EXPERIMENTADESIGN is an international biennale dedicated to design, architecture and creativity. Focusing on people and ideas, the biennale’s programme is designed to provide insight and incentive to both a specialized audience and the public at large, disseminating information and provoking debate. Taking place in Lisbon since the first edition in 1999, EXD engages a worldwide network of agents in various fields, promoting innovation and design culture as driving forces for sustainable development at all levels.

The 6th edition of EXD took place from Sept. 28 – Nov. 27, 2011. Curators Max Bruinsma, Hans Maier-Aichen and Jonathan Olivares surveyed the idea—and the attached value judgment—of useless from different angles:

From an economic perspective, the idea of useless questions the paradigms of industrial production, the inevitability of consumption and underlying issues of waste and sustainable development. From a cultural perspective, the idea of useless chances a look at the Western work ethos and the dogma of productivity; from a social perspective, it examines the perilous balance between objective and subjective perceptions of “worth” and “value” attached to institutions, interactions or even individuals. From a creative or intellectual standpoint, the idea of useless outlines the hidden yet overwhelming potential of experiments, “dead-end” or “failed” trials, abandoned prototypes and perplexing finds for which, apparently, no use has yet been found.