Changing Exhibitions Program
The Global Health Odyssey Museum will feature changing exhibits over the coming years to supplement our permanent installations. New changing exhibits are in the works, so please check back with us.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions:
Photo: © 2005
Vestergaard Frandsen
Design for the Other 90%
February 17 – May 29, 2009
Of the world’s 6.5 billion people, 90 percent have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted. In fact, nearly half do not have reliable access to food, clean water, healthcare, education, affordable transportation, or shelter. The exhibition Design for the Other 90% features more than 30 projects that reflect a growing movement among designers, engineers, and social entrepreneurs to create low-cost solutions for everyday problems. Through local and global partnerships, individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world’s poor.
Design for the Other 90% showcases designs that incorporate new and traditional materials, and abandoned and emerging technologies to solve myriad problems—from cleaner-burning sugarcane charcoal to a solar-rechargeable battery for a hearing aid, from a portable water-purification straw to a low-cost laptop. By understanding the available resources and tools as well as the lives and needs of their potential users, these designers create simple, pragmatic objects and ingenious, adaptive systems that can help transform lives and communities.
FIND OUT MORE
Watch a video http://blog.cooperhewitt.org/2007/05/14/in-their-own-words about the exhibition and discuss the designs in the exhibition.
Visit the exhibition web site http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/ to learn more about the designs on view.
Design for the Other 90% is organized by 
The exhibition is made possible by the Lemelson Foundation. Additional support is provided by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency, the Esme Usdan Exhibition Endowment Fund, and the Ehrenkranz Fund.
The CDC Foundation acknowledges the generous gift of Vestergaard Frandsen, Inc., in support of the Global Health Odyssey Museum and the Design for the Other 90% exhibition in Atlanta.
Above, right: LifeStraw® , 2005 Designer: Torben Vestergaard Frandsen Manufacturer: Vestergaard Frandsen, S.A. China and Switzerland (current version) High-impact polystyrene (outer shell), halogen-based resin, anion exchange resin and patented activated carbon (interior) Dimensions: 10" x 1" diameter Photo: © 2005 Vestergaard Frandsen
Your Genes & Your Choices
February 26 - May 29, 2009
Designed to help visitors look at genes from a biological, global, historical, and medical perspective, this exhibition targets upper elementary school students and their parents. A series of interactive stations help visitors explore the concepts of genetic variation; the relationship between skin color and solar radiation; the role of genes in causing disease; and the relationship between lifestyle choices and genes in impacting overall health. Components include:
- Our Genes Make Us the Same/Our Genes Make Us Different - Genes are what make us similar to each other and other living things, and genetic variation in a very small number of our genes is what makes us different from plants, animals, and other humans. Visitors can enter their eye color, hair color, and other physical characteristics into a computer and see how many previous visitors have the same genetic traits.
- We’re All from Africa - Did you know that the human species originated in Africa over 200,000 years ago? This exhibit area explores human migration patterns and skin color. Visitors will put together a large world map jigsaw puzzle that reveals, upon completion, the relationship between skin color and solar radiation.
- Genetic Disease - Viruses and bacteria cause many of the common illnesses, but sometimes genetic mutations are to blame. Visitors will investigate a variety of diseases and identify the sources.
- It’s Not Just Your Genes - While in some cases genetic mutations are responsible for diseases, individuals can improve their overall health by making smart choices every day. Interactive activities help visitors learn how a well-balanced diet, frequent exercise, and stress management can combat genetic predisposition to heart disease.
Your Genes & Your Choices was developed and organized by the Hall of Health, Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland. Funding was provided by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
Consequential Matters
June 15 – September 11, 2009
This exhibition is an investigation by four Atlanta-based artists of the consequences of urbanization, technology, consumption, indulgence, and globalization.
Peter Essick – High Tech Trash
Mark Wentzel – XLounge X 3
Carl DiSalvo and Jonathan Lukens – Smog is Democratic
Photo © Peter Essick
Peter Essick: High-Tech Trash
For a January 2008 article National Geographic article about the disposal of scrap electronics, Atlanta-based photojournalist Peter Essick traveled to Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. The global trade in “e-waste”—computers, cell-phones, and hard drives, to name a few—has developed exponentially over the past 20 years with resulting environmental and social concerns. This documentary essay bears witness to workers in developing countries who expose themselves to health risks as they pull apart monitors or circuit boards to extract copper, gold, silver or lead. Essick also chronicles more environmentally- responsible recycling programs in Europe, and questions some of our efforts here in the United States.
About the artist
From his home base in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Peter Essick has been traveling the world since the 1980s as a photojournalist for National Geographic magazine, documenting global environmental and ecological issues.
Above, right: Carcasses of outdated electronic products shipped from Europe and the US pile up in a lot behind a market in Accra, Ghana. Some of the better items are reused, but most are just dumped in Ghana after the copper wire is salvaged. Photo © Peter Essick
Mark Wentzel: XLounge x 3
XLounge x 3 is a series of cleverly-adapted Eames Lounge Chairs and Ottomans responding to the apparent consequences of the over-consumption of goods and materials of recent years. Designed in 1956 by the legendary American designers Charles and Ray Eames with mass production in mind, this iconic furniture has come to typify a particular standard for stylish and enduring design products. Artist Mark Wentzel invokes a more universal application in XLounge, alluding to topics of global obesity and consumption, and the potential cooperation among artists, designers, scientists and manufacturers to address such issues.
About the artist
Mark Wentzel is a conceptual sculptor who strives to solve critical contemporary problems using his art as a precise and productive agent for change. His installation at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in spring 2009-- Morale Hazard --addresses topics of energy, corporate motives and justice.
Carl DiSalvo and Jonathan Lukens: Smog is Democratic
Smog is Democratic explores particulate matter through the medium of visualization. As we inhabit and wear away at the city, we produce dust and debris. As plants attempt to reproduce, they release pollen. These and other processes create particulate matter, a residue of life. An investigation of particulate matter touches multiple concerns: pollution, the relationship between urban living and hygiene, the tension between scientific and artistic representations of information, and the desire to produce measurement techniques that gauge the threat of the unseen. This installation is interpretive and expressive, with the goal of considering how the sources and measurements of particulate matter might be rendered in order to generate reflection, discussion, and debate.
About the artists
Carl DiSalvo is an artist, designer, author, and educator. He is currently an Assistant Professor in The School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jonathan Lukens is pursuing a PhD in digital media at Georgia Tech. Previously, he was an assistant professor of Graphic Design at Georgia State University.