Collaboration Brings Voice to Apple Products at Röhsska
Students from the MFA programme in Embedded Design at HDK-Valand have collaborated with artist Gloria López Cleries to create Clairvoyant Machines, a museum intervention in the form of an audio guide at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.
Clairvoyant Machines explores the intersection of magic, materiality, and technology through five iconic Apple devices. These once-revolutionary objects are part of Röhsska’s permanent exhibition Design Stories. The audio guides give a voice to the objects, inviting visitors to reflect on their cultural significance and the conditions underpinning their creation.
The project is the result of a study circle led by artist Gloria López Cleries in collaboration with students from the Embedded Design program at HDK- Valand.
– The project was developed as part of the course Design as an Embedded Practice, which is led by me and Mills Dray. The course focuses on exploring the relationship between design, organizational structures, and sustainability. Together with López Cleries, we created an aesthetic and capitalist system-revealing audio guide, examining the organizational structures represented by the selected objects, says Samatha Hookway, a teacher in Embedded Design.
– This process gave us a deeper understanding of the museum's institutional framework, its collection, the Apple product supply chain, and our own perspectives as Embedded Designers, Mills Dray adds.
Through the collaboration the students, Clara Öhrfelt, Matteo Guzzo and Daniela Toledo Escárate, gained a practical learning experience that showed how artistic freedom, cultivated through working with López Cleries, could be applied to their previous technical knowledge. They also developed their skills in narrative design and strengthened their design practice. The project also fostered critical thinking about societal prejudices.
– Focusing on objects such as Apple products revealed unexpected insights about how studying everyday objects can uncover hidden organizational systems that govern the design of objects and our use of them. It can involve capitalism, material extraction, and more, says Matteo Guzzo.
– My intention was to question, in collaboration with the designers, the models that create discourses from both the museum institution and the market. Through our study circle and other sessions, we developed a critical perspective based on the research process and collective decision-making. The students have shown great interest in learning about the museum's institutional structures and creating counter-narratives, adds Gloria López Cleries.
About the Project:
Clairvoyant Machines was presented to the public at the Röhsska Museum in March 2025. Learn more: https://clairvoyantmachines.com
About the Embedded Design Programme:
The MFA programme in Embedded Design at HDK-Valand focuses on design within complex organizational contexts addressing sustainability issues and prepares students to become collaborative partners and critical thinkers. The programme is open for applications until April 15, 2025. More information is available below.
About Gloria López Cleries:
Gloria López Cleries is an artist and lecturer at the Fine Art Master Programme at HDK-Valand. Her work is based on a critical examination of issues related to emotions, capitalism, and technomysticism. Learn more: https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/glorialopezcleries
