WOW. The Design Triennial, which opened yesterday, features the best design of the last 3 years, including product design, architecture, animation, industrial design, new media, fashion, print, technology...If you see one exhibit this year, this should be it!
The themes were remixing new and old, getting inspiration from nature and biology, and using technology to revisit old mediums.
Some of the highlights:
One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...made of double woven fiber optics and monofilament, these graceful hanging panels were such an interesting "remix" of traditional and modern ideas...She also had some wall coverings of woven vinyl velvet (try saying that quickly 20 times in a row) that reflected light in a really interesting way. (click image for larger view)
Suzanne Tick Inc., New York, NY
Crossform light, 2004
Photo: Carter LeBlanc
White wedding kimono from Madama Butterfly was an incredible combination of traditional and modern, and the Red Butterfly Coat and Backless Black Dress along with the White Flower Wrap were simply stunning. I wasn't surprised when my favorite cantaloupe melon bowls were also by Han Feng. The bowls in particular made me drool (and they're on sale at the museum store as well!!)
In this photo:
Han Feng, Costume from Madama Butterfly, 2005
Produced by English National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, and New York Metropolitan Opera
Photo: Johan Pearsson
At the show they had a GIANT DUNNY made of BLACKBOARD and they had multicolored chalk for everybody to write (and draw!!) whatever they wanted on it. Who doesn't love a Dunny when they see one?
Kidrobot, New York, NY
Big Mouth Dunny, 2005
Designers: Paul Budnitz and Tristan Easton
Paint design: DEPH
Vinyl
This honeycomb-like structure is made from 80% recycled post-consumer content-- they had wall panels and a workbench at the show-- when light is going through it, it manages to look at once organic and futuristic.
Panelite Workstation 2.0, 2003
Principals: Emmanuelle Bourlier and Christian B. Mitman
I couldn't stop looking at these objects. Design genius Lynn designs for Alessi...There were some amazing organic-looking cutlery items too (not pictured) that looked like something Elves would eat with when they went to dinner on the Starship Enterprise. These pieces were not of this world. Ancient and futuristic at the same time.
Greg Lynn FORM, Venice, CA
Grill prototype for Alessi, 2005
Processing, Cambridge, MA, and Los Angeles, CA
Articulate digital drawing generated in Processing, 2005
Designer: Casey Reassee more Processign projects at
processing.org
I thought it was interesting that they had this product as part of the show. The last time i was at Cooper Hewitt was for a show of appliances and furniture from the 50's and it was interesting to see a modern object that made people rethink something like the vacuum cleaner just as back then something like the automatic dishwasher was considered revolutionary. We probably have a long way to go still...
iRobot, Burlington, MA
iRobot Roomba® Scheduler Vacuuming Robot, 2002
Everybody loves to Make!
Make: Premiere Issue, 2005 check out their site
Pixar, Emeryville, CA
Edna Mode (aka "E"), The Incredibles, 2004
Designer: Teddy Newton
Collage
Photo: Pixar
Does anyone know what this is for? Well, it's pretty, anyway.
Moorhead & Moorhead, New York, NY
Tape Wound Borne, 2004
Famous prescription bottle system, where this SVA student really thougth about how people like her grandmother used medicine bottles -- and decided the small type, hard-to open, all-looking-the-same aspects of them were so familiar that no one had thought of doing something about it before.
Deborah Adler, Minneapolis, MN
Target ClearRxSM prescription system, 2004
Enchanting, from up close or afar.
Alison Berger, West Hollywood, CA
Glass Slide Chandelier, 2005
Bronze frame, 96 glass slides
I have to say I was transfixed with this tapestry...like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to see it up close, because in this small photo it looks unremarkable -- and it's not about the photo, it's more about how it's something that was never visually nor technically possible until now.
Lia Cook, Berkeley, CA
Binary Traces: Kay, 2005
Woven cotton
In the time I worked for Nike, i had 2 favorite products: Nike FREE shoes and the Presto watch...The shoe is by Hatfield, the watch is by
Scott Wilson/ Studio Mod/OOBA
Nike FREE 5.0, 2004
Designer: Tobie Hatfield
Amazing video of images transforming into themselves. The fact that they're vector graphics gives them that nice plasticky smoothness that you don't get with most computer-generated line drawings somehow.
Joshua Davis, Mineola, NY
022 - Coast of Kanagawa, 2005
Program-generated vector graphic
I wasn't surprised that Natalie Jeremijenko was represented at this show; however, I sometimes feel like i love the concept of her work but not so much the implementation. I loved the NPR show she featured in last year-- And this project is definitely fun -- feral robotic dogs!!
here's a link to more about it
Photo: Emily Nathan
CAO | Perrot Studio
Nantucket Rose Wedding installation was a gorgeous piece they showed in a video that was a walkway woven with roses, with roses planed all along it and rose petals all over the groud, that they must have done for someone's wedding -- it was magical to see and I loved how they wove the flowers into the existing canopy so that you couldn't tell what was natural and what was not.
They've also made some green bubble tiles made of fused industrial marbles-- when they showed a whole wall of the tiles, it looked like a wall of transparent seaweed.
They use recycled medicine bottles as a material and try, in their own words, to "use familiar and overlooked materials"
I am amazed at the breadth of Chip Kidd's work -- designing book covers is not easy. What a master he is to keep things feeling so fresh and unique, after 20 years of doing it!
Chip Kidd, New York, NY
Dry book cover, 2003
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: Picador
Photo: Geoff Spear
Another amazing textile piece that really underlines the new and evolving visual language that comes out of ever-improving technology (best seen up close)
Hitoshi Ujiie Design, Philadelphia, PA
Branch, 2006
Digital inkjet printing with acid dye ink on silkNot pictured but should be:
Ralph Rucci's extraordinary "Black Duchesse Satin Suspension Infanta With Olive Embroidered Insets" not only won the "longest title in the show" award but was the only piece of clothing in the show that I was dying to wear. The "DO NOT TOUCH" sign was torture-- this piece was crying out for me to grab it, put it on, and of course, star in the next Matthew Barney video like I know I'm meant to (no one reads my blog anyway so i can say stuff like that, right?).
Will Wright's Spore. It's not out yet, but they showed the Sims instead-- Spore is so much more intriguing visually that it was really missed in this show.
Rapidly Deployable Structure by Hoberman Associates: Part of a device was shown that unfolds mechanically to create a large tent -- good for emergency situations and harsh weather conditions.
When you go upstairs in the exhibit, a light sculpture that lines the entire wall sort of follows you up the stairs and plays discreet sounds-- does anybody know who it's by?
Oh, and don't forget to go see the show!!
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 @ the Cooper Hewitt MuseumLabels: art show, design, museum, new york, report
