Listen Live
Donate
 on air
Schedule

KCRW

Read & Explore

  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Culture
  • Events

Listen

  • Live Radio
  • Music
  • Podcasts
  • Full Schedule

Information

  • About
  • Careers
  • Help / FAQ
  • Newsletters
  • Contact

Support

  • Become a Member
  • Become a VIP
  • Ways to Give
  • Shop
  • Member Perks

Become a Member

Donate to KCRW to support this cultural hub for music discovery, in-depth journalism, community storytelling, and free events. You'll become a KCRW Member and get a year of exclusive benefits.

DonateGive Monthly

Copyright 2025 KCRW. All rights reserved.

Report a Bug|Privacy Policy|Terms of Service|
Cookie Policy
|FCC Public Files

Back to Design and Architecture

Design and Architecture

From acid to Apple: a survey of California design

From the drug-fueled 1960s style of the hippies to the tech-utopian visions of Silicon Valley's founders, California's design sensibilities have had a global reach. The exhibition California: Designing Freedom at the Design Museum in London looks at how the Golden State came to have such a powerful influence on contemporary design.

  • rss
Download MP3
  • Share
By Frances Anderton • Aug 9, 2017 • 4m Listen

California: Designing Freedom is a show at the Design Museum in London, a museum devoted to displaying product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design.

"It also in a way influenced the computer culture that was still emergent in the late 1960s. Douglas Engelbart, who was the computer engineer who came up with so many of the pivotal \designs that we now associate with computers -- such as the mouse, the idea of hyperlinks, the idea that a computer is a tool for connecting people and not just a giant calculator -- Engelbart was a big advocate of using LSD. As was Steve Jobs."

California: Designing Freedom co-curator Justin McGuirk (the other curator was Brendan McGetrick) in front of a wall of emoji at at the Design Museum in London. (Frances Anderton)

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Frances Anderton

    architecture critic and author

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Frances Anderton

    architecture critic and author

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Avishay Artsy

    Producer, DnA: Design and Architecture

    Culture
Back to Design and Architecture