ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations held at the Queen Victoria and Albert Museum from December 2009 to April 2010. It describes some of the early curatorial strategies of the Contemporary Programmes unit and relates Decode to the broader context of the Museum's collections. The founding principle of the Museum was to make works of art available to all, to educate and inspire contemporary British designers, and to boost British manufacturing both at home and abroad. Working with the Science Museum, which allowed the use of part of its building to project from, we were able to "plant" digital seeds that transformed in to Simon Heijdens' Lightweeds at the base of the hoarding. The most fruitful institutional collaborations came from marketing, education, and the collections. During the run of the exhibition, we trialed and piloted numerous digital art and design workshops and formal courses.
