As a Christmas treat I took my 7 year old son Zac to visit the Decode exhibition at the V & A in London. The V & A is one of my favourite museums and all the exhibitions I’ve seen there have always been really well executed. Kids go free and as a student the entrance fee was only £4 plus we received a beautifully designed exhibition brochure so I was pretty happy before we had even entered the exhibition space.

Decode, a collaboration between the V&A and onedotzero is showcasing the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from screen-based graphics to large-scale interactive installations. Work from familiar names in the digital field are there including Joshua Davis, John Maeda, Flight 404 and Golan Levin among many others. As Zac and I entered the darkened room and walked through a field of interactive lights that reacted to our footsteps there was much ooing and ahhing. As I stopped to admire the power and beauty of processing by artists such as Joshua Davis and CEB Reas, Zac was in his element…being able to touch things at an exhibition was obviously a huge novelty! From the touch screen ‘House of Cards’ by James Frost, to ‘Solar’ from Flight 404 which reacts to and visualises sound (not surprisingly this was particularly popular with the kids as they tried to outdo each other on the volume).

We made our way around completely engaged with the exhibits which were not only awe inspiring but beautiful too. My personal favourite is ‘Dandelion’ by Yoke which responds  both visually and audibly to a hairdryer with an infrared beam installed, that you point at the screen to blow the petals away – delicate, smooth, gorgeous! In addition, ‘Oasis’ by Yunwoo Bang and Yunsil Heo inspired a playful element to the exhibition and was far more interesting than having a real fish tank (you’ll know what I mean when you visit the exhibition). In fact this exhibition was just that: ‘playful’ and as an MA Digital Media Arts student it was also ‘inspiring’ As a result Zac is now becoming quite knowledgeable in the art of Processing as I have returned home and plunged in my Processing books

Perhaps my only, very small criticisms would be the exhibition could have been sightly larger. More importantly however some of the exhibits weren’t always working which was disappointing especially when you are paying to enter the exhibition. However I would highly recommend this exhibition to not only Digital Art enthusiasts but also to parents who want to introduce their children to the wonders of computer art and its possibilities. Watching my son other people of all ages at the Decode exhibition only cemented further my opinion that the digital environment and interactivity has a huge potential to encourage learning, experimentation, playfulness and the ability to enrich our overall daily experience.

Zac and I decided to continue our interactive adventure at the Science Museum, just around the corner from the V & A, in the ‘Launchpad‘ section, a permanent and free exhibition giving children the chance to explore concepts of science and technology with hands-on exhibits.  We took advantage of the free demonstrations, including a bubble show and launching a water propelled rocket. During our day at the Science Museum and the V & A, we both found things that inspired us, we both learnt a lot and most importantly we had a huge amount of fun too!

A message to the curators of all future exhibitions: engage your audience with digital technology and interactive exhibits so we can inspire and educate young minds and finally say ‘Do Touch!’