23 June 2010

Oh beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain


For purple mountain majesties



Above the fruited plain!


Now, how does this stuff fit into all that talk of design around here yesterday?

5 comments:

  1. My point exactly, Beauty, clever, thought provoking over function. These are Design. Couldn't live with any of them. Oh my hay fever.......but they excite an emotion. I guess the better question is are we talking design as in Art? (Which to me these are more of an example of, even though they depict everyday objects that should be useful, they are not meant to be used.)
    Or are we talking Design in dwellings, where both Form and Function have to work? But not to say that interiors can't be Art. Boy am I going around in circles.

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  2. The Hay bedroom is actually an art installation but I needed an example of amber waves of grain or my purple mountains majesty wouldn't have made sense. The sofas are real though and they are priced to sell.

    It's hard not to talk in circles on this topic. In my mind art is different from design in that art doesn't have a job to do other than just be. Design has a job to do. I keep my definition loose enough to include things like those awful sofas because even though they're awful to me, somebody out there thinks they're pretty keen. So rather than get into a good versus bad argument, I prefer to ask if something brings order from chaos. In the sofas above, I would say that's a yes. Are they aesthetically pleasing? I say no but that's just my opinion and doesn't help define something objectively.

    More circles?

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  3. It just comes back to the same thing, really. Do you want a comfortable couch in a comfortable room in which you can quietly unwind after a difficult day doing whatever it is that you do for a living, or do you want a provocative conversation-starter? If you’re one of those who has just GOTTA be different than anyone else, then I suppose this sort of thing has its place. Personally, I’d kick it to the curb.

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  4. It's art, not design.

    Though if you were thinking about solving the problem of inner-city dogs being locked up in apartments for hours while their owners worked and they needed to relieve themselves in comfort, that couch of fruited plain might be just the thing. Is there a pull out drip pan?

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  5. Umm... on DogWalkBlog they can be art but on K&RD they are design. Since the intention of the designer was to provoke a reaction I'd call these designs successful in the sense that they accomplished what they set out to do --provoke. They don't exist to give aid and comfort to a careworn people. They exist to get a reaction. I think they're hideous and I can't imagine anyone buying something like this but still, they're successful designs.

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