published in blog

What objects would you pick to sum up the 21st century? | Art and design

Art and design

What objects would you pick to sum up the 21st century?

From Louboutin shoes to the world's first 3D-printed gun, the V&A is starting a new collection of the designs and objects that shape our world today. What have they missed?

The V&A unveils Rapid Response Collecting gallery
Ikea toys, Primark jeans and Katy Perry eyelashes take over the V&A

If you are a hoarder by nature, or think museums are a little passé, keep reading. As well as preserving key objects from the past, part of the job of a museum is to collect items that define our present. In a bid to keep up with the times, the V&A has changed its approach to collecting.

Its new system is called Rapid Response Collecting, and it will speed up the pace at which the museum engages with important developments and issues that shape art, design, architecture and technology and make the headlines. A handful of objects have already been collected: a cuddly wolf from Ikea (see more below), Christian Louboutin shoes in five shades of "nude" and Cody Wilson's 3D-printed handgun. They will displayed for free in a gallery from this weekend.

Here are the items the V&A picked:

Global supply and demand … Primark jeans. Photograph: Sara Hodges/V&A Photograph: V&A
  • Katy Perry Cool Kitty false eyelashes, chosen not just because they allow young women to become DIY pop-cultural icons, but also because each set of lashes is knotted from human hair in villages in Indonesia, by women paid the equivalent of around 29p an hour.
  • The world's first 3D-printed gun, christened "the Liberator" and designed by Texan law student Cody Wilson, still causing a hot debate around new manufacturing technologies. The plans for the plastic gun were published online and downloaded more than 100,000 times before the US State Department demanded they be taken down.
Cody Wilson's 3D-printed gun. Photograph: /V&A Photograph: V&A
Lufsig, the toy wolf. Photograph: V&A Photograph: V&A
  • Christian Louboutin shoes in five shades of "nude", which finally expanded the term's definition to include non-white skin.
  • A piece of Kone UltraRope, a new lightweight lift cable for our high-rise age that will enable lifts to travel 1,000m in a single run, potentially transforming city skylines as buildings get slimmer and higher.

Your chosen objects

Readers in comments and on Twitter have been posting the objects that best sum up the present. Here is a selection of your suggestions, starting with the most voted contender:

iPhone.

catchytitled

A discarded plastic bottle with bought water.

This sums up our times because a) we have fallen for the most ridiculous marketing trick history: to buy bottled water when we have perfectly good, safe tap-water. Jonathan Swift would have had a field-day.... and b) because all the kids learn to draw pretty posters about re-cycling at primary school, and to parrot the right stuff, but then just chuck their water bottles in the bin. Trust me, I've seen it at the school I work at. 'But aren't you going to re-use/re-cycle this bottle?' (Look of utter pitying contempt from teenager).

I used to work for an environmental charity, and believe me, they can all talk the talk. But the thing with re-cycling is....you have to actually do it.

I have now given up on fighting this one.

BachingMad

Medical, industrial and cosmetical lasers. Drones.

HansaMan

Unmanned drones

Mico Schofield

E Cigs and antidepressants. Sounds like a band.

paul mullins

A diet book. A syringe full of botox. A tight bust wrap worn by flappers to suppress the size of their bosom. A department store make-up counter, complete with smiling assistant. A set of hair straighteners. An appointment card for an eating disorders clinic. A girdle. A waxing kit. A set of breast implants. Hair dye. A pair of tweezers. All the crazy things that indicate that throughout the century, woman have tried to change the way they look.

flaviaforbes

An IED made by an Afghan tribesman from munitions stolen or captured from western forces.

LQCinncinatus

Justin Bieber's $25000, diamond encrusted Stewie Griffin necklace. It's representative of all that's wrong in Western pop culture.

NegativeCapability

@guardian @Gdnartanddesign my phone as I no longer use a camera/lightweight laptop/and real books made of paper that I won't give up.

— sandrareston (@sandrareston) July 3, 2014

. @guardian @Gdnartanddesign Onsies, 3D printers and an 'I'm homeless and hungry' sign

— Ⓥ Chief Pixie ☮ (@ChiefPixieGem) July 3, 2014

And finally, @drhawkward suggested "something involving cats & tech", which she materialised in a cat selfie:

@guardian @Gdnartanddesign pic.twitter.com/5M6sn38sWc

— Dr. Hannah Awkward (@drhawkward) July 3, 2014

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaJmiqa6vsMOeqqKfnmR%2FcX2TaKGupF9lgHC%2BwKmgnWWimsCxu82snGabn6G5pq%2FToqWgZaZirq%2BwjJpka2mjqXqksc2trKuxXZmytLXGpw%3D%3D