A popular London exhibition space is reopening with new artefacts from the digital era.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has long been a custodian of the objects that define our physical world, but its latest gallery reopening suggests a shift toward the digital artefacts that shape our modern reality. The “Design 1900 – Now” space invites visitors to reconsider the evolution of human interaction through the lens of the items we use every day. This refreshed permanent display explores how design influences the way we work, travel, and communicate in an increasingly complex global landscape.
Having been closed since November 2025, the gallery has officially reopened to the public in Rooms 74-74A and 76 at V&A South Kensington. The updated space features 250 objects from the museum’s extensive 20th and 21st-century collections, including 60 new additions that broaden the narrative of modern design.
The most significant of these new acquisitions is a reconstruction of an early YouTube watch page. This exhibit features the first video ever uploaded to the platform, titled “Me at the zoo”. Originally filmed on a low-resolution digital camera, the video is widely considered a foundational moment in the rise of user-generated content.
To bring this digital milestone to life, V&A curators and digital conservators collaborated with YouTube’s User Experience team and the interaction design studio oio. The project focuses on presenting the video within the specific context of the platform’s early interface design, highlighting how the service has enabled new modes of public self-expression and fundamentally changed media consumption.
Exploring iconic designs
The “Design 1900 – Now” gallery is curated to interrogate every element of the designed world, ranging from the household familiar to the politically challenging. The diverse collection includes era-defining technology and fashion, such as:
- The original Apple iPhone from the 2000s.
- Early Tupperware collections from the 1960s.
- A series of Benetton posters from the early 1990s.
- Adidas trainers from 2015 made from salvaged illegal fishing nets.
These objects are displayed to show how design “shapes and reflects how we live, work, travel, communicate, and consume”. By placing a digital interface reconstruction alongside physical objects like furniture and textiles, the V&A highlights the blurring lines between our physical and virtual environments. The gallery remains a free, permanent fixture of the South Kensington site, offering industry professionals and the public alike a comprehensive look at the history of modern innovation in the heart of the capital.
Credit: V&A
