Current Exhibitions
Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection
ONGOING
Occupying the entire first floor of the museum’s Carnegie Mansion, Design Across Time expands public access to Cooper Hewitt’s collection and includes significant works newly brought out of storage. Through objects spanning time, geography, and discipline—including graphic design, product design, fashion, textiles, furniture, wallcoverings, digital design, and architecture—this exhibition highlights the breadth of the national design collection.
Design Across Time organizes the museum’s vast collection around thematic clusters to explore some of the many approaches designers use in their creative process. Designers Play and Tweak to experiment and iterate ideas. They Repeat elements to reinforce messages; Transform materials into sustainable solutions; Show Off craftsmanship to create objects of beauty; or Simplify complex shapes and information.
The Substitute
Temporarily Off View

Part of Design Across Time, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s The Substitute is an immersive video and sound installation that digitally resurrects the extinct male Northern white rhino using artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art visual effects.
SUPPORT

PHOTOS:
Still from The Substitute installation, 2019; Designed by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (British and South African, b. 1982); Animation by The Mill with behavior based on research by DeepMind; Paired video installation (projector and screen); 6 minutes 18 seconds; Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2020-10-1.
Featured Image: The Arthur Ross Terrace & Garden at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Agaton Strom Photography
