HOSPITAbLe – Prof Paul Chamberlain and Lab4Living open exhibition at Waag Society Amsterdam

HOSPITAbLe
Geographical shift of healthcare
A collection of furniture designed by Paul Chamberlain
Solo exhibition
 19 – 22 May 2017
Location: The historic Anatomical Theatre of Waag Society (Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam)

Professor Paul Chamberlain and Lab4Living open an exhibition of furniture presenting a geographical shift of healthcare on Friday 19 May 2017 at the Waag Society Amsterdam.

The challenge society faces in providing future healthcare suggests radical changes to the way health services are delivered and the way we engage with these changes. There is recognition that this is likely to demand more self-care and the shift of care from hospital to home. The home and hospital bring together very different cultural practices and environments and the inexorable geographical shift in care has potential to impact on our physical and emotional relationship with our home space. The HOSPITAbLe collection reflects upon and imagines an ambiguous future domestic landscape that presents hybrid functionality and a confused visual language and soundscape. A transient world of semi-alien and alien objects that not only challenge trust, but prohibit control and access. New objects defined by emerging technologies that at times attempt to hide and camouflage. The definers and providers of these future objects being ever more concerned with our health and safety, nudging us into behavioural change but fearful of litigation. An interconnected landscape within which, access to health data and information is ubiquitous, incomplete and confusing. Objects that help, support, betray and confront our own mortality.

The historical Theatrum Anatomicum (1691) at the WAAG is a significant venue for the HOSPITAbLe collection. This building’s history – from the gathering of prominent medical scientists establishing the first permanent place for anatomical dissections, to the artists who immortalised these events is a fitting venue to develop and disseminate a new understanding to help shape future health care.

HOSPITAbLe
Waag Society
Theatrum Anatomicum
Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam
Friday 19 May – Sunday 21 May 2017
9AM – 5PM
Admission free

This exhibition is organised by Lab4Living in cooperation with Waag Society. Find out more about the event here.

Professor Paul Chamberlain is a Professor of Design, Co-Director of C3RI at Sheffield Hallam University, Head of the Art & Design Research Centre and Co-Director of Lab4Living.