Design and the Elastic Mind - Softcover

Aldersey-Williams, Hugh; Hall, Peter; Sargent, Ted; Antonelli, Paola

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870707329 ISBN 13: 9780870707322

Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008

Synopsis

Over the past few decades, we have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter and individuality. Today our minds must be able to synthesize such transformations, whether they are working across several time zones, traveling between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information or acting fast in order to preserve a bit of down-time. Organized by Paola Antonelli, Museum of Modern Art Curator of Architecture and Design, Design and the Elastic Mind focuses on the ability of designers to grasp momentous advances in technology, science and social mores, and to convert them into useful objects and systems. Included projects range from nanodevices to vehicles, appliances to interfaces and building facades, pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. Designed by award-winning book designer Irma Boom, this volume features essays exploring the promising relationship between design and science by Antonelli, design critic and historian Hugh Aldersey-Williams, visualization design expert Peter Hall and nanophysicist Ted Sargent.

About this title

From the Publisher

From The New York Times:
"Design and the Elastic Mind," an exhilarating new show at the Museum of Modern Art, makes the case that through the mechanism of design, scientific advances of the last decade have at least opened the way to unexpected visual pleasures... As revolutionary in its own way as MoMA's "Machine Art" exhibition of 1934, which introduced Modern design to a generation of Americans, the exhibition is packed with individual works of sublime beauty. Like that earlier show, it is shaped by an unwavering faith in the transformative powers of technology... "Design and the Elastic mind" is the most uplifting show MoMA's architecture and design department has presented since the museum reopened in 2004. Thanks to its imaginative breadth, we can begin to dream again.
-Nicolai Ouroussoff

About the Author

Paola Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in February of 1994. Her first exhibition for the museum, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995) was followed by many successful shows, including Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands, Achille Castiglioni: Design!, and Safe. Antonelli has taught at the University of California in Los Angeles and has lectured extensively on design in North America, Japan and Europe.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870707329
• ISBN 13: 9780870707322
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Antonelli Paola