Design and the Elastic Mind
Author of this post: Johanna Lenander | About Blog Authors »
When most designers create a chair they make a sketch and build a prototype. When Swedish design collective Front create a chair they hook up a motion capture sensor to their index fingers to draw its shape in the air. Then they send the sketch file to a laser sintering beam that slowly builds the final chair from liquid plastic. This and other ground-breaking, rule-breaking hi-tech projects are currently on display in MoMA’s new exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind, which explores the relationship between design, science and innovation.
The show features 200 objects, projects and concepts by designers, architects, scientists and engineers from all over the world that range from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. Besides Front’s motion capture furniture, there’s a vase co-created by bees, robotized graffiti art, DNA origami and a social telepresence device that creates the experience of being fully present in a non-virtual location, i.e. enabling a shy person to go on a blind date without actually being there.
There are also four commissions made especially for this exhibition: a Web-based imaginary city by Peter Frankfurt, Greg Lynn, and Alex McDowell; a Web site by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar that explores Web dating and the dynamic of relationships in a digital world; a transformable structure by Chuck Hoberman; and an architectural exploration of self-assembly and modularity across scales by Aranda/Lasch.
For those who don’t yet have access to social telepresence or don’t live near Manhattan, MoMa has created an online version of the show www.moma.org/elasticmind. The web site, conceived and designed by renowned web designer Yugo Nakamura from tha ltd, features 300 projects, including all of the works from the exhibition and an additional 50 projects unique to the Web site.
Design and the Elastic Mind
–May 12, 2008
The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, sixth floor
