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‘The most valuable impact of design is the ability to make the unfamiliar familiar’ – in conversation with art-science curator Madhushree Kamak >
by Madanmohan Rao [November 01, 2025]
In this series of interviews, innovation platform MXR.world (‘mixers across the world’) showcases design leaders speaking at the upcoming DesignUp 2025 conference in Bengaluru (https://25.designup.io). In our earlier interviews, we featured design strategist Arvind Lodaya, NetBramha founder Aashish Solanki and Karya designer Khushboo Agarwal.
Positioned at the intersection of design, technology, and business innovation, DesignUp celebrates the strategic and human impact of design in shaping products, services, and organisations. It explores how design culture and ecosystems drive innovation, inclusion, and transformation across industries.
In this festival preview interview, we feature Madhushree Kamak, an independent consultant, art-science curator, and designer with a number of Indian museums. She has been curating India's first Death Literacy Festival and co-curating the National Mental Health Festival, Manotsava.
Madhushree has collaborated with institutions like Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, and ZKM, and led the exhibitions and programmes team at Science Gallery Bengaluru—curating award-winning seasons such as CONTAGION and PSYCHE. Her work focuses on making complex topics—from mental health to climate science—accessible and engaging for wide audiences.
At DesignUp, she will explore what it really takes to drag museums into the digital age. In this interview, she shares insights on design impact, exhibitions that help users engage with science, the important role of galleries, design opportunities for youth, and the mandate for design leaders.
Madan: What are some of your favourite galleries to visit in India and overseas, and what makes them stand out?
Madhushree: I love all museums and galleries! There is always something magical about even the smallest of them.
At home, of course Science Gallery Bengaluru is closest to my heart – but The Partition Museum in Chandigarh is a must visit. There are also some unique museums like the NIMHANS museum in Bengaluru and the Hasta Shilpa Heritage Museum in Manipal that are hidden gems.
Further away, the Zeitz MOCA in Cape Town, M+ in Hong Kong, ACMI in Melbourne and ZKM in Karlsruhe are all leading the way in terms of curation, design and cutting-edge engagement with technology.
Madan: How is Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) blending 'physical' and 'digital' design elements to create a better experience for visitors?
Madhushree: SGB was one of the first spaces in India to conduct fully digital exhibitions that still integrated the human mediation element. Once the Covid-19 lockdown was over, the gallery challenged us as designers to continue building digital exhibitions that layered on top of the physical exhibition, unpacking the research, resources and scientific and artistic practices that are the foundation of the exhibition.
The digital design elements are particularly focused on building linguistic accessibility and allowing visitors to engage with exhibits in a non-linear manner that privileges their personal interests.
Madan: What are some of the highlights of the gallery's journey so far in terms of outstanding exhibitions, partners, audience growth?
Madhushree: The gallery has only gone from strength to strength from its very first exhibition ELEMENTS to its most recent season CALORIE.
As a designer, the highlight for me has been how its model of making digital and physical exhibitions has inspired several other institutions both in India and across the world. The CONTAGION exhibition that I worked on is a personal favourite – it was the first fully digital show, designed fully remotely, and contained everything from historical to participatory and immersive exhibits.
This show won a ‘Falling Walls’ award and became very much a standard for how digital exhibitions could be done differently.
Madan: What does meaningful design impact look like — not just in metrics, but in how it changes people's behaviour or decisions?
Madhushree: As someone working in the cultural sector with museums and exhibitions, design is a critical transformer that can make some of the most complex, esoteric or even mundane objects and information into engaging and meaningful experiences – while still being authentic and true to their history and legacies.
For me, the most valuable impact of design is the ability to make the familiar unfamiliar. Not just bringing wonder and surprise, but getting people to critically engage with something they may have previously disregarded.
Madan: How do you view GenAI – as a serious challenge for designers, or an indispensable tool? How does one upskill oneself in this context?
Madhushree: Personally, I don't see it as either extreme. Yes, it has changed the way designers of today and tomorrow will work, but I imagine there were similar upheavals when photography and digital editing and illustration came into play.
My only belief is that we must always look critically at these new tools and engage with them while being aware of the politics, ethics and invisible costs behind them.
Madan: What exciting new opportunities are opening up in design for youth today?
Madhushree: I think more and more the value of design and design thinking is being acknowledged in all fields – from medicine and basic sciences to governance and development.
Young designers have the space to harness their creativity and work with people across disciplines (scientists, policy makers and others) to tackle some of the most wicked problems in society.
Madan: What are your three tips or words of advice for aspiring 'design entrepreneurs' today?
Madhushree: I only have one tip: be fearless in your choices. Sometimes, the path which seems the least visible or the least structured can give you many new and exciting experiences as well as opportunities to find your own personal design niche.
Madan: What role should design leaders play in ensuring that innovation remains humane, inclusive, and ethical?
Madhushree: I think even though we all talk about Human-Centred Design, we often lose the plot when faced with targets and bottom lines.
Design leaders are uniquely positioned to advocate for inclusive and ethical policies – and this is especially critical for those in industry who have the power to influence organisational practices. Design leaders in the cultural space have a different but equally important responsibility: to push for accessibility and decolonisation within the museum and gallery sector.
It is about ensuring that the spaces we create and the stories we tell are not just for a privileged few, but genuinely reflect and serve diverse communities.
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