Assignment 10: Postmodernism+Remix

Postmodernist and ‘remix’ techniques are a vibrant part of our design culture today. Find an example of contemporary design— 2D or 3D—and post it to your blog along with a description of what techniques it utilises and how they serve to ‘add meaning’ to the work.

Deconstructivism is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. it is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure’s surface or skin, non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope.

Figure 1.Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by  Canadian-American architect Frank O.Gehry,built by Ferrovial and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The ingenuity of Frank O.Gehry, the use of advanced software made by the French aerospace company Dassault – capable of transforming utopian designs into reality by supplanting the right angles of Euclidean geometry.The architect said that 'the randomness of the curves are designed to catch the light'.It is striking because of its series of concave and convex surfaces, dressed in stone and titanium plates that change colour according to the amount of sunlight and reflect in the waters of the Nervión(Prina, 2006).Computer simulations of the building's structure made it feasible to build shapes that architects of earlier eras would have found nearly impossible to construct.

Almost from the moment it opened to public in 1997 until now, that museum was hailed as one of the most important building of the 20 century. His spaces use unlike any others of the presentation of art. Make the whole things related to each other in the urban context. So that is why people even give Frank O.Gehry a nickname ‘the other Frank’.And also it was widely credited with the idea 'putting Bilbao on the map'.

Reference: 


 Figure 1.Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Retrieved from: http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/secciones/multimedi/salvapantallas_fondos.php?idioma=en 

Guggenheim_Museum_Bilbao Retrieved from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_Museum_Bilbao

Deconstructivism Retrieved from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstructivism


Prina, Francesca (2006) 1000 Years of World Architecture: an illustrated guide London: Thames & Hudson

Woodham, J. (1997). Pop to Post-Modernism: Changing Values in Twentieth-Century Design (pp.182-203) Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press

Assignment 9:Politics of Design: the Cold war, modernism + democracy

What kinds of political or ideological messages inform design or the branding of design today? Identify one example and describe in what ways it expresses larger cultural, political, or ideological beliefs.

KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. Sanders first served his fried chicken in 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression at a gas station he owned in North Corbin, Kentucky. Why the fast food restaurants can be such popular just in this half century? Because it expresses the cultural: The country grows at a fast pace, people life style become much busier than before. 

That is only one reason why it can be such successfully. Our world need to around with the symbolic. An example of design that gives us ideological message to inform design today is the KFC logo --- Sanders’ smile. 

Sanders sold the entire KFC franchising operation in 1964. Also the chain has been sold lots of times. But the company will never change their logo. Because its already come into people’s mind. Sander had his joke about ‘His smile is the good trademark’

IBM change its logo try to give the more meaning and moderism to themselves. Such the same idea with KFC.

 Figure 1: KFC logo

Reference:

Retrieved at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC 

Pavitt, J. (2008). Design and the Deomocratic Ideal, Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970 (pp. 72-91) London: V&A Publishing.

Assignment 8 Modernism:standardisation,rationalisation,and the search for the universal

Do you agree or disagree with the position that design is a result of “function x economy”? Do you think design today an ‘art’ or a ‘science’? Should it be one or the other, or can it be both?

Hannes Meyer argued that design is a product of “function x economy” aligning design with a specific model driven by technologies and manufacturing potential.

I agree some of idea about Meyer. Let us think about past, the design need to function x economy to help them. These based on the that fact, so something to be consider design. It might be serve a employer or owner but it just means of technology. László Moholy-Nagy stated that“Before the machine, everyone is equal…There is no tradition intechnology, no consciousness of classor standing. Everybody can be themachine’s slave or master.”As time goes by, design has been every parts of our lifestyle. Just we did not notice it.

I think art and science can be both used into design. Because from the side of art, can show people more savour taste about their life. But by the economic times it also changes human behavior. So we need to create some good idea help our busy life become more and more efficiently and comfortable. ‘The new art has brought forward what the new consciousness of time contains: a balance between the universal and the individual.’(p.167)

References：

Raizman, D. (2004). The First Machine Age in Europe, in History of Modern Design (pp. 166-191) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.

Assignment 7

In this week’s lecture we discussed the concept of the “symbolic universe” as a cultural “structure of legitimation” capable of organizing the social world as comprehensible and connected. The structure of the symbolic universe then, places the individual in a known and knowable space. Such social structures are critical for societies in transition. Can you identify the creation of any “symbolic universe” today (or in recent years)? How might media and design be implicated in the construction of these social universes today?

An example of a “symbolic universe” today (or in recent years) is the search engine. Like Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in internet search, cloud computing, advertising technologies, and search engines. Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. By 1996 usage of the word internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web. “Symbolic universes are created to provide legitimation to the created institutional structure. Symbolic universes are a set of beliefs “everybody knows” that aim at making the institutionalized structure plausible for the individual”(The social construction of reality, P.Berger,T.Luckmann, 1966)

I believe that this is an example of a “symbolic universe” because it’s creating a new way of people thinking. People used to learn by someone else or reading book to get knowledge if they do not know something. The search engine give us great opportunity to get using it. The future will be the internet. The internet, this new media has affected this social universe

Reference: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Construction_of_Reality

Assignment 6

In this week’s reading Benjamin argues, "To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense” Do you agree or disagree? Do you think there is a role for the ‘authentic’ in an age of digital design and manufacture?

Benjamin argues “to an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense”

I agree with there is a role for the “authentic” in an age of digital design and manufacture. The same reason likes the work of art. The example that I choose is Steven Paul Jobs. He is a famous former CEO & chairman at Apple Inc. He becomes so famous and successfully because he is a unique person, and he did such a great work in this period of time. “Even the most perfect reproduction of artwork of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” From these sentences we can see the replica does not have the element: time and space. So that is the reason why the aura, the original thing is so wonderful. I think to make this age the work of art can be original, it also depend on the time and space. The digital technology like cameras may be used by the famous photographer to the normal people. Some things that might copy by the original, but you cannot reach the original’s competency. Because it success can't be reproduced.

Reference: 

http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com/being/being.html

Benjamin, W. (1992) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (pp. 211-244 ) in Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn. London: Fontana.

Assignment 5: Colour

In my opinion, the experience and experimentation of artists has influenced our understanding of colour. A theory of ‘colour vision’ gives us an understanding on when we can use some colours to communicate the idea, to share some idea.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20^th century art for its vivid colours and emotional impact.

The colour of Van Gogh’s painting had strong contrast. “Black, said Cassagne, was the most fundamental colour in nature, entering into all three primaries to form an infinite variety of greys, those greys which were an important feature of van Gogh’s palette in Holland and with which he was still seeking to come to terms in Arles”(Gage,1993 p.205) But it has an emotional impact. Kandinsky (1914) stated that “But to a more sensitive soul the effect of colours is deeper and intensely moving...Psychological effect produce a correspondent spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that they physical impression is of importance.”

Artists use the light, shadows and different emotion inside their mind to influenced our understanding of colour. I think Van Gogh is a great example to prove that.


Reference:

Gage, J. (1993). Colours of the Mind in Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (pp.191-212). New York: Thames and Hudson.

Kandinsky, W. (1914) Concerning the Spiritual in Art in P. Alperson, The Philosophy of the Visual Arts (1992, pp.129-145). New York, Oxford University Press.

Assignment 4

Adolf Loos argued in 1908 that ‘The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.’ I agree with his view.

As we know, a great response to urbanization, industrialization and immigration, as it had never quite happened before. However, like he said ‘Ornament is wasted manpower and therefore wasted health. It has always been like this. But today it also means wasted material... ’ He thought as ornament need to be related to our culture, is necessarily always true to its purpose. But during his period it has no potential for development. It is not only remains the art of construction, it should go back to the basics, to construct it well. He repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau.

The image I use is The House of Michaeleplatz ("Looshaus") is Loo's most famous building, one of the most modern office buildings in Vienna, the steel concrete construction provides wide structural spans with flexible space use. Because of the lack of ornaments, peole called it the 'house without eyebrows'. 



The image receive from: http://alin87111.blog.163.com/blog/static/64524522007429105328238/

Assignment 3

Owen Jones argued that ‘construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed.’ That means he advocated the use of models from other period and cultures, and also allowed for the possibility of constructing original patterns base upon the study of a nature tempered by the rules he enumerated. In The Grammar of Ornament (1856), he said “Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornament, but conventional representations founded upon them sufficiently suggestive to convey the intended image to the mind, without destroying the unity of the object they are employed to decorate.”

I agree with his opinion, ornament and color was adopted for the decoration of buildings during that time. However, not every complex pattern, luxurious or aesthetic decoration fit with the construction. They can serve them, then will have organic combination with each other.

       

The Steiner House, Vienna, 1910      

The picture I have added is the Steiner house in Vienna. Adolf Loos work leads directly into Modern architecture. He carried on a determined argument against decoration – architecture should be utilitarian. I think it is a good example of 'construction decorated'. He argues that to put all of the attention in the austere exterior and not consider what was going on in the stylized interior negates the classical values that are manifest through the building. For Loos, the exterior was the public side of the house, that is the reason for the bare wall surfaces. Inside his buildings used spaces in relation to their function. Steiner House is without ornament, symmetrical, the different size of the windows reflect the different functions of the spaces.



Image from: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Steiner_House.html



Assignment two

Norman Melancton Bel Geddes (1893- 1958) was a designer who focused on aerodynamics. He provided the new word---streamlined shape, this idea came from high-speed flying bird, the fish body, and the Nineteenth Century nature and life sciences. And this style also represent ‘speed’ ‘accuracy’, and ‘efficiency’.

 

The sensuous impulse looks to nature for models that feature the sinuous S-curve. I think nowadays a lot of products such as airplanes, cars, furniture and etc use the streamlined shape. Car is the typical one in all of them. It is a result of the ‘sensuous Impulse’. Like Hunter-Stiebel said ‘The evidence of three centuries suggests that the rococo spirit is alive and well. Whatever may be touted as tomorrow’s trend, somebody, somewhere, will be ‘creating something sinuous, organic, and sensuous’

Company engineers look to biology for inspiration, studying the structure of insect wings to design car-body structures. To develop the top-of-the-line R8 sports car, Audi studied the streamlined shape of a swimming penguin.

Aerodynamics

Reference image:

http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~vivek/research/index.html

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/04/0417_mostinnovative/source/23.htm

Assignment one

Postmodernism in architecture is most commonly understood as a stylistic phenomenon. Yet it should be understood first in the context of what the movement opposed, and second in what it affirmed. The very term- Postmodernism - indicated the distinction enthusiasts for the new approach intended in the early 1970s: an architecture differentiated from and following in the wake of Modernism.

These architects turned towards the past, quoting past aspects or various buildings and melding them together to create a new means of designing buildings. Several different styles put together in the same building e.g. classical columns mixed with patterned tiled areas and blocks of bright colour seen in the Piazza d'italia.