Followers of the website will be aware of the Bassetti Foundation’s Design Project, and in this post I would like to take a look at an interesting exhibition currently on display at the London Science Museum.

The exhibition is entitled ‘Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everyday Things”, and contains just that, everyday things.

Objects on display include the paper clip, condom, tea bag, clothes-peg, Velcro, the zip, a shipping container and coat hanger. Curator Tim Molloy states that “it is a celebration of everyday things and how creativity, production and science all contribute to our everyday lives”. Each object is presented with a description of the invention and production process, the underlying events and ideas the lead to the invention and tales of how the objects fared in the society they were born into.

There are some interesting stories, the post it was invented when chemists trying to create a very strong glue invented a very weak one by mistake, the tea bag grew from the professional tasting habits of a global industry and was made from packaging materials and the coat hanger from a discarded piece of wire and a singular instance of lack of coat hooks.

The exhibition really does open a window upon design and its ability to change life on a grand-scale, and without touching openly on responsibility the issue is there for all to see.

The exhibition runs until 5th June and entrance is free.

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(photo: “clothes peg and frisbee” by The Rusty Projector from Flickr)