Blog Assignment 6: Modern Vision

Authentic works of art these days are not seen in the manufactured world. People do not create an item once for one person as this is more effort for less profit which is what more artisans are focussing on now. Their is more of a sense of once you get an item that is mass produced, one must place their own authenticity on it by way of customising it. Their may well be a million sets of headphones like mine but if I paint my own design on them then their are none that look exactly like mine and I have now placed my own authenticity on that item. So where Walter Benjamin says “To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense.”* and "In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artefacts could always be imitated by man."* The key word here being imitated and not identical copies as we see today. While I agree that the authentic has changed and disappeared from the manufacturers hand I believe that we are entering an age where we become our own artisans for authenticity. That we take what has been mass produced and bought by millions and we make it our own and therefore make it authentic. So really I do believe that there is a role for the ‘authentic’ in an age of digital design and manufacture but it comes after this stage.

Blog Assignment 5: Colour—abstraction, perception and modernity

Colour Vision, in my opinion best seen in the above example of colour contrast where the same colour will look different to our eye depending on the surrounding colour. Our colour vision, our ability to perceive colour is something that has been experimented on by many over the centuries including painters and scientists and mathematicians. This colour contrast according to John Gage in Colours of the Mind* said that it was Leodardo da Vinci who first noticed this and himself said, "The mutual reaction of colours placed close to each other so when their appearance changes more or less noticeably, has long been noticed by painters and has been labelled contrast by them."* So painters have been aware of this for a long time and have been using it in their work to use surrounding colours to alter the appearance of others in our perceived colour vision.

*Gage, J. (1993). Colours of the Mind in Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (pp.191-212). New York: Thames and Hudson.

Blog Assignment 4: Ornament or Nature

The iphone one of the most used pieces of technology today shows exactly this quote of "The evolution of
culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.” It shows how as we evolve and our technology increases the need for ornamentation decreases in fact the aesthetics of the iphone are as minimalistic as possible proving that now less ornamentation is beauty in our eyes. It all stems from this design for practicality where ornament has no place, ornament does not fit the shape of your hand or give useful clear information. Adolf Loos said "We have outgrown ornament, we have struggled through to a state without ornament. Behold, the time is at hand, fulfilment awaits us." Even he knew that we were moving past the need for ornament and moving on to the more practical, the minimal, and in our eyes now, the beautiful.

Blog Assignment 3 (Ornament Constructed)

Pistol with singing-bird Ornamental watch in the shape of a flintlock double-barrelled pistol Rochat, Geneva - ca. 1810. 

“Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed.”
The above watch is the perfect example of ornament or decoration constructed. Anyone who actually attempted to wear this would have quite the weight on their wrist not to mention hitting everything anywhere near it. This watch is obviously not practical in the least and the actual clock looks as if it was added as an afterthought. All of the colours and gold embellishments add to the idea that this is never meant to be worn just looked at so what purpose could it serve in being a watch.
When anything is designed it should be designed for its use first and formost so as to fulfill its purpose. Decoration can then be added to make it asthetically pleasing. By turning something that looks good into another tool or object you are going to create something that is never going to work even remotely well and is ultimately useless as anything but an ornament.

Blog Assignment 2 (The Continuing Curve)

The straight line. The best example that comes to mind of the continuing curve is the big flat trapezoidal shape of the Lamborghini Countach of the 70's-80's perfectly embodying this straight line design as a beautiful car.

And opposed to this would be the latest creation by Lamborgini the Aventador which is a much more fluid form with all these flowing curves and surfaces really showing how the curve is beautiful.

And the Countach really was the beauty of its time as its name is literally an exclamation Italion men make usually when they see a gorgeous women. It was the pin up car on boys walls all across the world as the ultimate object that they all dreamed to have. Whereas these days when we see a car with all the straight lines and not a single curve we think old and outdated. Curves are the latest definition of stunning form as we can see in the 2012 Aventador. Though there is the odd straight line as almost a throw back to the old design this is where we are at the moment and in ten to 20 years we will probably see a lot more flat shapes and forms in whatever we are driving.

Blog Assignment 1. Interactive fun is important.

The Neocube is an important piece of design in my opinion because happiness is key to people having good lives. This cube is very inovative in that each metal ballis a magnet and together they attract each other in a way that lets you create some amazing shapes. There are a million and 1 ways to use this fairly simple design and that is also a good way of keeping peoples minds active. here is a link to a video of just a few of the things you can do with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFplmfNsFns&feature=player_embedded#at=36

The Word. PASSION

For my word Passion I wanted to show both references to the car and to the passion that I believe the company has. Tyre tread was used for the grid as it was the best grid that is physically part of a car. It also proved to be a nice medium to work with as rubber can be cut easily. For the thread I used burning string the string was more to direct the flames but had a nice effect when it was charred and also the embers on the tips I feel looked quite good. Fire I believe shows passion very well as the fluidity of it speaks of this.