Applied Design at MoMA: New Design Exhibition

Mar

Applied Design, running from March 2nd to January 31^st 2014 at MoMA, focuses on the various means and methods by which we design and the product of those varied paths that lead to innovation.

As the new MoMA exhibition states: design is a fundamental tool in helping people respond to change. There are still people who think that design is just about making things, people, and places pretty. In truth, design has spread to almost every facet of human activity, from science and education to politics and policymaking.

A designer today can choose to focus on interactions, interfaces, the Internet, visualizations, socially minded infrastructures and products, 5-D spaces, bioengineering, sustainability, video games, critical scenarios, and yes, even furniture. Several outstanding examples of this vitality and diversity are presented in this installation, ranging from a mine detonator by young Afghani designer Massoud Hassani to a vessel made by transforming desert sand into glass using only the energy of the sun. Also on display are 14 videogames—including Pac-Man, The Sims, and Katamari Damacy—that constitute the beginning of a new branch of MoMA’s collection.

Organized by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the museum, with Kate Carmody, a curatorial assistant, and Paul Galloway, supervisor of the museum’s Study Center, “Applied Design” is a bold bracketing of furnishings, tools, graphics and games that challenge what we imagine design to be. Unlike the streamlined chairs, automobiles and utensils that are staples of MoMA’s collection, most of the roughly 100 items displayed here will never be found on eBay. But you can see them in video arcades and biotechnology labs and even on the keypads of communications devices.