Art100Su12Module12

OBJECTS BY DESIGN

Week 12

reveal huge amounts of information about the people (and the cultures) that made them.We can “read” these images to learn about other societies, and about ourselves.

Artifacts…

One category of artifacts is art.

In the West (for example, Europe and the USA), this kind of artifact has been “put on pedestal” as the most exalted kind of artifact.

Here we tend to privilege art above other kinds of artifacts.

(E.g., Krannert vs. Spurlock Museum)

Augustus St.-Gaudens, Diana,1892-4, in Philadelphia Museum of Art

Objects coded differently through how they are presented

The value of “anonymous history.”

Jules Prown

“…works of art constitute a large and special category within artifacts because their inevitable aesthetic and oc- casional ethical or spiritual (iconic) dimensions make them direct and often overt or intentional expressions of cultural belief. The self-consciously expressive character of this material, however, raises problems as well as opportunities; in some ways artifacts that express culture unconsciously are more useful as objective cultural indexes.” (Prown, “Mind in Matter,” p.2)

Siegfried Giedion

“We shall deal here with humble things, things not usually granted earnest consideration, or at least not valued for their historical import. But no more in history than in painting is it the impressiveness of the subject that matters. The sun is mirrored even in a coffee spoon.” (Giedion, “Anonymous History,” p. 294)

Relationships not facts

“Facts may occasionally be bridled within a date or a name, but not their more complex significance. The meaning of history arises in the uncovering of relationships. That is why the writing of history has less to do with facts as such than rvith their relations. These relations will vary with the shifting point of view, for, like constellations of stars, they are ceaselessly in change. Every true historical image is based on relationship, appearing in the historian's choice from among the fullness of events, a choice that varies with the century and often with the decade…” (Giedion, p. 295)

The historian’s task

“His role is to put in order in its historical setting what we experience piecemeal from day to day, so that in place of sporadic experience, the continuity of events becomes visible. An age that has lost its consciousness of the things that shape its life will know neither where it stands nor, even less, at what it aims. A civilization that has lost its memory and stumbles from day to day, from happening to happening, lives more irresponsibly than the cattle, who at least have their instincts to fall back upon.” (Giedion, p. 295)

Another category of things is “vernacular” objects.

Shaker side chair, maple with rush seating, c. 1880

These are ordinary objects which have wide popularity and whose specific origins are obscure.

Shaker side chair, maple with cane seating, c. 1880Plastic outdoor chair, c. present

Bryan Ropar with a small sample of his plastic chair collection

Maarten Baas, in collaborationwith Contrasts Gallery, ShanghaiPlastic Chair in Wood, 2008elm wood

Sam Durant, Porcelain Chairs, 2006

Design objects.

Today we’re going to look at a third category of artifacts…

We use this word often, for example:

Fashion designInterior designProduct designPackaging designAutomotive designWeb designUser interface design

What is design?

Packaging design: compare/contrast

1. What stylistic choices are made here? Let’s list as many as we can.2. What meanings do we attribute to those stylistic differences?

We need a distinction between:

Design Something made through a process

of careful consideration, often but not always credited to a specific maker.

Something made with both function and aesthetic appeal in mind.

Styling Relatively superficial, minor changes

made to enhance the novelty of an existing product.

Fashion design, or product styling?

“the human capacity to shape and make our environment, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives.”

—Heskett, p. 6

Design is:

“Very few aspects of the material environment are incapable of improvement in some significant way by greater attention being paid to their design. Inadequate lighting, machines that are not user-friendly, badly-formatted information, are just a few examples of bad design that create cumulative problems and tensions.”

—Heskett, p. 2

Design defined

Between us, as people, and the objects that surround us.

Good designers try to make this relationship a happy one.

There’s a relationship…

Formal Analysis/Semiotic Analysis

What formal/functional features do these chairs possess?What do they signify, culturally?

Side Chair, circa 1880, maple, cane seatLebanon, Massachusetts

Name three visual/functional elements of the chair.

Compare/contrast: form

Side chair, gilt and Beauvais tapestry, c. 1780

Compare/contrast: meanings

Whistler, Arrangement in Gray and Black #1, 1871

Ingres, Princesse de Broglie, 1853

Jacques-Louis David, Madame Récamier, 1800

Magritte, Perspective, 1951

The Salon of Mme Récamier, with furniture by Jacob Frères, illustration from 1849

Chaise Longue of Mme Recamier, by Jacob Frères, c. 1798

David, Madame Récamier, 1800

Gérard, Juliette Récamier, 1805

Briefly describe the visual form of the seating pictured in this photograph. Then speculate: what set of functions are implied in this design? What meanings can we infer about the people likely to be seated in each chair?