CHICAGO, IL.- This September, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, presents the United States premiere of Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, a groundbreaking exhibition that investigates the capacity, power and promise of design. Massive Change takes a radical look at how rapidly evolving technologies have created the potential for design to effect change on a global scale and how this has placed us at the beginning of a new, unprecedented period of human possibility. Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, in collaboration with Bruce Mau Design and the Institute without Boundaries, this international exhibition is on view at the MCA from September 16 through December 31, 2006.

Posing the question, “Now that we can do anything what will we do?,” Massive Change investigates the virtually unlimited capabilities and resulting ethical dilemmas of design in the contemporary world. “Design is one of the most powerful forces at work today,” said designer Bruce Mau, who is known for his unique, interdisciplinary approach and acclaimed manifestos Life Style and -- in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas -- S,M,L,XL. “Design is no longer simply a mechanism for adapting to the world in which we live, but is profoundly affecting change on a global scale.”

Massive Change translates the ideas communicated in Bruce Mau’s compelling new design manifesto into a provocative, accessible and immersive experience. The exhibition employs objects, sound, video, still photography, computer and satellite images, interactive technology, and three-dimensional constructs to explore the impact of global design.

Massive Change brings to light extraordinary breakthroughs and discoveries that have transformed our world, as well as those on the horizon that promise profound change. The exhibition is divided into ten key areas of human activity that constitute the future of global design: urbanization, information, the image, movement, manufacturing, materials, living, markets, the military, and energy.

“Unlike traditional design exhibitions that focus on objects and aesthetics, Massive Change reflects the scope and dynamism of its subject matter,” said Elizabeth Smith, MCA James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs. “Design is an art form that is unique in its direct relationship to addressing significant social issues. This exhibition reveals Bruce Mau’s visionary artistry; the physical experience will immerse visitors in a series of powerful, poetic encounters to reveal Massive Change at work in our world.”

Elizabeth Smith is curating a companion exhibition to Massive Change titled Sustainable Architecture in Chicago: Works in Progress, the latest in a series of exhibitions on architecture and design that the MCA has presented in recent years. Past exhibitions have ranged from At the End of the Century: 100 Years of Architecture (December 1999-March 2000) to Mies in America (February-May 2002) and Archigram: Experimental Architecture 1961-1974 (October 2002-January 2003) to Garofalo Architects: Between the Museum and City (May-October 2003) and Skin Tight: The Sensibility of the Flesh (June-September 2004).

Highlights from the ten economies: URBANIZATION We will create urban shelter for the entire world - This economy shows how urbanization is one of humankind's most successful and ambitious programs. It demonstrates the commitment to a global project of extrusion upward and repetition outward in an effort to provide shelter that is safe, healthy, and uplifting. Underway on a scale never before witnessed, urbanization is the triumph of the unnatural over the natural, the grid over the organic. The unceasing growth of our cities leads to the unavoidable responsibility to manage all terrain and the ultimate opportunity to reinvent our relationship with nature.

MOVEMENT We will enable sustainable mobility - Massive Change presents current and future thinking in personal transportation -- including green alternatives like the electric and human-powered Gizmo and Twike -- demonstrating how tremendous advancements in the design of transportation are providing more freedom and greater efficiency at a lower cost, both ecological and economic. An installation of the studio of noted inventor Dean Kamen provides an intimate look at the design process behind such celebrated inventions as the Segway and the iBOT™ wheelchair and features original prototypes of these designs.

LIVING We will design evolution - When Franklin, Crick and Watson uncovered the structure of DNA, they rendered the realm of the living as a system of information that can be used to redesign virtually every aspect of life itself. Massive Change examines our newfound ability to redesign the human body, from growing and reconfiguring body parts to designing artificial organs, limbs and skin. Genetically modified crops and animals are also examined, such as Golden Rice, which is genetically modified with a daffodil gene that provides beta-carotene (Vitamin A) to fight blindness in malnourished children. The exhibition also explores one of the most significant health issues facing the world today, access to drinkable water, and features new design innovations that are providing the means to deliver potable water to the whole world. Throughout the Living gallery, visitors are invited to vote on the issues that arise from this controversial field of design.

THE IMAGE We will make visible the as yet invisible - The human nervous system evolved in an environment where seeing change - the slightest difference in the surroundings - could mean the difference between life and death. So it is not surprising that our most developed cultural forms are practices of the visual. So much of life occurs outside the range of visible light. Scientific tools and methods have reached far beyond this narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum to colonize its full range, from radio waves and infrared to x-rays, gamma radiation, and cosmic rays.

MARKETS We will seamlessly integrate all supply and demand around the world - As our populations grow larger, more urbanized and more connected, increasingly the planet's market economies are the source of generating the ideas and incentives needed to meet new challenges at every scale. Markets are powerful engines of change, and they are designed to extract wealth from every process in a relentless pursuit of efficiency. Our most successful markets, well-tuned and framed by strong legislation, produce a nearly seamless marriage of demand and supply that is staggeringly effective at creating and delivering anything, anytime, to anywhere, if the price is right. In studying this arena our true power is revealed. The power of markets, brought to bear on the world's real problems, is the power to change the world.

INFORMATION We will build a global mind - A “Global Portraits” gallery provides a look at the role of design in the field of information technology that is helping us to achieve an unprecedented understanding of the world. This includes projections that track space debris found orbiting our earth, the ozone hole, the earth’s gravity field and economic and infrastructural development in remote villages around the world.

ENERGY We will bring energy to the entire world - The Energy economy comments on the continuing design of massive hydroelectric and petroleum projects with regional and global economic, social, and environmental impact. It explores initiatives for sustainable energy - wind, geothermal, and especially solar - and their promise to fundamentally restructure the energy system itself, from a centrally based system to a distributed network of energy production and consumption.