Decode

 

Photo credit: 

Solar by flight404, 2009, Videogrid by Ross Phillips, Design Museum, 2008, We Feel Fine (wefeelfine.org) by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, 2005 – onwards

Yesterday was a totally grey, miserable & wet day. Nevertheless, I had woken up at 10am unable to go back to sleep again. Even worse, I was feeling awake, not quite as lurgyfied anymore & energetic.

I had found a 2-for-1 voucher for DECODE at the V&A on the Time Out website a few days back. The idea of digital art sounded very appealing, the thought of things being interactive even more (I like being able to push buttons & make art do stuff). Also, I'd never been to the V&A before for reasons totally unknown and had got it in my head that I wanted to go there on Saturday. Flatmate had foolishly agreed to accompagny me (when I told her, not on the day), so by 1pm I was bouncing up & down outside her room wanting to go. There was a brief discussion wherein weather was mentionned a few times, also it being miserable & wet, and rooms that are warm & cosy. I was relentless, I wanted to go & anyway, to get to the V&A from our place is doable with only minimal exposure to the outside world. Shortly before 2pm we were ready to go.

The museum was bustling with people when we got in (apparently more people had thought spending a rainy day in a museum was a grand idea), the queue for tickets was massive, mainly due to an exhibition called Maharaja which must be quite amazing as it was sold out for the day & people were buying tickets for future dates. We, however, just wanted our bloody 2-for-1 £5 Decode tickets... finally had them in our hands, entry was in 15 minutes, so we had a quick look around & then popped over to the entrance.

The way in (& out) is lined with interactive light sticks, that make noise & light up when you walk past. I think I could've spent half an hour just running around between them, but there was more to see, touch & jump around in front of. Unfortunately a few exhibits were broken, including a tree that sheds it's leaves & you can catch them, I guess that's what you get for having art on a computer & people poking it with their mitts. Very much loved an exhibit called "body paint" which reacted to your movement with splashes of colour.

Altogether a great exhibition, if a bit small.

Afterwards we hit the museum shop, I made a few purchases of things that you really don't need but which are rather pretty. We still had 2 hours till closing time, so we ventured upstairs to the textiles bit, getting distracted on the way by various other bits, then found the Theatre rooms, which are awesome as well. The Jewellery section is just pure shiny. By the time we got out of there our brains had reached culture saturation. We still managed to run through a few other rooms simply coz we got lost & couldn't find the way out.

A really great way to spend an otherwise pretty useless day. And my brain very much likes getting fed like that. Definitely have to go back there, maybe on my own, and wander around for a day.

We popped into Sainsbury's on the way home, I acquired all I need to make Pad Thai today, which is probably going to be rescheduled for tomorrow coz we're going out for Sushi tonight & I can't be arsed to cook. The evening was spent watching the "Welcome To The Parker" marathon on Bravo or Diva or whatever obscure channel it was.

I'm a bit less energetic today, the cold is still present but not as bad anymore, the weather is much nicer but I am too lazy to go out. All fine, though, it's Sunday which is the day of the week that you're supposed to veg out :)