Review - Hearwear: The Future of Hearing - An Exhibition in London (UK)

Audiology News

Hearwear - The Future of Hearing, an Exhibition in London (UK)

Reviewed by www.aud.org.uk, 12^th August 2005

An exhibition of new concept / prototype hearing products created by leading UK designers.

If you are visiting London, UK, you may be interested to find a temporary exhibition currently taking place on the 3rd floor of the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. This exhibition reflects that the human body is not limited by biology and technologies are now available to enhance its features. One such feature, the ability to hear, is examined in this exhibition. Examples of devices which can be seen in the exhibition Where hearing related devices are concerned the hearing aid has only had a minor role and it should be noted that even though significant advances in technology have been made the design and style have lagged behind with mainly the idea of using disguise, as in the form of flesh coloured or miniature sized devices being dominant. This is not always the case with other devices for example: mobile phones.

The exhibition is the result of an innovative project which called on the talents of a number of leading UK designers to produce designs and prototypes for 'hearwear' (hearing products) for everyone, and not just the deaf and hard of hearing, in order to enhance the sounds around us. The brief given to the designers was to come up with innovative, stylish and desirable hearing products.

Some examples of prototype / concept devices, which can be seen, include:

a device which can house a multitude of technologies ranging from hearing aids to mobile (cell) phone earpieces - with an outer casing which can be changed to match clothing or the mood for a particular occasion (The Universal Hearing device by Pearson Lloyd - image 1.)
a device which allows you to chose your field of hearing - close range, for use in a noisy environment such as a restaurant or busy street, or a far range for distant listening (Corona designed by Tangerine - image 2.)
a device which was inspired by recent scientific studies expressing concern for sound levels experienced by commuters on public transport - this works by beimg plugged into a mobile (cell phone), a laptop or MP3 player in order to protect commuters on public transport from ambient noise (the Decibel was designed by Priestman Goode - image 3). Note: details of an investigation regarding noise experienced by commuters in London can be found in the news section of this website, dated 15th July 2004.

Opinion: A small but nicely displayed exhibition, with some beautiful exhibits, one to definitely visit if you are in the locality (London, UK).

Further details of the exhibition can be found on the museum's website, this exhibition started at the end of July 2005 and it will continue until March 2006. Location: Victoria & Albert Museum (on the 3rd Floor), South Kensington, London, SW7 2RL, UK. Cost: None (Free of Charge). Hearwear: the future of hearing exhibition was conceived by the RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf, UK), Blueprint and Wolff Olins in conjunction with the Victoria and Albert museum.

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