Seperated by a considerable stretch of water, design conversations within The Functionality would not be possible (or affordable) without our friends at companies like Skype.

By coincidence, Skype are currently sponsoring an exhibition in London (and Berlin) called the Art of Conversation..

'From January to March 2010 the participants, 10 London based design studios and 10 Berlin based design studios, played a visual game of Chinese Whispers. Each participant was presented with a work/idea from the previous participant in the chain via a Skype chat, they then had 3 days to interpret it and forward their results to the next participant. These responses could take any form; from sculpture to performance, photograph to text.'

Within The Functionality, distance maintains individuality and, as 'chinese whispers' is the emphasis of the exhibition, resulted in some ingenius misunderstandings and unexpected mistakes.

If you're in London, check it out--great work produced by the likes of (friends of the Functionality) APFEL at the Idea Generation Gallery...or, if you're in Berlin, it's going to be there in June at the Program Gallery.