MOMA – Page 2 – DesignApplause

Century of the child: growing by design 1900–2000.

Jul 30, 2012

ladislav sutnar. prototype for build the town building blocks. 1940–43. painted wood, large block: 1 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 2 3/4″ (4.4 x 7 x 7 cm) | click > enlarge

Curated by Juliet Kinchin, curator, and Aidan O’Connor, curatorial assistant in the Department of Architecture and Design is MoMA’s survey of 20th century design for children. It takes on “the modernist preoccupation with children and childhood as a paradigm for progressive design thinking.” —and much more. It is built on the ideas of Swedish design and social theorist Ellen Key. It is also overwhelming.

avante-garde playtime: 1910s > 30s


It encompasses 500 objects, from Froebel blocks to playground plans by Isamu Noguchi to Roald Dahl books. The show might arguably be a better book or film documentary, since the scale of objects varies so much and so much explanation is needed. It seems to carry a heavy central European flavor; Kindergarten, of course was a German word and thinking about childhood psychology was tied to Vienna.

Where is Asia? Where, for that matter, is America? A tighter focus might have been on say toys–where education and entertainment play out their antithesis and offer a way into the wider topic. The whole idea of “fun”– a modern idea, associated with the child, seems absent here. Fun, as a philosophical concept. Fun, as a consumerist value.

Despite the size of the show, wandering through it reminds the viewer of what is left out. One of the key roles of the child in design is as a base case for the psychology of learning and interface—the labs of Seymour Papert led to Graphic User Interface. And American and global commercialism is de emphasized. The brute marketing force of Disney and Mattel and Kellogg’s is critical to this story. Where is the My First Sony line of electronics, for instance?

As early as Giacomo Balla and the Futurists, designers understood that grown ups would want kid’s stuff. We adults want the children’s toys—and their bright colors and basic shapes. Or did we assign those things to children to begin with because we secretly wanted them ourselves? [ century of the child ] [ moma ]

1 > avant-garde playtime: 1910s > 30s
2 > power play: 1960s > 90s
3 > designier better worlds: 1960s > 2000
4 > graf zeppelin toy dirigible, c. 1930
iron alloy, aluminum, enamel paint, and decals | 7 ¼” x 25″ (18.4 x 63.5 cm) | manufacture attributed to J.C. penney co., inc., plano, texas | minneapolis institute of arts
the modernism collection, gift of norwest bank minnesota
5 > three figures, c. 1925 | joaquín torres-garcía (uruguayan, 1874–1949)
painted wood, twelve interchangeable pieces | daniela chappard foundation
© 2012 artists rights society (ARS), new york / vegap, spain
6 > school desk, 1946 | jean prouvé (french, 1901–1984)
enameled steel and oak 28 1/2 x 45 x 34″ (72.4 x 114.3 x 86.4 cm) | manufactured by ateliers jean prouvé, nancy | the museum of modern art, new york | dorothy cullman purchase fund
7 > omnibot 2000 remote-controlled robot, c. 1985
24″ x 15″ x 14″ (61 x 38.1 x 35.6 cm) | manufactured by tomy (formerly tomiyama), katsushika, tokyo | space age museum/kleeman family collection, litchfield, connecticut
8 > indoor play area, 1985 | renate müller (german, born 1945)
jute, leather, wood, play area: 3 x 8 x 5″ (7.6 x 20.3 x 12.7 cm) | largest puppet: 12″ (30.5 cm) | collection of zesty meyers and evan snyderman / R 20th century
9 > holdrakèta and original box, c. 1960
tin, box: 24″ x 6″ (61 x 15.2 cm) | manufactured by lemezaru gyar, budapest (est. 1950) | collection of joan wadleigh curran, philadelphia
10 > ford convertible toy car with original box, c. 1956
ford car: 3 7/8″ x 5 1/8″ x 13 1/4″ (9.8 x 13 x 33.7 cm), manufactured by marusan shoten ltd., tokyo | subaru 360 toy car with original box, c. 1963 | subaru car: 3 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 7 7/8″ (8.6 x 8.6 x 20 cm), manufactured by bandai, tokyo (est. 1950), bruce sterling collection, new york
11 > schaukelwagon (rocking car), 1950 | hans brockhage (german, 1925–2009) and erwin andrä (german)
15 3/4 x 39 3/8 x 14 15/16″ (40 x 100 x 38 cm) | beech frame and birch plywood seat

<a href="about phil patton

MoMA’s ‘foreclosed: rehousing the american dream’ exhibit.

Feb 21, 2012

the oranges new jersey | mos architects | click > enlarge

Opened on 16 February through 30 July, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will be running an exhibit featuring the proposals of five interdisciplinary studios that were asked to re-think and re-invent the future of housing in the midst of the foreclosure crisis that remains a threat to many Americans and their homes. Over the Summer of 2011, MOS Architects, Studio Gang Architects, Visible Weather, WORKac, and Zago Architecture selected five “megaregions” across the country on which to speculate the form that housing could take: physically, socially and economically. The Open Studios exercise was organized by Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, with Reinhold Martin, Director of Columbia University’s Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.

cicero illinois | studio gang architects

With this exhibit, MoMA heightens an awareness of the U.S. foreclosure problem via architecture, design, and planning, albeit a niche perspective. This exhibit both inspires and provokes. Depending on who’s telling the foreclosure story: the promises of government and bankers, the opines of economists and media, the taut tales of the foreclosed, our planners are hardwired dreamers raising questions, presenting the what-ifs, creating visions and realities that can inspire. Ironically, the woeful boarded up homes that are seen everywhere as we drive through neighborhoods, dreaded by those who own housing near the monuments of foreclosure, are also needed reminders and initiators at this juncture that there is still much to do and more what-ifs are desireable. [ details ] [ arch daily ] [ metropolis ] [ new york times ]

The MoMA is located at 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019. Hours are Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday. Admission is free for all on Target Free Fridays 4 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Talk to me. MoMA.

Jul 19, 2011

exhibition explores the communication between people and objects. the department of architecture and design is documenting the process of organizing talk to me from its early stages through its opening in july 2011 and beyond via an online journal. 24 july – 7 november 2011 | new york | @MuseumModernArt #design

MoMA shows how technology is getting the point across.

Jul 17, 2011

MoMA exhibit shows how technology is getting the point across. via nyt [RK]

Pour your body out. Pipilotti rist.

Feb 4, 2011

Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)
November 19, 2008-February 2, 2009

The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor

Pipilotti Rist’s lush multimedia installations playfully and provocatively merge fantasy and reality. MoMA commissioned the Swiss artist to create a monumental site-specific installation that immerses the Museum’s Marron Atrium in twenty-five-foot-high moving images. Visitors will be able to experience the work while walking through the space or sitting upon a sculptural seating island designed by the artist.

who is pipilotti?
Born in Grabs in the Swiss Rhine Valley, 1962

Studies of commercial art, illustration and photography at the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, 1982-1986
Studies of audio visual communications (video) at the School of Design in Basel, Switzerland, Professor René Pulfer, 1986-1988
Freestyle video / audio works and installations, since 1986
Freelancer as a grafic computer operator in different industrial video studios, 1987-1994
Member of the music band Les Reines Prochaines, concerts, performances and LP / CD’s, 1988-1994
Visiting professor at UCLA, Los Angeles CA, 2002-2003
From 2005 – 2009 she worked on her first feature film, ‘Pepperminta’

Lives and works in Zurich and in the mountains of Switzerland, since 2004

Her favorite number is 54. Against taboos and stereotypes with emotion and humor…

[MoMA]

editor’s note: this video, among others, is shown to art & design students. an inspiring example of an artist explaining the concept and pulling you in with analogies, metaphors, and their passion.

Our bauhaus.

Dec 10, 2009

New York’s MoMA and Guggenheim celebrating major anniversaries. At MoMA, a ninetieth, “Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity,” and an eightieth anniversary of the founding of the Modern. At the Guggenheim a fiftieth, “Frank Lloyd Wright’s still astonishingly audacious building, now freshly restored, with a stirring retrospective of paintings by Vasily Kandinsky. via the new republic [CM]

MoMA. Tim burton. Unite.

Nov 20, 2009

MoMA and tim burton fans have an event.
from november 22, 2009–april 26, 2010

Rough cut. MoMA.

Mar 10, 2009

MoMA, New York, on-going. Design is not always pretty.
Sometimes it is blunt and aggressive, especially when it is meant to deliver a clear message or depart from tradition and express new ideas. Rough Cut presents a selection of bold designs from MoMA’s collection, ranging from striking posters to fierce chairs, and from incisive videos to vehicles designed for harsh terrains and unforgiving circumstances. Design is not always pretty—but when it is good, it is undeniably powerful, meaningful, and beautiful.

Organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, and Patricia Juncosa Vecchierini, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.

[via]

Atlantic-Pacific. MoMA.

Feb 12, 2009

Brooklyn’s MoMA ATLANTIC / PACIFIC project. The exhibition consists of reproductions from the museum’s permanent collection posted in the Atlantic / Pacific subway station.
The temporary large-scale installation includes works of well known artists like Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe, Man Ray are sure to inspire commuters jetting through or entertain those who care to linger and peruse the collection. With over 50 pieces filling all the conventional ad units, the station has been transformed into a gallery-esque experience. There is even a toll-free number to allow station goers to access audio information about selected works, as well as a website with information about the project atlanticpacific.

The purpose of the underground campaign is to create a greater awareness of the MoMA collection housed at their Midtown location. For casual passersby, signs posted at payphones throughout the station instruct on how to dial the toll-free MoMA factline for audio information about the works, but planners can download the full audio commentary to iPods, making it that much easier to get a little cultured. In addition to the audio features, a customized project website includes a map and guide to the artworks.

MoMA Atlantic/Pacific
10 February-15 March 2009
Atlantic/Pacific Station
Brooklyn, NY 11217 map
tel. +1 888 939 6662

via coolhunting