curated by Lottie Mac

Learning 
through 
design

a week-long exhibition and programme
of free talks, workshops, and conversation
15th-20th September 2026


workshops + talks // exhibition 

full programme + bookings
about

i love learning tops


old spitalfields market 
1107B Commercial St, 
London E1 6BG
TALK ///
12-2PM
WEDNESDAY 16TH SEPT
Ghosts in the Archive:
Why the Future of Design Lives in the Past.
by Charlie Wilson The future of design won't come from making more things. It will come from paying deeper attention to our history, our places, our senses, and one another. What if the future of design isn’t found by looking ahead, but by looking closer at what we’ve left
behind? In this talk, we explore the archive as a source of innovation, uncovering forgotten objects, industries and ideas that still have relevance today. Drawing on work at Vitra and research into British design heritage, we examine how archives can reveal alternative futures, ones rooted in craft, material knowledge and cultural identity. At a time of rapid change and increasing sameness, we ask what we can learn from the past to create objects, spaces and experiences that are built to last.


About Charlie Wilson
Charlie Wilson works at Vitra, collaborating with architects, designers and organisations to shape meaningful spaces through furniture and design. Alongside his professional practice, he is developing an independent design practice around how archives, industrial heritage and emerging technologies can inform new ways of making. His work investigates how design carries memory, shapes behaviour and reflects the cultures that create them. Through research, storytelling and experimentation, Charlie explores lessons of the past to imagine more considered, enduring futures.
Robin Day
Hauntology
Archigram Instant City
The Manhattan Transcripts






Talk Summary

The importance of unearthing the archives by Charlie Wilson recentered the lived experience as opposed to the ‘user experience’. The talk took us through what could be a making manifesto, an ethos of design for designers and artists alike. What are we making for? To begin he questioned our centering of ‘the feed’ and work make for ‘the grid’ - instagram photo-worthy practice over sustenance, longevity and experience. What made this exploration so inspiring to listen to was his highlighting of an issue backed with a real response on how we can move forward, it wasn’t just an AI complain train, but the beginning of a methodology of creation in progress.


When like counts and followers lead to lined pockets, its hard for makers to not copy and paste what we know already sells well, but this has lead to an abundance of samey creation - the outcome? We need to question design, and, question what good design truly is. AND THEN - question what we ARE TOLD good design is, just because the likes show or AI generated it when you asked for good design - it doesn't make it so. Then how can we know? Lived experience and the materiality and process of use for living beings - rather than for the like counter or online bots approval.


How Charlie positions this approach to design is to look at the past to inform today, using the archive as a design tool. When looking back at past design it is clear that process is at the centre of design and when AI generation is used in that making process, there is no true process at all. The human touch and lived connection with design comes from consideration and development, something which the computer will never be able to fully access, hence the ridiculous AI content we see coming together, aesthetically taking us so far, but experientially commercial for real life usage, as we as humans, as makers can only truly know how we truly function. Charlie's talk made it clear that we must design for life, not just basic use. Charlies used the Heart Cone Chair Verner Panton, 1958 as an example. Liift the seat and there's storage inside, so that when ‘the ladies handbag’ doesn't have anywhere to hang, it can be safely placed inside the chair when eating dinner in the restaurant it was originally designed for. When we place people at the centre we can rarely ever go wrong, and that is what this talk reminded us of so sweetly. Charlie stating ‘Modern life increasingly becomes mediated by images and representations. Instead of directly experiencing the world, we experience it through advertisements, commodities, media and spectacle’.


Then - exploring Hauntology Charlie opened our minds to the ideas that were never able to make it into fruition. Leading us to question what we can learn from them or where we can pick up from. For this exploration Charlie referenced two key readings ‘Specters of Marx’ Jacques Derrido 1993, where Derrido defines the idea of ‘hauntology’ as ‘the idea that the past can remain present, even after it has disappeared’ highlighting that ‘what is absent can still shape the present’ and  ‘Ghosts of my life’ Mark Fisher 2014, which questions that ‘what if the present is haunted, but not only by the past, but by the future that never arrived?’ This leads us as designers and theorists to question, how can we look at the past and see whats truly worth reliving.


The talk from Charlie was full of questions and answers, carving out a path for makers and design thinkers to stroll down as they develop their next projects, it was the skeleton of a true design ethos.Charlie was not just suggesting we look back and finish what was is undone, but reminds us of the importance to look and learn from others.  Inspiring, humble and contextualised in past, present and future we cannot wait to see what his work and thinking will develop into, with human imagination at its centre.


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