Successfully failing - 13th October 2023

In a meritocratic society, failure is deemed to be the opposite of success, but one curator begs to differ. Johanna Guttmann’s celebrating failure via an exhibition in Washington DC, dubbed the Museum of Failure.

Johanna Guttmann: "The products that we are saying that they are failures are subjective, debatable, but it is about that conversation. So we are sort of having fun with it, we want to take away the stigma from it. So I think the fun factor makes it much more attractive to people."

The Museum of Failure was first curated in 2017 in Sweden. The exhibits include failed products and innovative ideas from major companies from around the globe, though predominantly American companies.

Starbucks had to discontinue sales of its coffee drink mixed with olive oil, a concoction which left customers in dire need of the restroom. The Trump brand made a brief foray into developing a Monopoly style game which proved too intricate for users, resulting in its discontinuation. Even the esteemed Oreo biscuit encountered challenges having ventured into experimenting with novel flavours.

Johanna Guttmann: "I’ve heard that one of the most disgusting things, not featured here, is the barbecue chicken wings - it’s rather vile."

Guttmann’s intention is for people to heed the lessons from failure, break any attached stigma and to embrace its existence as a vital part of innovation.

Johanna Guttmann: "The goal of the exhibition is the conversation about failure, and destigmatizing failure and to a certain extent, embracing it and understanding that it is a very important component if we want to innovate and solve big problems in the world, we're going to have to take some risks and try different things."

Proving Guttmann’s point, visitors are invited to participate in the exhibition - sharing their failures by leaving notes for others to read, but this invitation has been met with reluctance by attendants, riddled with the overwhelming sense of shame. Guttmann points the finger at social media and its excessive public exposure.

Johanna Guttmann: "Today with social media, I believe that it's harder to fail. I think that people feel their failures are sort of amplified on social media. And it sort of follows you and it seems maybe larger than it actually is."