Sunday, April 18, 2010
Final Project: Onoga Kaku Hada ( My Second Skin)
“Onoga Kaku Hada” is a pair of shoes that allows power generation by the action of walking. This electricity is shown through the different folds of the origami surface. As a second skin, these shoes allow the user to be protected from the outside world and emit defensive warning signals to the surrounding people.
“Onoga Kaku Hada” conceptually references the main reason for clothing; protection, as well as our insecurities and lack of confidence towards the other persons surrounding us.
By using simple crank generators, we convert the kinetic energy produced while walking into electric energy used to light up three LEDs integrated in each shoe. The whole mechanism is hidden inside the sole of the shoe to give a feeling of independent organism supplementing the human body.
“Onoga Kaku Hada” conceptually references the main reason for clothing; protection, as well as our insecurities and lack of confidence towards the other persons surrounding us.
By using simple crank generators, we convert the kinetic energy produced while walking into electric energy used to light up three LEDs integrated in each shoe. The whole mechanism is hidden inside the sole of the shoe to give a feeling of independent organism supplementing the human body.
Report 2: Decorative Arts and Design Collection
As a second report, I have decided to visit the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts called Decorative Arts and Design. I go quite often to this museum, but I did not even know that such a collection was available to see. It has been instituted in the museum in 1916 with the help of F. Cleveland Morgan who donated hundreds of objects from around the world. Also, the collection contains a large collection of 18th century English porcelain donated by Lucille Pillow, Henry Norton’s collection of antique glass and the largest collection of Japanese incense boxes (3000) of Georges Clémenceau. There are also a large number of European textiles, furniture, ceramics and glassware from the 18th and the 19th centuries. It was also mentioned that in 2000, the museum received one of the most important international design collection from the 20th century in North America. This collection places the MMFA as one of the most important museum of decorative arts in North America.
The collection was first shown in 2001 with the opening of the pavilion, and since then, seven hundred art objects are displayed. The pavilion was named after Liliane and David M. Stewart, important donators who recently, in 2007, added over 900 American design objects to the collection.
I thought it was very interesting to have in Montreal something similar to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. For sure the collection is not as important, but still it is one of the most important in North America.
The whole collection is a mix of different kind of objects divided through time. They are all from different places, but you can easily associate the objects to the historical period they belong to. Also, I thought it was important for Montreal to have such a collection, since we have important design programs. There are many places where you can look at graphic design exhibitions, but not as many for object or furniture design in general.
There are many icons in this exhibitions, but also less successful (according to me) or maybe attracting designs. However, they still belong to the general history of design and are still quite interesting to look at.
The collection was first shown in 2001 with the opening of the pavilion, and since then, seven hundred art objects are displayed. The pavilion was named after Liliane and David M. Stewart, important donators who recently, in 2007, added over 900 American design objects to the collection.
I thought it was very interesting to have in Montreal something similar to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. For sure the collection is not as important, but still it is one of the most important in North America.
The whole collection is a mix of different kind of objects divided through time. They are all from different places, but you can easily associate the objects to the historical period they belong to. Also, I thought it was important for Montreal to have such a collection, since we have important design programs. There are many places where you can look at graphic design exhibitions, but not as many for object or furniture design in general.
There are many icons in this exhibitions, but also less successful (according to me) or maybe attracting designs. However, they still belong to the general history of design and are still quite interesting to look at.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Report 1: Tiffany Glass
This semester, I went to the exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts called Tiffany Glass. It was about Louis C. Tiffany, the son of Charles L. Tiffany, the fonder of Tiffany & Co. This company was more about jewelry and silverware and Tiffany (son) never worked with his father. He studied painting and was really good in interior design.
The exhibition was quite impressive. It was divided in categories of objects, like small bowls and vases, then the lamps and the stained glass windows. Actually, Tiffany was obsessed with glass since the beginning of his career and he had his own collection of glass artifacts from different places and time. He started his production with small objects, as I mentioned, like bowls, plates, coffee service, and vases, using very simple motifs as illustration. Then, you begin to see the lamps, which are really famous and I think are the best known art pieces from this artist. I really enjoyed these art pieces because, for most of them, the foot of the lamp was also fitting with the glass part that was covering the bulb itself. These lamps are built like small stained glass windows or little mosaics.
Then, you begin to see his famous stained glass widows. I thought it was very interesting to understand the whole process of production of such art pieces. In short, they started with a small-scale representation of their concept in watercolor. Then, once it was accepted by the client, the executed a full-scale representation of the window, called cartoon, that also indicated the leading between the glass parts. From this cartoon, another exact one was created and cut to use the different parts as templates for the glass pieces. Then, these separate pieces were fixed with wax on a large glass plate, called easel, and the leading lines were painted in black. After that, the glass pieces were chosen and cut according to the previous pattern, and then were placed on the same easel. Finally, the artists would paint the faces and skin/hands and would fix all the pieces together with the leading. I thought that the idea of pattern was really interesting, and much more important than I thought it could be. Finally, the exhibition was explaining different textures of glass and how to produce them.
While I was going through the exhibition, I was questioning the notions of glass that I used to know and how now I consider this medium as art, and not craft. It requires a lot of skills to produce such pieces and some artistic notions as well as some design notions. These artists need to be precise and expert of their art. The people looking at the different pieces also amused me. I realized glass working was even more popular than paintings or sculptures. I felt like people understood more this medium and also valued it more than the usual artworks presented in this museum.
The exhibition was quite impressive. It was divided in categories of objects, like small bowls and vases, then the lamps and the stained glass windows. Actually, Tiffany was obsessed with glass since the beginning of his career and he had his own collection of glass artifacts from different places and time. He started his production with small objects, as I mentioned, like bowls, plates, coffee service, and vases, using very simple motifs as illustration. Then, you begin to see the lamps, which are really famous and I think are the best known art pieces from this artist. I really enjoyed these art pieces because, for most of them, the foot of the lamp was also fitting with the glass part that was covering the bulb itself. These lamps are built like small stained glass windows or little mosaics.
Then, you begin to see his famous stained glass widows. I thought it was very interesting to understand the whole process of production of such art pieces. In short, they started with a small-scale representation of their concept in watercolor. Then, once it was accepted by the client, the executed a full-scale representation of the window, called cartoon, that also indicated the leading between the glass parts. From this cartoon, another exact one was created and cut to use the different parts as templates for the glass pieces. Then, these separate pieces were fixed with wax on a large glass plate, called easel, and the leading lines were painted in black. After that, the glass pieces were chosen and cut according to the previous pattern, and then were placed on the same easel. Finally, the artists would paint the faces and skin/hands and would fix all the pieces together with the leading. I thought that the idea of pattern was really interesting, and much more important than I thought it could be. Finally, the exhibition was explaining different textures of glass and how to produce them.
While I was going through the exhibition, I was questioning the notions of glass that I used to know and how now I consider this medium as art, and not craft. It requires a lot of skills to produce such pieces and some artistic notions as well as some design notions. These artists need to be precise and expert of their art. The people looking at the different pieces also amused me. I realized glass working was even more popular than paintings or sculptures. I felt like people understood more this medium and also valued it more than the usual artworks presented in this museum.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)