while celebrating cultural exchanges.

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis, who collaborates with Akita artisans, presents Yōkan, a series consisting of two tables and a wall-mounted piece. These objects, all exquisitely lacquered in the traditional Kawatsura Shikki style, explore the interplay of light and materiality. Each piece is crafted with a singular feature that manipulates light on its surface, inviting viewers to explore from every angle. The minimalist design, highlighted by a single twist or inverted slice, draws attention to the exquisite lacquerware.

Yōkan series by Sabine Marcelis

Meanwhile, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves of interdisciplinary design practice Studio SWINE, reinterpret the traditional Sendai-Tansu stately chest, originally crafted for samurais or merchants, with their piece Metropolis I. This new Tansu design combines graphical, flat patterns inspired by Ukiyo-e (Japanese block) prints and the dynamic geometry of 1960s Metabolism architecture. The result is a playful yet systematic ‘functional decoration’ that blends traditional cabinet-making with radical architectural movements.

Designer Ini Archibong collaborates with Aomori artisans to celebrate Tsugaru-Nuri lacquerware through his sound-emitting sculpture, Artifact #VII. Described by Archibong as ‘the world’s oldest sound-emitting organic technology created using ancient alien skills’, this piece represents a unique fusion of cultural heritage and futuristic design, commissioned by a high priest on behalf of the children of the diaspora.

Null-Beni-An / Nouvelle Néant by Yoichi Ochiai

Japanese artist Yoichi Ochiai explores the Oitama-Tsumugi textile tradition from Yamagata with his architectural piece Null-Beni-An / Nouvelle Néant. Yoichi’s piece is a tea room with a Tensegrity structure that balances thread tension using the Oitama Tsumugi silk, an elegant silk fabric realized through the labor-intensive dyeing technique before weaving and plain weaving. At its center, natural wood sourced from the prefecture of Yamagata serves as an element in place of a kake-Jiku (hanging scroll). The tea room is dyed a unique crimson with regions of Safflower, the symbolic flower of Yamagata, and can be folded into a compact size, allowing it to travel.

Metropolis by Studio SWINE

Hong Kong-based designer Michael Young revitalizes ancient ironware techniques of Iwate’s Nambu-Tekki artisans with his modular piece Blossom Links. This collection of tables and wall-mounted pieces is constructed from identical iron modules adorned with cherry blossoms and geometric patterns that are 3D-printed. Young revisits his earlier modularity studies using modern technology and precise calculations, exploring functional structures within mathematical limitations.

Blossom Links by Michael Young

Finally, Hideki Yoshimoto pushes the boundaries of pottery with Aizu Hongo Yaki artisans in the design of his lighting piece, Rain. This floor lamp incorporates the oldest pottery skill of Tohoku, embedded into a monolithic structure. The large ceramic slate fired with a glaze evoking falling rain, is scanned and converted into digital data to precisely cut resin and metal materials, achieving a seamless integration of handmade ceramics, which shrink and wrap during firing, with modern materials. On the occasion of the 2024 London Design Festival edition, the team behind Craft x Tech will announce the roster of six international creators who have been invited to participate in the next edition of the project.

Rain by Hideki Yoshimoto