On the occasion of the “Record of Waiting” exhibition, presented in the Polish Pavilion during the London Design Biennale 2025, Polish artists will take part in unique events accompanying the exhibition. During expert panels, they will share reflections on craftsmanship, time, and contemporary design.

12 June 2025 – Hand, Heart and Machine: Craft in an Age of Automation

Automation promises efficiency — but at what cost to humans? This panel will reflect on what is lost when machines replace human hands. What existential opportunities does science offer? What is the emotional power of the creative process? How can design combine craft and industry? The panel “Hand, Heart and Machine: Craft in an Age of Automation” takes place as part of the Global Design Forum at the London Design Biennale.

The event will be held on Thursday, 12 June 2025, at 1:30 pm at King’s College London. During the discussion, Stanisław Kośmiński, a woodcarver and co-creator of the installation in the Theme Medal-winning Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale, will give a woodcarving demonstration.

Speakers:

• Thomas Thwaites – designer and researcher, known for his project to build a toaster from scratch;
• Steve Ali – jeweller who discovered metalwork after fleeing Syria in 2013 and living in a refugee camp in Calais;
• Carole Collett – pioneer in the field of sustainable materials and Professor of Design for a Sustainable Future at Central Saint Martins;
• Shai Akram – co-founder of the design studio Studio Alt Shift, whose PhD explores the tensions, complexities, and disorder in equitable collaboration between craft and industry.

Moderator: Annie Warburton – CEO of the Goldsmiths’ Company, a 700-year-old cultural institution that supports craftsmanship, skills, and creativity.

19 June 2025 – Records of Waiting: Crafts, Ornaments, Data Visualisation 

An expert panel will analyse how the “Record of Waiting” exhibition transforms traditional Podhale woodcarving into a tool for recording and visualising time. Combining design, sociology, and material culture, the discussion will explore how ornament can reflect both statistical data and life experiences.

Together, the experts will consider how contemporary design can translate the inequalities of time into aesthetic and material forms. The event will be held on Thursday, 19 June 2025, at 5:30 pm in the Screening Room at Somerset House. Tickets are available online.

Speakers:

• Peter Hall – design researcher and author of Critical Visualization: Rethinking the Representation of Data;
• Marcin Nowicki – sociologist and co-curator, commenting on the research methodology of the project;
• Marta Foresti – founder and CEO of LAGO Collective, researcher and data expert.

The discussion will be moderated by Victoria Broackes, Director of the London Design Biennale.

The “Record of Waiting” project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.