Design in Our Lives

In the last field trip that I went to, we revisited the MoMa to visit exhibits that specialized in the arts of designs. This exhibits had all different types of designs. Designs you may see in everyday life and designs that leave you thinking how can person use such a thing. And that was my goal of viewing this exhibit. I was searching for four types of designs, two that had "high functionality" and two that had "low functionality" since no designs are ever perfect.

One design that I had saw that I thought was high functionality was "Blizzard Survival Bag" by Derek Ryden. I think this is a high functionality because it is something that is extremely useful to humans who go camping in the outdoors during extremely cold weather. It's something that can keep you harm instead of freezing to death it you ever get caught out in the cold. Imagine if this blizzard survival bag didn't exist and people caught in blizzard while they were on their journey. I wouldn't want to imagine that type of thing happening to me. So I would say that this is one design that was very well made and has a high functionality. 

One design that I saw that I thought that  was somewhat low functionality was "Rescue Board 709" by Hiroyuki Tazawa. His design was a rescue board that was made out of recycled paper. I thought of making a rescue board is a very smart design because it can help carry people who are injured who cannot move. But I don't understand why he would make a rescue board out of recycled paper knowing that the weight of a person will easily break it and most likely injure them more. Thinking about how this design probably won't ever be used to help a person made me think that it is a low functionality design.

Another high functionality design that I saw was Paul Haustein "Coffee Service." It was a coffee set that contained a coffee pot, sugar bowl and a creamer made from Pewler-sliver alloy in 1904. I thought this was a high functionality design because it is something people use everyday no matter what time it is. People wake up to make coffee in morning and sometimes people even drink coffee before they go to bed. So Haustein designed a coffee set that contained everything a person needs to have their cup of coffee throughout the day. I know I use mine morning, day, and night.

The last design that I ended up going was Anthony Dunn and Fiona Ruby's design called "Designs for an Overpopulated Planet." Not only did I think this design was a low functionality but I was also confused on what the actual meaning of the design is suppose to do. The designs were very odd, the designs consisted of a augment digestive system, tree processor/digestor, a grass processor and a algae digestor all made from fiberglass. There was also a video that went with the design and a brief description of it and all I understood from it was that the world was running out of food and some how this design is suppose to help. Maybe I was looking at the design all wrong and read the description wrong but I feel like in order for a design to be helpful for people someone shouldn't have to struggle to understand what the purpose of the design is. And I feel like since I didn't understand the artists work in this design for me it is a low functionality, only because I don't know what it is suppose to be of.

No two designs will ever be the same even if they consist of doing the same thing they will always be different. It can be made in a different color, different material and will simple just have a different design. Also not every design out there in the world will be understood or made for people to use maybe it was design and made only for a display so that other people can enjoy looking at it even if it is useless to the human eye. A design is a part of art that people will continue to see every single day. 

Derek Ryden

"Blizzard Survival Bag"

Reflex-cell, polypropylene, and rubber

1998

Hiroyuki Tazawa

"Rescue Board 709"

Recycled Paper

1998

Paul Haustein

"Coffee Service"

Pewler-silver alloy

1904

Anthony Dunn & Fiona Ruby

" Designs for an Overpopulated Planet: Foragers"

Augment Digestive System, Tree Processor/Digestor, Grass Processor

and Algae Digestor made from Fiber Glass

2009

Illustrate a Story

     The story I listened to was "The school buses were already lined up to take the kids home," by Kenneth Honeycutt and his story was about the school bus explosion back in 1937. He was 8 years old in the 3rd grade when the school bus exploded happened in 1937. He said that when this event had happened he felt as if it was God's fault for that horrible event he had to witness. He believed it was God's fault until he was an adult. The part that really stood out to me in Kenneth's story was the fact that he blamed God for so many years for the school bus explosion. So I decided to create a drawing showing  a school bus on fire with two big hands throwing a fire ball. The two big hands that I drew is suppose to resemble God "creating" the school bus explosion that Kenneth thought he had started. I hope you enjoy Kenneth Honeycutt's amazing story and my illustration of his story.

MoMa PS1: The Good, The Bad and The Misunderstood

This pass week I had another great opportunity to go and visit the MoMA PS1. At this MoMa I saw different types of art at this MoMa than the MoMA in the city. The art work in this museum was the type of art that I have never seen before. The art work was displaced on different floors portraying different types of art from your regular painting on a canvas to art work being displayed on a big screen. I will discuss the art that I would say would be "good" art, the art work that I would describe as "bad" art, and piece of art work that I just couldn't understand.

The one piece of art work that caught my attention wasn't your typical art work that hangs on the wall in the museum. It was Janet Cardiff's "The Forty Part Motet" that caught more then my eye at the exhibit. She had place forty speakers around a huge room with each speaker letting out a different sound. When I first walked into the all white room with the beautiful music playing I felt like I had enter the gates of heaven. Like at the very moment nothing in the world mattered because where I was at that very moment was where I wanted to be. When I got to the center of the room and sat down on the bench hearing the music all the stress that I had in me was just simply released. It is art work like that that I would say is "good" art. Art work that can change my whole mood.

The one piece of art work that I personally didn't like was Frances Stark "My Best Thing." Stark's art work was portrayed in a video. The video was talking about how people do sexual things over the internet in chat rooms. The video was set with little avatars that almost looked like Adam and Eve from the bible to me. They spoke in this robotic voice that was very annoying and it made me feel like I couldn't stay in the room long enough to fully understand what the video was saying. I'm sure that the video had a great story line that people should listen to since the internet is such a dangerous place but I didn't like how she put it together with the neno background color and the annoying robotic voices. That piece of art is something that I would say is "bad" art.

The one art work that I didn't understand at all was Darren Bader "Chicken Burrito, Beef Burrito." This art work was just a white room with windows and music. I don't understand why this was called chicken burrito, beef burrito when there was absolutely nothing that was related to a chicken or beef burrito at all. I don't think I will ever understand this piece of art even if someone gave me their interpretation of what they think. I think it's just one of those pieces of art work that no one will even fully understand what Bader meant to portray.

Every person has their own view and opinion of art work. Something that I saw as "good" art someone else reading this blog might see it as something amazing and vise versa with the "bad" being seen as "good." An artist is meant to tell a story with the work and every painting, video, or musical piece of art is meant to tell a story and to make us feel a certain way.

Janet Cardiff
"The Forty Part Motet"
40-Track Sound Recording (14:00 minutes), 40 Speakers
2001.

Frances Stark
"My Best Thing"
Video (Sound, Color)
2011

Darren Bader
Chicken Burrito, Beef Burrito