California Designing Freedom at Design Museum London

The Design Museum in London, designed by John Pawson, hosts 'California Designing Freedom,' a major exhibition curated by Justin McGuirk and Brendan McGetrick with Kyle Osbrink. Running until October 15, 2017, the show traces sixty years of Californian design from protest culture to Silicon Valley's tech dominance. It features 200 objects across five thematic sections: 'Go where you want,' 'See what you want,' 'Join what you want,' 'Say what you want,' and 'Make you want.' Highlights include Douglas Engelbart's 1968 San Francisco demonstration of windows, hyperlinks, and videoconferencing, as well as Syd Mead's Blade Runner illustration, LSD blotting paper, early video game graphics, and virtual reality simulations. The exhibition argues that California's ethos of personal liberation—from LSD and skateboards to iPhones—has shaped global behavior, with smartphones and social media as quintessential examples. It also critiques the dark side: constant connectivity and non-stop work, as seen in Apple PowerBook and Newton ads. The show spans from Easy Rider's Harley Davidson Captain America (sold for $1.35 million) to Waymo's self-driving Firefly car, linking hippie rebellion to military ideology and microchip innovation.