Crafts: Underground Circuit Map Radio

“London Underground Circuit Maps” by Yuri Suzuki, 2012

Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki created a working radio from an electronic circuit board arranged to look like Harry Beck’s iconic London underground map diagrams.  It is currently on exhibit at the London Design Museum through next January. It was developed as part of the museum’s Artist-in-Residence program.

Four young designers were commissioned to create work for the exhibition. The brief title was "Thrift," meaning the quality of using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully. The exhibit looks at limitation of economy, and whether thrift leads to more creative and fully resolved outcomes.

Suzuki’s work was very interesting to me, he created a circuit board in the design of the London Underground tube map, which functioned as a tube map radio. I found Suzuki’s piece explored efficiency of digital products of today, and allowed viewers to appreciate the complexity of their working.