Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles and Ray Eames
1. Charles and Ray Eames are an amazing couple who have contributed a variety and an abundance of work to the design world. In the twentieth century they created architecture, books, films, furniture, graphics, museum exhibitions, photography, textiles, and toys.
In his youth Charles Eames always excelled in school and was even voted “most likely to succeed.” However when he went to study architecture at
2. Before moving to
3. Originally, they used a handmade machine to mold the plywood, called the Kazam! Machine. Shown on the left. Then, new machines for compression, molding, sawing and trimming, allowed then to further their experiments and develop components. On the right is an image of LCM and DCM chairs designed in 1946 and manufactured by Herman Miller Furniture Company.
4. In learning about the work of Charles and Ray, what I found interesting and useful is their design methods. Process was a key part of learning. Through the process of molding wood they were able to understand the nature of the material and use it in unexpected ways. They developed ideas through sketching and studying the human body. Rigorous experimentation, trial and error, and continuously working on new iterations of their designs are how they developed their ideas and improved their work. On the upper left: Plaster cast models. They were always protyping and testing their designs. Gentle curves were ergonomic and comfortable for the human body. Their designs were affordable and multifunctional. They eventually created dining chairs, tables, and storage units.
5. & 6. These are two examples of the Arts and Architecture magazines. Ray designed the graphics for the covers in 1942-1944. Two textiles and patterns (1947)
Some monochromatic, other with bold color palettes, repetitions of abstract geometric, hand drawn patterns. Her work was modern and humanistic; abstract yet approachable.
7. During the Great Depression as many of the WW2 veterans were returning home, there was a shortage of housing and construction materials. So, the California Arts and Architecture magazine sponsored Case Study Houses to find solutions to these problems. The Eames' designed Case Study #8 in Pacific Palisades, California in 1949. They used industrial materials such as, factory sash windows, commercial doors, and corrugated steel roofing. The design had a flexible plan with multi purpose spaces and a double height living room. This was characteristic of postwar modern architecture.
8. They also developed more designs for chairs and chaises using new materials: molded fiberglass, metal wire. Middle image shows one of the earliest designs from the 1940 MOMA “Organic Design” competition that Charles and Saarinen designed using molded plywood, foam rubber, and fabric. They won first place, which allowed them to be recognized and lead to the design of the other chairs.
9. In the 50’s they continued to do graphic design, and also started a collection of photography, and began creating films. Both his photography and films tried to see found objects in new ways and were explorations of the ordinary. They also worked on a numerous museum exhibitions including: the India Report; Mathematics, Numbers and Beyond; the THINK exhibition for IBM at the NY World Fair, and The world of Franklin and Jefferson. Some films were documentary, scientific, and educational and others were simple short stories. Some titles of their films: (their first film) Traveling Boy, Toccata for Toy Trains, House after five years of living, which is a series of photographs documenting their life and home, and Computer Perspective (1971). Here are some examples of their photography collection which is now in the Congress Library. The Famous Film, Blacktop, 1952, also expresses their interest in the ordinary. It is a video demonstrating the abstract beauty of water washing down asphalt of a schoolyard.
10. Their most famous film is Powers of Ten from 1977. The film depicts the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten . The camera zooms in and out starting at a man at a picnic going out to the universe and into the atoms. Every 10 seconds, goes 10x farther out, as you zoom out time changes because of the speed of light.
11. What is Design? 1972 film_ Diagram from 1969 Exhibition in
· Recognition of a need and then Address itself to the need
· Expression of purpose, which may later be judged as art
· A method of action
· Design is useful, Pleasure is useful > take pleasure seriously!
· Design depends on constraints
· Process, experimentation, various iterations allow for development
· Don’t limit yourself to one method or material
Sources:
Whimsical works: the playful designs of Charles & Ray Eames / [exhibition held]
An Eames primer / Eames Demetrios.
Eames design : the office of Charles and Ray Eames, 1941-1978 / by John and Marilyn Neuhart with Ray Eames.
Connections, the work of Charles and Ray Eames : Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, December 7, 1976-February 6, 1977 / exhibition design by John and Marilyn Neuhart ; essay by Ralph Caplan ; introd. by Phillip Morrison ; photos. by the office of Charles and Ray Eames. [
The Eames lounge chair : an icon of modern design / Martin Eidelberg ... [et al.].
Charles and Ray Eames : designers of the twentieth century / Pat Kirkham. Edition 1st MIT Press pbk. ed.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bruno Munari (1907-1998)
Early Years Bruno Munari was born in Milan on Octuber 24th, 1907. He spent his early years in a small town in the provincia of Veneto nearby the beautiful nature of the Adige River. His experiences playing by the river, the waterwheel, in the grass, and trees had great influence in him. He studied at the Technical Institute in Naples in 1924. After that, he stared his career in his uncle studio in Milan where he meets Filippo Marinetti, widely known as the author of the Futurist Manifesto. Although he didn’t spend much time in his uncle’s studio, this experience convinced him that his artistic work should always be approached as a job rather than a stylist undertaking, thereby he was not dependent of the art market that was dictated by a continuously changing tastes, and this is reflected in his “style” of design or the way he designed in his hole career.
Futurist Movement
Futurism was an art movement that praised speed and machinery; the movement attempted to destroy all stereotypes and traditional sense of values. Futurism had both anarchist and Fascist elements, later became an active supporter of Mussolini.
Munari saw things from quite a different perspective - he believed that "human beings shall be masters of machinery.” (see the useless machine series)
His futurist work led to experimentation with abstraction, but it was abstraction free of formalist dogma. Munari took of the Futurism the idea of expression and experimentation of new forms that were not tide to the past
.
The Useless Machine
Showed out of his interest in the machine combined with his desire to create machines that were pacific, representing only themselves through their colors and the movement of forms.
“In primo plano”
In 1929, Munari worked as Graphic designer in a number of advertising studios including Cassio’s IPC where he pioneer the use of animated cartoons in Italian advertising and worked as a designer and illustrator for several magazines.
In 1930 he opened a graphic design studio with Ricardo Ricas (R+M). His designs of the period show influence of Enrico Prampolini and Herbert Bayes and they often made reference to human figure. From 1930 to 1940 his work ranged from painting to sculpture, photography (including photomontages and film) and set design
Negative Positives
Attempts to break out the confines of the plane of the painting, the same form can be background or foreground. This shows his fascination for breaking the plane and reducing design to its simplest form.
Post WW2
It is until after World War Two that Munari starts to focus in Industrial Design. He had worked in industrial design to a limited extend prior to the war, designing ceramic tiles, furniture, interior designs and fabric design.
His believes in how industrial design should be were reflected in his work by:
• Reducing design to its simplest form
• Using unadorned materials
• They are so simple as to appear anonymous
In 1948 founded Movimento Arte Concreta that tried to reconcile architecture, industrial design and visual arts. However this attempt to synthesize the arts was filled with disagreement and lasted only 10 years.
Designing for Children
“Children with great creative minds are happy children” Bruno Munari
Munari had been trying out radical innovations in graphics and typography, but it was not until after World War II that he began to design and produce book-objects. After the birth of his son Alberto, he was disturbed by the lack of educational books available for children and he began writing and illustrating his own books. His children’s books were simple, provocative learning tools.
His books were intended not just to amuse but also to improve the quality of the learning experience. Some of his books were: “Le Machine de Munari” 1945, “Tic, Tac and Toe” 1959 “Bruno Munari’s ABC” 1960, “Bruno Munari’s Zoo” 1963, among many others.
Product design for children
In 1977 started the laboratories “Play with art” to stimulate the children creativity that are still on going. The result of this “workshops” was the Metodologia Bruno Munari® witch is a methodology for education and formation of the individual that is based on the affinity of children to express themselves freely without the interference of the adults, becoming independent and learning to resolve the problems by themselves
Philosophy Overview
Munari’s work might be defined as lacking a definable style, his style was to design correctly for the particular purpose. He believed that the imposition of the designer’s style was inappropriate because its not essential to the function of the designed object.
“If the form of an object turns out to be beautiful it will be thanks to the logic of its construction, and to the precision of the solutions found for its various components. Its ‘beautiful’ because its right” Bruno Munari
The interesting thing of Bruno Munari’s work was that it didn’t necessary had a defined timeline. While he was doing Futurist exhibitions he was also working as a graphic designer and opening his graphic design studio, painting, sculpting, photography, and set design during the same period. He started with Industrial Design and writing Children’s books, poems, manifestos. So he really was part of all artistic expressions.
Design Methodology: Proyectual Methodology
Metodología proyectual:
Consiste en unas operaciones necesarias, en un orden lógico dictado por la experiencia. Su finalidad es conseguir un máximo resultado con el mínimo esfuerzo. En el campo del diseño no es correcto proyectar sin método, pensar de forma artística buscando una idea sin hacer previamente un estudio.
Creatividad no quiere decir improvisación sin método: de esta manera solo se genera una confusión. La serie de operaciones del método proyectual para el diseñador no es algo absoluto, es algo modificable, si se encuentra un objetivo que mejore el proceso.
Pasos:
Definición del problema
Lo primero que hay que hacer es definir el problema en su conjunto. Muchos diseñadores creen que los problemas ya han sido suficientemente definidos por sus clientes, pero esto no es en absoluto suficiente, por lo tanto es necesario empezar por la definición del problema, que servirá también para definir los límites en los que deberá moverse el proyectista.
Elementos del problema
Cualquier problema puede ser descompuesto en sus elementos. Esta operación facilita la proyectación porque tiende a descubrir los pequeños problemas particulares que se ocultan tras los subproblemas. Una vez resueltos los pequeños problemas de uno en uno (y aquí empieza a intervenir la creatividad abandonando la idea de buscar una idea), se recomponen de forma coherente a partir de todas las características funcionales de cada una de las partes y funcionales entre sí, a partir de las características materiales, psicológicas, ergonómicas, estructurales, económicas y, por último, formales.
El principio de descomponer un problema en sus elementos para poder analizarlo procede del método cartesiano. Como los problemas, sobre todo hoy en día, se han convertido en muy complejos y a veces en complicados, es necesario que el diseñador tenga toda una serie de informaciones sobre cada problema particular para poder proyectar con mayor seguridad.
Descomponer el problema en sus elementos quiere decir descubrir numerosos subproblemas. Cada subproblema tiene una solución óptima que no obstante puede estar en contradicción con las demás. La parte más díficil del trabajo del diseñador será la de hacer compatibles las diferentes soluciones con el proyecto global. La solución del problema general consiste en la coordinación creativa de las soluciones de los subproblemas.
Recopilación de datos
En esta etapa se define qué datos convendrá recopilar para decidir luego los elementos que constituyen el proyecto. Es evidente que, antes de pensar en cualquier posible solución, es mejor documentarse, no vaya a ser que alguien se nos haya adelantado. No tiene sentido ponerse a pensar en un tipo de solución sin saber que el objeto en el que estamos trabajando ya existe en el mercado. Por supuesto se encontrarán muchos ejemplos que habrá que descartar pero al final, eliminando los duplicados y los tipos que nunca podrán ser competitivos, tendremos una buena recopilación de datos. Después se recopilan datos de para los elementos o partes del problema (subproblemas)
Análisis de datos
El análisis de todos los datos recogidos puede proporcionar sugerencias sobre que es lo que no hay que hacer para proyectar bien una objeto, y puede orientar la proyectación hacia otros materiales, otras tecnologías, otros costos.
Creatividad
La creatividad reemplazará a la idea intuitiva, vinculada todavía a la forma artístico-romántica de resolver un problema. Así pues, la creatividad ocupa el lugar de la idea y procede según su método. Mientras la idea, vinculada a la fantasía, puede proponer soluciones irrealizables por razones técnicas, materiales o económicas, la creatividad se mantiene en los límites del problema, límites derivados del análisis de los datos y de los subproblemas.
Materiales - tecnologías
La operación consiste en otra pequeña recolección de datos relacionados a los materiales y a las tecnologías que el diseñador tiene a su disposición en aquel momento para realizar su proyecto. La industria que ha planteado el problema al diseñador dispondrá ciertamente de una tecnología propia para fabricar determinados materiales y no otros.
Experimentación
Es ahora cuando el diseñador realizará una experimentación de los materiales y las técnicas disponibles para realizar su proyecto. Muy a menudo materiales y técnicas son utilizados de una única forma o de muy pocas formas según la tradición. Muchos industriales dicen: “Siempre lo hemos hecho así, ¿por qué habría que cambiar?”. En cambio la experimentación permite descubrir nuevos usos de un material o de un instrumento.
Modelos
Estas experimentaciones permiten extraer muestras, pruebas, informaciones, que pueden llevar a la construcción de modelos demostrativos de nuevos usos para determinados objetivos. Estos nuevos usos pueden ayudar a resolver subproblemas parciales que a su vez, junto con los demás, contribuirán a la solución global.
Como se desprende de este esquema de método, todavía no hemos hecho ningún dibujo, ningún boceto, nada que pueda definir la solución. Todavía no sabemos qué forma tendrá lo que hay que proyectar. Pero en cambio tenemos la seguridad de que el margen de posibles errores será muy reducido.
Ahora podemos empezar a establecer relaciones entre los datos recogidos e intentar alinear los subproblemas y hacer algún boceto para construir modelos parciales. Estos bocetos hechos a escala o a tamaño natural pueden mostrarnos soluciones parciales de englobamiento de dos o más subproblemas. De esta forma obtendremos un modelo de lo que eventualmente podrá ser la
solución del problema.
Verificación
Este es el momento de llevar a cabo una verificación del modelo o de los modelos (puede ocurrir que las soluciones posibles sean más de una). Se presenta el modelo a un determinado número de probables usuarios y se les pide que emitan un juicio sincero sobre el objeto en cuestión. En base de estos juicios se realiza un control del modelo para ver si es posible modificarlo, siempre que las observaciones posean un valor objetivo.
En base a todos estos datos anteriores se pueden empezar a preparar los dibujos constructivos a escala o a tamaño natural, con todas las medidas exactas y todas las indicaciones necesarias para la realización del prototipo.
Dibujos Constructivos
Los dibujos constructivos tendrán que servir para comunicar a una persona que no esté al corriente de nuestros proyectos todas las informaciones útiles para preparar un prototipo.
Solución
Después de todo el proceso finalmente se llega a una solución para el problema.
El esquema del método de proyectación, anteriormente explicado, no es un esquema fijo, no está completo y no es único y definitivo. Es lo que la experiencia ha dictado hasta ahora. Se insiste sin embargo en que, a pesar de tratarse de un esquema flexible, es mejor proceder, de momento, a las operaciones indicadas en el orden presentado. No obstante, si hay alguien capaz de demostrar objetivamente que es mejor cambiar el orden de alguna operación, el diseñador está siempre dispuesto a modificar su pensamiento frente a la evidencia objetiva, y es así como cada uno puede aportar su contribución creativa a la estructuración de un método de trabajo que tiende, como es sabido, a obtener el máximo resultado con el mínimo esfuerzo.
Ejemplo del arroz verde siguiendo la metodología proyectual:
Sources:
http://www.munart.org/index.php?p=6
http://brunomunari.it/Il_metodo_Bruno_Munari.htm
http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/report/rpt_34.html
Como nacen los objetos, Barcelona, Bruno Munari, 2002
Contemporary Designers, Chicago, Ill. : St. James Press, 1990
Bruno Munari : design as art / Aldo Tanchis, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1986
Futurist Movement
Futurism was an art movement that praised speed and machinery; the movement attempted to destroy all stereotypes and traditional sense of values. Futurism had both anarchist and Fascist elements, later became an active supporter of Mussolini.
Munari saw things from quite a different perspective - he believed that "human beings shall be masters of machinery.” (see the useless machine series)
His futurist work led to experimentation with abstraction, but it was abstraction free of formalist dogma. Munari took of the Futurism the idea of expression and experimentation of new forms that were not tide to the past
.The Useless Machine
Showed out of his interest in the machine combined with his desire to create machines that were pacific, representing only themselves through their colors and the movement of forms.
“In primo plano”
In 1929, Munari worked as Graphic designer in a number of advertising studios including Cassio’s IPC where he pioneer the use of animated cartoons in Italian advertising and worked as a designer and illustrator for several magazines.
In 1930 he opened a graphic design studio with Ricardo Ricas (R+M). His designs of the period show influence of Enrico Prampolini and Herbert Bayes and they often made reference to human figure. From 1930 to 1940 his work ranged from painting to sculpture, photography (including photomontages and film) and set design
Negative Positives
Attempts to break out the confines of the plane of the painting, the same form can be background or foreground. This shows his fascination for breaking the plane and reducing design to its simplest form.
Post WW2
It is until after World War Two that Munari starts to focus in Industrial Design. He had worked in industrial design to a limited extend prior to the war, designing ceramic tiles, furniture, interior designs and fabric design.
His believes in how industrial design should be were reflected in his work by:
• Reducing design to its simplest form
• Using unadorned materials
• They are so simple as to appear anonymous
In 1948 founded Movimento Arte Concreta that tried to reconcile architecture, industrial design and visual arts. However this attempt to synthesize the arts was filled with disagreement and lasted only 10 years.
Designing for Children
“Children with great creative minds are happy children” Bruno Munari
Munari had been trying out radical innovations in graphics and typography, but it was not until after World War II that he began to design and produce book-objects. After the birth of his son Alberto, he was disturbed by the lack of educational books available for children and he began writing and illustrating his own books. His children’s books were simple, provocative learning tools.His books were intended not just to amuse but also to improve the quality of the learning experience. Some of his books were: “Le Machine de Munari” 1945, “Tic, Tac and Toe” 1959 “Bruno Munari’s ABC” 1960, “Bruno Munari’s Zoo” 1963, among many others.
Product design for children
In 1977 started the laboratories “Play with art” to stimulate the children creativity that are still on going. The result of this “workshops” was the Metodologia Bruno Munari® witch is a methodology for education and formation of the individual that is based on the affinity of children to express themselves freely without the interference of the adults, becoming independent and learning to resolve the problems by themselves
Philosophy Overview
Munari’s work might be defined as lacking a definable style, his style was to design correctly for the particular purpose. He believed that the imposition of the designer’s style was inappropriate because its not essential to the function of the designed object.
“If the form of an object turns out to be beautiful it will be thanks to the logic of its construction, and to the precision of the solutions found for its various components. Its ‘beautiful’ because its right” Bruno Munari
The interesting thing of Bruno Munari’s work was that it didn’t necessary had a defined timeline. While he was doing Futurist exhibitions he was also working as a graphic designer and opening his graphic design studio, painting, sculpting, photography, and set design during the same period. He started with Industrial Design and writing Children’s books, poems, manifestos. So he really was part of all artistic expressions.Design Methodology: Proyectual Methodology
¿Cómo nacen los objetos? By Bruno Munari
Metodología proyectual:
Consiste en unas operaciones necesarias, en un orden lógico dictado por la experiencia. Su finalidad es conseguir un máximo resultado con el mínimo esfuerzo. En el campo del diseño no es correcto proyectar sin método, pensar de forma artística buscando una idea sin hacer previamente un estudio.
Creatividad no quiere decir improvisación sin método: de esta manera solo se genera una confusión. La serie de operaciones del método proyectual para el diseñador no es algo absoluto, es algo modificable, si se encuentra un objetivo que mejore el proceso.
Pasos:
Definición del problema
Lo primero que hay que hacer es definir el problema en su conjunto. Muchos diseñadores creen que los problemas ya han sido suficientemente definidos por sus clientes, pero esto no es en absoluto suficiente, por lo tanto es necesario empezar por la definición del problema, que servirá también para definir los límites en los que deberá moverse el proyectista.
Elementos del problema
Cualquier problema puede ser descompuesto en sus elementos. Esta operación facilita la proyectación porque tiende a descubrir los pequeños problemas particulares que se ocultan tras los subproblemas. Una vez resueltos los pequeños problemas de uno en uno (y aquí empieza a intervenir la creatividad abandonando la idea de buscar una idea), se recomponen de forma coherente a partir de todas las características funcionales de cada una de las partes y funcionales entre sí, a partir de las características materiales, psicológicas, ergonómicas, estructurales, económicas y, por último, formales.
El principio de descomponer un problema en sus elementos para poder analizarlo procede del método cartesiano. Como los problemas, sobre todo hoy en día, se han convertido en muy complejos y a veces en complicados, es necesario que el diseñador tenga toda una serie de informaciones sobre cada problema particular para poder proyectar con mayor seguridad.
Descomponer el problema en sus elementos quiere decir descubrir numerosos subproblemas. Cada subproblema tiene una solución óptima que no obstante puede estar en contradicción con las demás. La parte más díficil del trabajo del diseñador será la de hacer compatibles las diferentes soluciones con el proyecto global. La solución del problema general consiste en la coordinación creativa de las soluciones de los subproblemas.
Recopilación de datos
En esta etapa se define qué datos convendrá recopilar para decidir luego los elementos que constituyen el proyecto. Es evidente que, antes de pensar en cualquier posible solución, es mejor documentarse, no vaya a ser que alguien se nos haya adelantado. No tiene sentido ponerse a pensar en un tipo de solución sin saber que el objeto en el que estamos trabajando ya existe en el mercado. Por supuesto se encontrarán muchos ejemplos que habrá que descartar pero al final, eliminando los duplicados y los tipos que nunca podrán ser competitivos, tendremos una buena recopilación de datos. Después se recopilan datos de para los elementos o partes del problema (subproblemas)
Análisis de datos
El análisis de todos los datos recogidos puede proporcionar sugerencias sobre que es lo que no hay que hacer para proyectar bien una objeto, y puede orientar la proyectación hacia otros materiales, otras tecnologías, otros costos.
Creatividad
La creatividad reemplazará a la idea intuitiva, vinculada todavía a la forma artístico-romántica de resolver un problema. Así pues, la creatividad ocupa el lugar de la idea y procede según su método. Mientras la idea, vinculada a la fantasía, puede proponer soluciones irrealizables por razones técnicas, materiales o económicas, la creatividad se mantiene en los límites del problema, límites derivados del análisis de los datos y de los subproblemas.
Materiales - tecnologías
La operación consiste en otra pequeña recolección de datos relacionados a los materiales y a las tecnologías que el diseñador tiene a su disposición en aquel momento para realizar su proyecto. La industria que ha planteado el problema al diseñador dispondrá ciertamente de una tecnología propia para fabricar determinados materiales y no otros.
Experimentación
Es ahora cuando el diseñador realizará una experimentación de los materiales y las técnicas disponibles para realizar su proyecto. Muy a menudo materiales y técnicas son utilizados de una única forma o de muy pocas formas según la tradición. Muchos industriales dicen: “Siempre lo hemos hecho así, ¿por qué habría que cambiar?”. En cambio la experimentación permite descubrir nuevos usos de un material o de un instrumento.
Modelos
Estas experimentaciones permiten extraer muestras, pruebas, informaciones, que pueden llevar a la construcción de modelos demostrativos de nuevos usos para determinados objetivos. Estos nuevos usos pueden ayudar a resolver subproblemas parciales que a su vez, junto con los demás, contribuirán a la solución global.
Como se desprende de este esquema de método, todavía no hemos hecho ningún dibujo, ningún boceto, nada que pueda definir la solución. Todavía no sabemos qué forma tendrá lo que hay que proyectar. Pero en cambio tenemos la seguridad de que el margen de posibles errores será muy reducido.
Ahora podemos empezar a establecer relaciones entre los datos recogidos e intentar alinear los subproblemas y hacer algún boceto para construir modelos parciales. Estos bocetos hechos a escala o a tamaño natural pueden mostrarnos soluciones parciales de englobamiento de dos o más subproblemas. De esta forma obtendremos un modelo de lo que eventualmente podrá ser la
solución del problema.
Verificación
Este es el momento de llevar a cabo una verificación del modelo o de los modelos (puede ocurrir que las soluciones posibles sean más de una). Se presenta el modelo a un determinado número de probables usuarios y se les pide que emitan un juicio sincero sobre el objeto en cuestión. En base de estos juicios se realiza un control del modelo para ver si es posible modificarlo, siempre que las observaciones posean un valor objetivo.
En base a todos estos datos anteriores se pueden empezar a preparar los dibujos constructivos a escala o a tamaño natural, con todas las medidas exactas y todas las indicaciones necesarias para la realización del prototipo.
Dibujos Constructivos
Los dibujos constructivos tendrán que servir para comunicar a una persona que no esté al corriente de nuestros proyectos todas las informaciones útiles para preparar un prototipo.
Solución
Después de todo el proceso finalmente se llega a una solución para el problema.
El esquema del método de proyectación, anteriormente explicado, no es un esquema fijo, no está completo y no es único y definitivo. Es lo que la experiencia ha dictado hasta ahora. Se insiste sin embargo en que, a pesar de tratarse de un esquema flexible, es mejor proceder, de momento, a las operaciones indicadas en el orden presentado. No obstante, si hay alguien capaz de demostrar objetivamente que es mejor cambiar el orden de alguna operación, el diseñador está siempre dispuesto a modificar su pensamiento frente a la evidencia objetiva, y es así como cada uno puede aportar su contribución creativa a la estructuración de un método de trabajo que tiende, como es sabido, a obtener el máximo resultado con el mínimo esfuerzo.
Ejemplo del arroz verde siguiendo la metodología proyectual:
Sources:
http://www.munart.org/index.php?p=6
http://brunomunari.it/Il_metodo_Bruno_Munari.htm
http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/report/rpt_34.html
Como nacen los objetos, Barcelona, Bruno Munari, 2002
Contemporary Designers, Chicago, Ill. : St. James Press, 1990
Bruno Munari : design as art / Aldo Tanchis, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1986
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Oskar Fischinger
Born on June 22, 1900, Oskar Fischinger was a pioneer abstract filmmaker from Germany. After being introduced to the work of Walter Ruttmann by Bernhard Diebold, Oskar began experimenting with a wax slicing machine, which synchronized a vertical slicer with a movie camera's shutter and enabled video of progressive cross sections.
Walter Ruttmann: Opus 1, 2, 3 and 4:
Summer of 1927: Walking from Munich to Berlin
Fischinger was hired to work making special effects with rockets and planet surfaces for Fritz Lang's 1929 science-fiction film Woman in the Moon. He broke his ankle on the set, and while in the hospital experimented with charcoal-on-paper animation. These led to his 17 Studies.
Woman in the Moon:
Study Number 6, 1930:
After Nazi takeover, Fischinger was denied permits for making more abstract films. He created Composition in Blue anyway, which won him the King's prize at the Brussels World Fair in October 1935. Paramount saved him from this dangerous position by giving him work in Hollywood. Fischinger was unhappy at Paramount because they did not allow him to work in color and edited his work undesirably.
Composition in Blue:
He then moved onto MGM where he created An Optical Poem. Due to MGM's bookkeeping process, he received no profits.
An Optical Poem:
Fischinger moved onto Disney, where he worked on the film "Tocatta and Fugue by Bach" for Fantasia, but quit because his designs were simplified and made more representational.
Later, Fischinger created Radio Dynamics, which conveyed sound and rhythm with color and shapes.
Radio Dynamics:
Fischinger turned to oil painting when frustrated by his film making. He experimented with photographing the process of his paintings by taking a photo after every brush stroke. Hilla Rebay, curator of the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, gave Fischinger several grants during the war. Fischinger struggled in particular because he was labeled an enemy alien while living in the US. After an argument with Rebay, he never again received funding to produce another film. He continued painting and invented the Lumigraph, a home light show instrument.
Fischinger utilized various methodologies in his work:
Material experiments with wax, clay, light and oil painting
Syncing music to film
Stop motion/photographing of each brush stroke while painting
Conveying sound and rhythm with color and shapes
Fischinger's influence can be seen today on Youtube and in the music video for Silent Shout by The Knife, which was inspired by Fischinger's work as well as the graphic novel Black Hole:
Silent Shout by The Knife:
Connections between Fischinger and Michel Gondry have also been made.
Michel Gondry, Bjork and a Paint-Piano:
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Fischinger
Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger By William Moritz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004
http://www.oskarfischinger.org/
www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/pdf/10.1386/jmpr.9.1.29_1
Charlotte Perriand
Le Corbusier was accused of being a misogynist by researcher Flora Samuel. She says that he saw women as sexual beings first and foremost and, in his early career, he embraced an essentially "masculine" approach to the built environment. This approach helped to marginalize women from the modernist project. Others claim that "he venerated woman as the complement of man." He saw women , especially American women, whom he regarded as 'strong and free-spoken', as modern beings embracing a new body language and therefore worthy of enormous respect. Corbusier himself once said, "Women are important agents in the march for progress."
Corbu took a chance on one woman, Charlotte Perriand, and it would result in one of the great risks of his life - with the greatest of rewards. When the 24-year-old Charlotte Perriand strode into LeCorbusier's studio at 35 rue de Sevres, Paris in 1927, and asked him to hire her as a furniture designer, his response was terse.
Perriand remembers, "Clutching a portfolio of drawings, I found myself face-to-face one October afternoon in 1927 with Le Corbusier's horn-rimmed spectacles. The austere office was somewhat intimidating, and his greeting rather frosty. "What do you want?" he asked, his eyes hooded by the glasses. "To work with you." He glanced quickly through my drawings. "We don't embroider cushions here," he replied, and showed me the door.
Perriand was born in 1903, and her life from there on out was to be divided between her childhood in Paris where her father worked as a tailor and her mother as a haute couture seamstress, and her grandparents' home in the mountainous rural region of Savoie. In 1920, she enrolld as a student at the Ecole de l'Union des Arts Decoratifs and studied there for five years.
Her childhood exposed her to the limitations of female professionals in the workforce. Her mother was summoned to Paris when she was fifteen. She went on a hunger strike and temporarily returned to Moulery. It was at this point that she swore to gain her independence. She went back to Paris, having won the promise from her parents that she could work. Opting for the couturier trade, she was taken on for a short time by the tailors’ assistants, but was too pretty and had to move from one job to the next, which earned her the tag of “unstable” by her mother.
Frustrated by the craft-based approach and Beaux-Arts style championed by the school, Perriand searched for inspiration in the machine aesthetic of the motor cars and bicycles she saw on the Paris streets. After graduation, she got married to the first of her eventual two husbands. She remembers, “I decided to get married, out of defiance perhaps. He was called Percy. “An Englishman? Why an Englishman? My father asked chauvinistically. He couldn’t understand. “No” was his answer, and every month for a whole year he continued to say, “No.” My mother remained neutral, but nonetheless tried to make me see that I wasn’t cut out for marriage. I got divorced a few years later, despite being forbidden to do so by the religious authorities. Yet, at the time marriage was the only way for the chrysalis I was to turn into a butterfly, and a butterfly is a creature that takes flight."
She was determined to avoid working for one of the artisanal furniture manufacturers on Faubourg Saint-Antoine, but despairing of finding a more empathetic way of earning a living in furniture design, Perriand considered studying agriculture, until a friend suggested that she read two books by Le Corbusier, 1923’s Vers une Architecture and 1925’s L’Art Decoratif d’Aujourd’hui.
Before Perriand’s arrival, Le Corbusier had furnished his exhibition sets and buildings with carefully selected ready-made furniture. He had, however, set forth specific rules for what he expected from furniture in his 1925 book. There were three types: besoins-types or type-needs; muebles-types or type-furniture; and objets-membres humains or human-limb objects. He defined the latter as “Extensions of our limbs and adapted to human functions that are. Type-needs, type-functions, therefore type-objects and type-furniture. The human-limb objects is a docile servant. A good servant is discreet and self-effacing in order to leave his master free. Certainly, works of art are tools, beautiful tools. And long live the good taste manifested by choice, subtlety, proportion and harmony."
Perriand proceeded to put Le Corbusier’s principles into practice by developing three chairs with chromium-plated tubular steel bases for two of his 1928 projects: Maison La Roche, a house he was designing in Paris, and a pavilion for his US clients Henry and Barbara Church in the garden of their home outside the city. At Le Corbusier’s request, one chair was designed “for conversation”, this was the B301 sling back chair; another “for relaxation”, the square-shaped and chunkily upholstered LC2 Grand Confort; and a third for sleeping, the elegant B306 chaise longue recliner inspired by the sensual curves of 18th century daybeds. Perriand posed for the publicity shots of the chaise longue with crossed legs, a daringly short (for the era) skirt and a necklace of industrial ball bearings. She went on to experiment with rustic materials, such as wood and cane in the mid-1930s. This was inspired by the vernacular furniture of Savoie. By then, such materials seemed as outlandish and as radical as had her early preference for glass and metal, but Perriand was convinced that they would enable her to realize the goal of developing affordable, functional and appealing mass-manufactured furniture for the masses.
In 1937, Perriand left Le Corbusier’s studio to collaborate with Fernand Leger on a stand at the 1937 Paris Exhibition and then to work on a ski resort in Savoit. When World War II began, she returned to Paris to design prefabricated aluminum buildings with Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouve. Like so many other bold designers in the past, Perriand refused to shy away from the topic of war and the political climate of the times. She created a photomontage showing “poverty-stricken Paris” at the Salon des Arts Menagers in 1936. She writes in her journal, “September 1, 1939—war. What war? The Phony War. As Jean Giraudoux wrote in La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu in 1935, 'There’ll be no Trojan War.' The front page of Le Petit Dauphine read: 'France faces its destiny wearing hope on her lapel.'”
The German-Soviet pact was signed on August 23, 1939. She writes, “What a betrayal. It didn’t seem possible, just three years after the Franco—Soviet pact on mutual assistance. As soon as I got back to Paris, I called Jean Nicolas. He cut me short: “Don’t worry. Just be the best in your profession.” Not what I was expecting, but I left it at that.”
She continued her work in Paris until, in 1940, a friend from the rue de Sevres studio arranged for her to travel to Japan as an official advisor on industrial design to the Ministry for Trade and Industry. “On February 8, 1940, I received a radiogram from Japan: “Inviting you to work with the Trade Ministry as design consultant in decorative art. Salary of 100,000 francs a year, plus fees and travel expenses. Letter with details to follow.” Saka had vowed to show me his country, but I wasn’t sure this was a good time. There was a war on. The Third Reich and the Soviety Union had already invaded Poland. The Soviet Union had attacked Finland. I hesitated. George Monnet (who had been appointed minister of the blockade) and Germaine thought we were headed for fascism and that I should leave. Fernand Leger’s advice was even more categorical: “Take up the offer. There won’t be another.” In 1940, Japan was worlds away, hardly real, but I was adventurous and loved the unexpected.”
Her invitation came from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, now known as the MITI, which had two departments that directly concerned her work: the foreign trade department and the technical department. The technical department was directly linked to the Kogei-Shidosho (government institute for research in industrial art), the Kyoto porcelain laboratory with its Seto porcelain laboratory (well known for Setomono porcelain), and the Kyoto dye laboratory. The Kogei-Shidosho was founded in 1928 to produce industrial art: furnishings and everyday objects in wood, bamboo, metal, and lacquer that combined contemporary technology and traditional Japanese techniques. The institutes primary concern was developing items for export, and it gave artisans practice advice based on its research on technique and design.
She reflects, “I was convinced that it was a good thing the Japanese’s minds weren’t cluttered with past Western styles, modern-day gadgets, and many different furnishing, all of which inhibit creativity in France. The Japanese were untarnished and could spontaneously create new forms. They had to develop a critical approach to the Western world, not follow it blindly. They had to create in the modern style according to their ethic. When talking to them about their everyday lives, I suggested that they should perhaps stop carrying their babies and older children around so much on their backs, attached by wide cloth strips. It seemed to me that the froglike position of their legs against their mother’s back could be harmful. Mikami had barely finished translating when a tall fellow stood up, so upset that his face was red: “Everyone in my family carried me on their back. I was never left alone. I shared in all their activities and distractions, my mother’s, my grandfather’s, lives, as they took me out into the cool evening air, on my big sister’s back as she ran and played with other kids. I was happy. In fact, I wish I were still on their back.” He had made his point, and I had to concede.” The woman who was so well-known for the forms and movements of bodies and how to accommodate them with her furniture found herself being challenged and open to new ideas.
She set about advising the government on how to raise standards of design in Japanese industry in order to develop products for export to the West. When Japan joined the war as a German ally, she tried to return to France but, because of the naval blockade, found herself trapped in Vietnam from 1942 until 1946. During her enforced Vietnamese exile, Perriand studied local techniques of woodwork and weaving. She also married her second husband, Jacques Martin, and gave birth to their daughter, Pernette.
Back in France, Perriand revived her career. Her first project was a ski resort and in 1947 she worked with Fernand Leger on a hospital and then with Le Corbusier on his Unité d’Habitation apartment building in Marseilles. Perriand’s experiences in Japan and Vietnam continued to influence her work, which combined many of the functional elements of Japanese interior, such as sliding screen to redefine particular spaces, with the Indochinese finesse in working with natural materials, such as wood and bamboo. These themes recurred for the rest of her career in projects such as her Méribel Ski resort and the League of Nations building in Geneva.
Perriand was once interviewed by HT. The interviewer asked, “In this synthesis of arts, how do you define your role? Do you consider yourself an architect or a designer?” Charlotte replied, “I’m not an architect. In 1938, after spending ten years with Corbu, I could have said I was an “architect.” But when I came back from Japan in 1946, I would have had to pass before l’Ordre des Architectes – which is very academic – and I didn’t want to do that. I’m for teamwork. I’m very interested in the life of houses. Everything is created from within, if you will – needs, gestures, a harmony, a euphoric arrangement, if possible, in relation to an environment. In that respect, I side with architecture, I project myself outside, and I admit that there is a to and fro between the environment and the horizon. After all we are a part of the universe. So perhaps, as Confucius said, I think, man is in the universe. That is, there are no barriers.”
In one of her last interviews, Perriand stated, “The most important thing to realize is that what drives the modern movement is a spirit of enquiry, it’s a process of analysis and not a style. We worked with ideals.”
Perriand passed away in Paris in 1999.
Works Cited
“Japanese Living Room: Architect, Charlotte Perriand.” Architectural Review 101, no. 606 (June 1947), 213-14.
McLeod, Mary. “Charlotte Perriand: Her First Decade as a Designer.” AA Files, no. 15 (summer 1987), 4-13. Excerpt in Architectural Review 181, no. 1079 (Jan. 1987) 43-46.
McLeod, Mary (editor). Charlotte Perriand: An Art of Living. Harry N. Abrams/The Architectural League of New York, New York: 2003.
Perriand, Charlotte. Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation. Monacelli Press, New York: 2003.
Renato De Fusco. Le Corbusier: Designer Furniture, 1929. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s, 1977.
Samuel, Flora. Le Corbusier: Architect and Feminist. Wiley-Academy, 2004.
Teicher, Hendel. “Collective affinity (architect Charlotte Perriand)”. Interview. Artforum International 37.10 (Summer 1999): p126(4).
Monday, September 29, 2008
Documenting the Face of America
Interesting documentary on PBS that follows the work of Roy Stryker (mentioned in Cynthia Henthorn's book): http://www.documentingamerica.org/Preview.html
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Shel Silverstein
I've always loves Shel Silvertein's books and poems. His current website is just as great as his work.
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