"The word 'document' which in the last few generations stood, and in many regards still stands for, papers relating to legal matters, such as deeds, contracts, affidavits and certificates, has in present-day professional usage reverted to its original meaning as derived from its Latin origin", opined Lucia Moholy in 1948, "and now applies to spoken, written, printed and other materials, produced and distributed for the purpose of imparting knowledge".1 With Lucia Moholy: Exposures Kunsthalle
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In Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale Perdita bewails that she has no "flowers o’ th’ spring" to make garlands for, and to strew over, her beloved Florizel; "flowers o’ th’ spring" including violets, primroses, oxlips or "daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty". Whereby in her infatuation with, and fearless youthful love for, Florizel, Perdita fails to appreciate that it wasn't fear of the winds of March that kept the swallows away, swallows love a
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In 1981 Irish stadium rockers U2 noted of October: "And the trees are stripped bare, Of all they wear" That of course was 1981, before the, then approaching but much less tangible, irreversible consequences of climate change meant that the trees in Ireland, and across Europe, still proudly wear their leaves throughout October. A new reality that, we'd argue, may soon see U2 forced to rename the song 'November'. A reality, and a coming renaming, that sets the final line of the opening verse:
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In July 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and as Neil Armstrong stepped from the Eagle lunar module he announced it was, "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind". And inarguably it was. And was. But what has it brought mankind? Apart from an awful lot of conspiracy theories. And an ongoing fascination with space that drives the irrational belief that in the 21st century we urgently require everything which appeared in 1950s and 1960s science fiction comics and films in order
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According to the 6th century CE antiquarian John the Lydian, "the oracle recommends drinking milk for the sake of good health all through the month of September".1 And while milk may have advantages in terms of your physical health, for your spiritual and intellectual health, we'd recommend the following quintet of new architecture, design and art exhibitions opening in September 2021. Whereby, exhibitions and milk aren't mutually exclusive, you can partake of both if you so wish......
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"We must endeavour to introduce a little order into this business, or at least sense into a great deal of it. But what is sense without order? We must try to find some method of arriving at some sort of order - one that will at least enable us to escape from this vagueness in the design of colour", opined Amédée Ozenfant in 1937.1 And had an idea or two as to the how....... Not directly associated with Amédée Ozenfant, but being as it is the house next door to the house/studio designed by
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More or less…… ….. Back in May 2019 the sheer number of new architecture and design exhibitions opening globally allowed us to produce two recommendations lists: one featuring exhibitions with a strong Bauhaus/inter-War Modernism focus, and one more general, less focussed. Spring forward five months and with the global museum community now fully awoken from their summer slumber we once again find ourselves with a cornucopia of new exhibitions that invites two lists. An invitation we would
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"Beware the Ides of March" Julius Caesar was, allegedly, advised by the soothsayer Spurinna. And he probably wished he had. March 15th seeing his death at the hands of some 60 Senators, a death which led to civil war as opposing forces sought to control Rome's destiny. "Beware the 5th of the Calends of April" a modern day Spurinna would no doubt warn the good folks of the United Kingdom. March 29th looking as it is like being an equally fateful day. But while Caesar could have taken steps to
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If you are planning visiting an architecture or design museum, anywhere in the world, in 2019, it will be staging a Bauhaus themed special exhibition. Guaranteed. There are literally millions of them lined up. If not billions. Which is no complaint. Or at least not unless they are exhibitions based on formulaic, lazy clichés. Then it is very much a complaint. But if they are exhibitions which take open, honest and unblinkered views on either the institution as a whole or a specific, ideally,
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According to Germanic lore, "ein guter Septemberregen kommt nie ungelegen", a good rain in September is never inopportune. This year arguably more so than ever. Similarly a good architecture and design exhibition in September is never inopportune. And, and keeping with rain metaphors, while we can all remember what rain is, September 2018, sees a proper downpour of new architecture and design exhibitions. A downpour that is particularly opportune. Following July's drought and its meagre 4
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Our visit to the 2017 Royal College of Art London Graduate Show was one of the more sobering moments of our 2017 #campustour. Or as we wrote then, "...in a world controlled by RCA graduates every, but every, aspect of our lives will be controlled by autonomous smart technology. We will literally lose the ability to think for ourselves. The human brain will become the appendix of the 21st century." Donning a hat fashioned from aluminium foil and an old metal sieve, we headed once more to South
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Writing to his friend Heinrich Köselitz in August 1881 Friedrich Nietzsche remarked, "My dear friend! The August sun hangs over us, the year drifts by, it is quieter and more peaceful on the mountains and in the forests. On my horizon thoughts have arisen, the likes of which I have never known...." We like to imagine that those thoughts arose through his having visited an architecture and/or design exhibition. Were he still with us, we'd suggest he visited the following vista extending
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The building which Central Saint Martins calls home was erected in 1852 as store for grain arriving from Lincolnshire and awaiting its further distribution to London's bakers. Was, if you like, a transfer point, a hub, a location where general ideas became specific solutions, a place industry and trade called upon when needing raw materials for their latest project, a source for those whose work helped support and nourish the populace, a central institution in the development of the city and
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Tracing its history back to 1899 the Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design a.k.a The Cass has an established place in the (hi)story of English design, for all in woodcraft based design including toys, music instruments and furniture. But as we all know a long history and illustrious alumni are poor hooks on which to hang the future of an institution, much more robust are the current staff, students and their work. The 2018 Cass Summer Show allowed some insights into the
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On our recent #campustour we didn’t only view the students' works, and chat to students about their works, we also spoke to members of the design schools' teaching staff about their motivations, methods, experiences and views on contemporary design eduction. Ultimately if you want to understand contemporary design education, you have to understand contemporary design educators. Whereby one of the peculiarities of design eduction is that any given school's staff is a mix of full time staff
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As an institution London’s Royal Albert Hall teaches us that regardless how illustrious and prestigious your history may be, you can never rest on your laurels, you are only ever as relevant and interesting as your next programme, as your next soloist.. With the 2017 Graduate Show the Royal Albert Hall’s next door neighbour, the equally illustrious and prestigious, Royal College of Art unveiled its 2017 programme and 2017 soloists. But would there be a standing ovation… Royal College of
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Sited in the gentile calm of Pimlico, Chelsea College of Arts sits between the independent free-thinking of the Tate Britain, the original Tate with its collection of British and international art from 1500 until today, and the state control and surveillance of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in their unobtrusive bunker on the opposite bank of the Thames But where would the conformity/rebellion equilibrium be found amongst the current crop of Chelsea students....... Chelsea
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Few materials can have claimed to have influenced architecture and design in quite the way plywood has. And thereby remained as anonymous as plywood, easily overlooked in public and barely researched in an academic context as it is. With the exhibition Plywood: Material of the Modern World, the V&A Museum London aim to redress both. Plywood: Material of the Modern World at the V&A Museum London "For a long time I have been aware that there wasn't that much published about the history of
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The Cass is situated in London's Whitechapel, not far from the East London Mosque and in an area long a centre of London's Muslim community. The day we visited the Cass Summer Show it was Eid al-Fitr, a festival of family, feasts and finery. The narrow streets of Whitechapel awash with smartly attired, good humoured locals, or possibly just smartly attired locals high on sugar, for Eid al-Fitr is also a festival of sweetness at the end of Ramadan. Cakes and sweets as far as the eye could see.
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“What are you going to do this summer, Amory?”, Tom D’Invilliers asks of Amory Blaine in F Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. “Don’t ask me", comes the somewhat languid reply, "same old things, I suppose. A month or two in Lake Geneva — I’m counting on you to be there in July, you know — then there'll be Minneapolis, and that means hundreds of summer hops, parlor-snaking, getting bored....." Sorry Amory, but you'll have to survive the magnificence of Lake Geneva on your own, would have
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Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue..... Life is so simple as a child. Yet whereas in almost all other respects the progression to adulthood is one of simplicity to complexity, in terms of our understanding of colour we never lose our inner child. With the exhibition Breathing Colour at the Design Museum London the Dutch designer Hella Jongerius encourages us to sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow new. Noon colour catchers, as seen at Breathing Colour
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She came from Greece, had a thirst for knowledge, studied sculpture at St Martins College and, according to Jarvis Cocker, had no understanding of the brutal realities of late 1980s British society. Thirsty to know if the 2017 Central St Martins design graduates were more grounded in their contemporary reality, our 2017 #campustour headed to North London.... Central St Martins,London. The Granary Central St Martins, London Tracing its origins back to the late 19th century, Central St
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On May 1st 1851 Queen Victoria opened The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park London: the first "World's Fair", an event which celebrated the advances of the industrial age, and whose influence on industry, engineering, science, architecture and society was to resonate globally for decades, acting as it did as the motor for the quickening technological advances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While the profit generated from the 6 million visitors allowed for the construction of London's
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Five recommendations for new architecture and design exhibitions opening in December 2016, featuring shows in Copenhagen, Weimar, Nürnberg, London and Munich 5 New Design Exhibitions for December 2016 2016 has been an awful year. As in proper awful. Which my explain the unusually high number of expressionist-esque art exhibitions opening globally in December 2016: the bright colours and supportive warmth and encouragement such works tend to radiate being just what we all need after a tough
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