Design in Our Lives

Our last field trip we revisited the MoMa and were asked to view an exhibit that specialized in the design arts. Our goal was to find works that showed either a high or low functionality factor or ergonomics. There were two entire installations that caught my eye the moment I saw them and made me want them in my own house. The first of these was the living room set up that had its pieces made up off glass and metal, the functionality of the room was pretty high everything worked the way it was meant to be without having to go out of your way. To go more into detail there was this table that was a single piece of glass, it was simple and served its purpose while standing out enough but not to the point its cumbersome. The materials of metal and glass also gave everything a clean look that few other materials bring.
Right next to the metal and glass exhibit there was what I believe to be the opposite of those materials, that material was plywood. There were chairs, tables, and sofas, bed frames, all made out of this material that is known for being light and flexible. I would have never though it would make good material for everyday use such as a living room set. There was this one specific chair that used the flexibility one as come to associated with plywood and use it to make the base 4 twisted pegs. Both of these exhibits showed to me that they not only looked good but also were highly functional.
Now not all pieces of design art are as functional as what the description says. There was this piece by Ron Gilad “wall piercing”, its exactly what it says it’s a circular led lamp that is installed by piercing your wall. That sounds good and intersting but once you see it in action one can see where it goes wrong, since it sticks out of the wall the chance of someone running into or something getting caught becomes very visible. At least what it lacks in functionality it makes up in originality. The second exhibit that in my onion had a very low functionality factor had to have been the “Designs for an overpopulated planet: foragers “ the moment one looks at the exhibit questions start to arise because nothing looks like anything one has ever seen. At this moment one goes and reads the descriptions only to look back up and see if what your reading is in fact the description for the piece because you see no way how its supposed to do that. For example there were there’s two giant tubes that one would insert into ones nose in order to smell the ground and flowers better, why would one even want that and then why make it so big that makes it cumbersome. Over all both of those exhibts showed little to no functionality. Even though an object may lack functionality one can still look at it and applaud it for the creativity and work the designer put into it

MoMA PS1: The Good, the Bad, and the Misunderstood

Upon reaching MoMa PS1 one can tell how different it is from its much bigger and sophisticated counterpart MoMa. The place gives out a vibe that its willing to put out pieces that will make you question whether what your seeing is really considered art. Going in with the mindset of revisiting my opinions of good,bad and misunderstood art, made this trip interesting. Due to this mindset i spent a lot of time on each piece , more than I usually would because I was trying to really understand them, even though that didn't really happen most of the time.

As i walked throughout the different rooms looking for something to catch my eye I was pleasantly surprised when I entered a room with speakers set up all around it. The room was Janet Cardiff's "The Forty Part Motel", the speakers were set up into section around the room making a circle of sound, the interesting part of this exhibit was how each individual group of speakers were emitting different sounds. You could only hear this if u walked around and stood in front of the speakers, but at any moment you could take a step into the circle and you would hear this Chorus singing a beautiful song. Personally the song relaxed me so much that I wouldn't have minded getting a bed in there and taking a nap. At that moment I realized this is good art, it not only sounded good but it made me think beyond what I saw like how this was set up and does this song have some sort of meaning. On a final note the amount of planing and details needed to set this up in order for it to work properly has to be considered a work of art on its own.

After going around the museum i couldn't really find any piece of art that made me feel "wow this is art" until the people i was walking with reminded us of the exhibit that on the third floor that was deemed graphic. I could honestly say the entire exhibition of Clifford Owens : Anthology to be bad art. The subject matter didn't bother me but it made me keep asking why is this art, the one piece that caught my eye was and made me shake my head was "Anthology (Glenn Ligon) " it was literally a photography of a man urinating , i tried to look at it in many different ways but all i came out of it was someone using the bathroom and taking a picture. That to me is the perfect defection of bad art because one an try to understand it and try to formulate why but in the end its just a guy pissing on the street.

After that exhibit, I made my way back into Darren Bader : Images exhibit. The room with the Iguana blew my mind trying to understand it, inside the room theres am iguana its cage and thats the only thing that made sense but around it there was a oven or dishwasher with a melted pizza inside of it next to it there were two small statues of what looked like Buddha's. That alone was worth of it being my misunderstood piece but to solidify its hold on that theres a croissant on the floor as well, I keep asking my self and people around me if this was one whole exhibit or were they different. Honestly it wouldn't have helped to know thats how confused that room was to me. The artist him self could explain it and I think still wouldn't be able to fully grasp it.

Overall this was an experience that will stay in my mind for some time. While not everyone will agree with my choices for good, bad and misunderstood art, thats okay. The point of any art is to evoke emotion and not everyone is going to feel the same way since we as humans have experienced many different things that will affect our view of the world.

Works Cited

Janet Cardiff

" The Forty Part Motet"

40-part sound recording (14 mins) 40 speakers

2001

Clifford Owens

"Anthology (Glenn Ligon)

3 C-prints

2011

Darren Bader

"Iguana Room in Images"

(Forgot to copy info)