Experiemental Design

Related yet standalone thought- Experimental design is experimental. It could work. It could not work. If it does work, you try it again and again to see if you come up with the same thing. This becomes a limited production. If it keeps working (and keeps selling) eventually it can become mass produced--like penicilin.

During the many pictures, webpages and videos shown on Monday one of the projects that stood out in my mind was by the Boym partners, the disaster buildings. The idea of making well known buildings or monuments into miniatures is certainly not experimental, I have a pencil sharpener in the shape of the Golden Gate Bridge, and there’s more than enough people out there who own a miniature Eiffel Tower given to them by a friend or relative who went to Paris. However, the theme of buildings that have some disaster-- something negative—attached to them is experimental. Who would’ve thought of making and consequently owning a miniature of the Unabomber hut? Many people have bought miniatures of the WTC with the American flag plastered across them and “Never forget”, but what we are never forgetting is that they were hit by planes and collapsed. So why not have a miniature showing that, offensive to some sure, but why else would we care or even know about the Unabomber hut if not for the actions of one Ted Kaczynski.

Intrigued, I went to their website. At the top of their blog was a quote by Sal LeWitt that read-“Learn to say ‘Fuck You’ to the world once in a while”. And besides totally agreeing with this quote, I feel that this is where experimental design comes from. Experimental design isn’t necessarily making an improvement to something or even making something that we need—it’s just someone dicking around who when they’re done, present it to the world and has enough confidence to say “Yes, I’m doing this, fuck you.” Chairs aren’t experimental—they’re pretty basic, looking back to nature a tree stump or large flat rock would suffice. But how about a chair made from used gum? Disgusting, probably not done before, and strange enough its sure to draw a crowd. And what about a chair made from used gum isn’t saying “Fuck you”? Even more so if anyone can be convinced to sit in it, or even pay money for it.

The world has been discovered. We’ve become civilized. We have electricity and indoor plumbing. So now it’s just the boundaries. We have chairs but again, how about a chair made from used gum? How about a chair made out of air—you can’t see it but it’s there and with enough showmanship, enough press and the all knowing design critic being like “oh yes, this is grand, furniture made of out the thin air is what’s new and exciting” it could probably sell for hundreds or thousands (this is a subtle stab at the Frank Gehry wiggle chair—the most you’ll even spend on cardboard, for now at least)

I would like to end talking about an artist who I feel most exemplifies the idea of saying “fuck you” to the world. And that artist is Dan Flavin. I think Dan Flavin is an asshole, I never met him but through his art alone and I am confident in calling him an asshole. Dan Flavin is famous for hanging fluorescent lights on walls. Fluorescent lights. A few years ago I was at the Dia beacon with my mother, looking at Dan Flavin’s fluorescent lights hanging on a wall and my mother says to me, “I could do that.” And in my mind I was like, “yea, ya could”, but she couldn’t. She could, physically she could go out and buy some fluorescent lights and hang them on the wall and call it art, but it wouldn’t do her any good because Dan Flavin already has and the art community isn’t letting anyone else get away with it. Dan Flavin became famous because he hung fluorescent lights on a wall stepped back and asked “Is it art?”, and because no one was there to tell him differently, he said “yes, I’m doing this, fuck you.”

Title Pending

As I drink my coffee, eat my breakfast, I’m listening to NPR. It’s Sunday morning and the program on is “Studio 360”. It had already been on for an hour or so but when I tuned in they were talking about the Coney Island Stillwell Ave. Terminal. The architect of the renovation talked about the Photovoltaic (PV) train shed glass roof of the terminal as well as solar energy in general. He talks about the energy put into building a building as well as the generally wasted space of a roof. He talks about the relationship between a building, energy and the sun and how most buildings are counteracting the sun’s energy because as the building heat up from the sun, the occupants of the building use the A/C, which is a waste to cool the building down.
The program then goes on to talk with William McDonough, architect of one of the first green roofs and author of Cradle to Cradle. One memorable things he mentions is that there’s probably 5000 times more solar energy than we’ll ever need, he also talks about the future of the changing world and the traditional idea of beautiful architecture, “How can anything be beautiful if it’s not ecologically intelligent.”
Buildings use a lot of energy--in their construction and building, in the use of them during their lifespan, and finally in their demolition. Most of the energy usage comes from the occupancy of the building, from lights, security systems, HVAC systems, and just daily use. The Coney Island Terminal services millions a year but with its PV roof, that produces 250,000 kWhs a year, enough to power 40 single family houses, its impact in the “green” world as not only a mass transit station but as a mass transit station producing such a large amount of renewable energy is amazing. While PV systems are expensive, there are state and government incentives and if we merely just applied them to roofs of huge warehouse size buildings, shopping centers, Wal-Mart, whose stores account for roughly 18,000 acres of land, larger than the island of Manhattan (at least there are no Wal-Mart’s on the island of Manhattan) the amount of energy that could be produced is huge.
I think that buildings are a huge part of a “better world”, in terms of space taken up by them, the energy they use, the way they are used (strip malls are buildings too). What if Wal-Mart had no physical stores? As mentioned before, buildings use a huge amount of energy just by themselves, even more when you add into the equation their use by people who are “too hot” or “too cold”. It always makes me sick to see a building being knocked down and even worse, when the space it formerly occupied is paved over and turned into a parking lot. Demolition zeros a building out, when a building it knocked down 100% of its energy is lost. As seen in the Coney Island Terminal renovation, buildings can be used to produce needed energy and any reuse of a building impacts the overall energy use of the world.

This is a picture from GOOD magazine showing the acreage taken up by various corporations, the biggest being Wal-Mart.


-Studio360 - you can listen to the program via one of their links on the page
-Stillwell Ave. Terminal by Kiss+Cathcart -they are very focused on green projects, their website features a lot more
-NYTimes article on Solar energy - talks about "big box" stores, Wal-Mart beign among them

Products and Meaning

The idea of “meaning” is very singular and subjective. Nearly everyone had little trinkets or other objects that are very valuable to them--“priceless”--for one reason or another--it could’ve belonged to a relative or friend who is not around anymore, the object has a specific memory attached to it, it could just be something you’ve had for so long it becomes a part of you, your character. However when other come across these objects existing in our world they cannot see or recognize the value they have to us, these objects have value only because we place it on them. Even if we were to explain the back story of the object’s meaning, it could only be partially explained because others do not have the same feelings and memories as us. The object is valuable to us, but they cannot partake in any of that value because they did not share in its experience.

Meaning is an emotional quality, it for the most part cannot be broken down in dollar signs-- a necklace from a recently deceased grandmother is of great worth, whether the necklace is actually worth something monetary is inconsequential--the necklace is meaningful because it came from someone close, someone important, someone not around anymore. Equally, even if the same necklace was worth something--possibly a lot--monetarily, it doesn’t matter to the owner of the necklace because it has meaning to that person, which is a value that cannot be quantified.

So how does this affect the world of the designer and product? Certainly no one, not even designers can design or produce memories that make things meaningful. But certain products, because of what they do, what they look like, how they feel, can produce a kind of meaning depending on the user. For example, a few years ago a product prototype called Rapex (which has since seemed to disappear off the map) was introduced. The product is a condom that is inserted into a women’s vagina that has hooks on the inside, the idea was that in areas with a huge rape problem, such as South Africa, women could wear this and if assaulted, the hooks would hook into the skin of the rapist, causing pain and in theory allowing the victim time to escape. Once hooked onto the skin it would have to be surgically removed thereby identifying the rapist. This is a product that I think means a lot. First, it is a product that was designed specifically to help a major problem, and while it has some detractors, saying that women should not adapt to rape, some don’t have that choice, and this would help at least just a little bit. Also, knowing that a product like this is out there, any would be rapist might think twice. Obviously this product means different things to men and women. Many women are thrilled at the idea of this product, they see this as a great thing, however there are probably many men who are equally not as thrilled, because this product’s outcome hurts men. And even if they would never even think about raping someone, many men I’m sure can imagine some vengeful girlfriend or someone equally as crazy playing some dirty tricks with something like this.