Photos of Milan

It would have been great to get more photos of the show but because it was so massive I didn't get to look round the whole thing. The crowds were huge and I found myself being swept along, everyone there was walking around like they were in a fashion show - including myself, but then Milan is kind of a fashion show, so it was no surprise really, besides the point I was not there to see fashion I was there to see design!! 'Zona Tortona' the area which the (satellite) show was being held in was very characterful, lots of thin windy little allies, a bit like a labyrinth, if you blinked your eye, you'd get lost.

There were some memorable moments, the lights from Selux arrived late which was really annoying, they were delivered to the wrong address then lost in the middle of the busiest city in Europe, eventually when we got hold of them John Miller and I tried to put them up in the middle of the show, we got electrocuted and both of us sprang from the floor and screamed - I don't think John Miller did actually, after this we sheepishly hid them, then Andy put them up the next day.

Whilst walking around with my camera, just an innocent bystander, I got told off by a designer for taking photos of his work - kind of made me laugh as is was a bit naff. Apparently Mr Visachi was spotted outside his shop in Milan with lots of models draped prettily over him.

Got very drunk on free Campari, which initially I drank from a latex cup (!) and it tasted rank, I thought I'd been poisoned, then realised that is actually the taste of Campari, so carried on drinking, it began to taste okay after that.

The camp-site was massive with a full compliment of farm yard animals, goats, horses, chickens, sheep. It filled from five or ten tents when we arrived, to tents as far as the eye could see by the time I left. The Dumo Cathedral was one of the places I really wanted to see before leaving and was determined to visit, it was not disappointing. I got right onto the roof and could see the whole of Milan from above - beautiful.

Then on my last day at the train station arriving just a minute too late I missed the link train the the airport because the ticket machine had broken. This meant that I missed check-in, omg, I thought I would be stranded in Milan, not such a bad fate, but I kind of wanted to get back home. From the train I had to get a taxi to the airport with two others who had also missed the check-in, it was like something out of a movie, telling the taxi driver go as fast as he could, holding on to the seats with white knuckles, we got the airport and the woman who I was in the taxi with gave the driver a 100 euro note, and went charging off for the plane. After letting John know I was going to be late I had to convince security that they should let me through, eventually having run across the whole length of the airport, with my bag on my shoulder, I got to the check-in desk, and the plane was on the tarmac being taxied off, well not quite. That was a first, so nearly missing the plane, sort of funny in hindsight (not).




Zona Tortona, show area.

Chairs made from pulped recycled paper

Some sausage dogs

A home in minature - kind of holiday home, but really compact

Some tiles that I became transfixed by.

This area was just outside the exhibition space we were in, it was build up from nothing over a three day period and by the end it was like a minature street with houses.

The university on the stand next to us.

Another university with a fantastic hi-tech stand and atouch screen computer

Doors to Dumo Cathedral, the legs are polished I assume people touch them for good luck

Carol in the Cathedral

Patrick and Carol

Patrick with pigeons landing on him

A ceramic bowl, sandblasted

Students sewing t-shirts through the show

Our stand at the private view

Campari and latex cups

Another university stand

Hobbie horse
Horse sculptures

Mannequin model sitting at table

Tea/Coffee pot - 946 euros

Metal workshop

Zona Tortona bycicles

Champagne boxes

Adidas trainers

Amazing leather seats made from what look like quilts

Bench design

Dumo Cathedral

Cityscape

I don’t know whether I saw this on the net or in the library first, but I found Arne Quinze’s work really interesting. I quite like the principal, making an object out of lots of little things to create a form, which looks solid but in fact is not.

http://www.designverb.com/2007/09/19/cityscape-arne-quinze/

The process must be very laborious, I have always wondered how these designs are made, whether or not the object is planned from the placement and fixing of the first piece and then painstakingly followed right to the last, or simply cobbled together – by the look of Arne Quinze’s piece ‘Cityscape’ former would seem true.This piece was made to be placed in Brussels in conjunction with the premiering of the Mini Cooper on 14 September 2007. The shapes give the impression of being geometrically formed, not unlike a computer-generated image that has been reproduced. Though on Arne Quinze’s website the opening page contains a quote which states:

‘I love chaos, I’d like to freeze one of those sublime moments when the logic of
chaos, the only thing that is real, reveals it’s incomparable beauty and harmony.’

http://www.arnequinze.tv/#/en/home/

So it seems that his choice, would be to avoid this kind of comparison.

http://www.designverb.com/2007/09/19/cityscape-arne-quinze/

There is another similar piece he made called 'Uchronia', this was produced for the Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada 2006, and as the name suggests, the sculpture was created as a centrepiece and burned during the festival.

When I first saw his work it reminded me of Anthony Gormley’s piece ‘Quantum Cloud’ 2003 which was designed using a computer programme that randomly recorded points from an image of Anthony Gormley’s figure, these were then rearranged in 3D to form Quantum Cloud, which is 30m high and made using 1.5in steel rods.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pawoodhead/131007750/

Though I have not seen it apart from in pictures I think that the idea is very clever. I would imagine that it looks like a mass of metal rods, but then on closer inspection, the piece appears as a body within.

Going back to Qunize an interesting comparison, which he makes is the similarity of cityscape to a flock of starlings, a natural occurrence which creates awe in the spectator, and an absolutely stunning example of this was taken by photographer Richard Billingham, called 'Starlings Roosting on West Pier’ 23 October 2006.

When you observe the Starlings, the curves and the lines they make when they group together and then divide seem to create clouds across the sky which are in constant movement. They do somehow relate to to the idea of an 'organised chaos'.

A FLOCK OF STARLINGS:
The final result has the astounding precision of a startled flock of starlings,
that hangs still in the air, just for one moment, in perfect formation, before
dissolving in a seemingly chaotic pattern, but without touching each other,
in perfect control. It is a moment in which the DNA of disorder reveals it's
order. Elements or particles that seem to be organised at random suddenly
synchronise and combine into a revelation of the sublime.
City Scape, Arnie Qunize, pg 19

City Scape, Arnie Quinze pg73.

Bidonville view 03.04.09
http://www.arnequinze.tv/#/en/works/bidonville-view-030409/

Manifesto Piece

Creating a piece for the manifesto was fun, I wanted to do something which I felt would embody the idea of a manifesto. What made me decide to do the piece “Authenticity and Meaning” was a series of ideas that initially based on a lecture from Augustus Casely-Hayford, he said something about people searching for ‘authenticity and meaning’ in the world, and things around them, as though somehow this is an aspect of our lives that we loose through over- exposure to life and it’s objects.

I know that this is something that I experience, kind of loosing the thread. So I thought if I could ‘harness’ the idea of authenticity and meaning, then I would solve the problem, sort of new world order!! The other thing that he talked about was how the with the advent of the internet, our lives have changed and will continue to do so. With people living their lives vicariously through the internet, achieving both good and bad results.

So I had the phrase ‘authenticity and meaning’ and a computer, I wanted to portray this idea of suddenly understanding, which is why in the end I chose to use lights which would only appear when you typed in the keyboard.


Initially I wanted to do a wooden copy of my keyboard, because it’s really cool looking - and of course part of my mac. This would represent ‘good design’, but instead I ended up going for an old keyboard which could be dismantled and rewired (...!?..)

The words A&M link into my interest of language, and semiotics. For example going to the dictionary and looking up the word ‘meaning’, you come back with a definition, and then, putting ‘meaning’ into the thesaurus, you come up with a series of alternatives and of course they are all different, and change the way you can understand something.

And it is interesting because Heidegger said:

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_heidegger.html

Which means that when we think, the thoughts don’t magically attach words, the words magically attach thoughts. All very convoluted.

This is a piece by Robert Smithson, called ‘A Heap of Language’


'...it appears not as an objet d¹art but as a piece of "writing," occupying the same page as a text entitled: "Press Release / Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be Read"-a pairing also observed by Jack Flam's more recent edition of Smithson's "Collected Writings". Thus: depending on the frame or context one wants to bring to it, "A Heap of Language" can be viewed either as an artwork or as a wordwork, as an "essay" or an "illustration." Or as both, for Smithson¹s playful chiasma-"Language to be Looked at/Things to be Read"-asks us to engage in a crossover in which reading and looking, language and things dialectically reverse positions.'

‘A Heap of Language: Robert Smithson and American Hieroglyphic by Richard Sieburth, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, New York University ‘ http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/heap.htm

It is one of my favourite pieces because Robert Smithson has managed to express himself and his beliefs through his art, which must be the aim. As well as that I can really identify with the work because I feel that he has already said a lot of the things which I think and believe.

My sister got an Etch a Sketch for xmas off her husband because it was one of the toys she always remembered as a kid and we played on it, I think it reinforced my idea of using a computer to convey the message ‘A&M’


My final piece was made up of latex canvas, acrylic laser cut letters, metal, wood, light bulbs, keyboard and electricity. Making the words ‘pop out‘ was a big thing and which is why I decided to use the latex. The words were not spelt properly, to illustrate the ‘search‘.... for authenticity and meaning, as well as this although the keys of the keyboard would make the lights work, only a few of them did, and these were the letters which illuminated the piece; WHAT IS.

I especially liked the stretched canvas, and the letters popping out.


With the lights on

It was great fun using the lights in the work, making them key to the piece, so that they were integral in the understanding of it.

Writing the manfesto itself was also fun, but all I had was a scrappy bit of paper with ideas on it, which I couldn't seem to improve. So in the name of art I decided to exploit the fact, and below is the final draft:


Although I spoke about environmentally friendly design in my manifesto, I don't think that my piece necessarily fell into this category because the latex and the letters, are both made from plastic - so, I missed the point there a bit, but next time...

So, in my quest to discover the difference between art and design I started looking on the internet and I came across a blog by writer/designer Craig Elimeliah called Art V's Design.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design

This article is an attempt to show the practical differences between Art and Design, and make clearer some of the distinguishing factors between the two, by comparing both practices and the choices which are made in order to reach a conclusive outcome. In my opinion the writer makes some valid points; 'design in the commercial sense is a very calculated and defined process' this is an accurate statement within the right context, he then goes on to compare design to engineering and many other masculinised processes, leaving you with the impression that he is rather talking about his own practice as compared to that of an artist.

After which he starts to explain his own understanding of Art, and the language he uses changes to become almost feminine; 'Art is something that can elicit a single thought or feeling such as simplicity or strength, love or pain and the composition simply flows from the hand of the artist.' There is some truth in what he says, but it is quite limited and to suggest that an artist can only think of one thing at a time is quite annoying, supposedly this woolly definition he gives is reflected in his own knowledge of art.

What I found more interesting was the debate that this article inspired. Maybe he was intending to cause offense, with his frames of reference to both artists and designers, by doing this he could spark a debate - if this is the case then he was very successful.

'What I was trying to point out was that an artist has no predestined ideas, no specs, they simply feel and they express through the art.'...

He rephrases and corrects himself on several occasions impressively arguing his (somewhat lost) point. Only to be corrected and challenged further by eager participants.

'The only difference between art and design is CONTEXT. That's it. period.' by xpez Thu Sep 07, 2006

The blog is interesting and contains a huge set of ideas and thoughts about the distinctions between art and design, it's worth taking a look.