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