Design in Our Lives field trip #3

For this assignment "Design in Our Lives" I am supposed to describe how objects have different functionality. We went to the MOMA for our third field trip and our class visited the third floor where I saw a lot of everyday items that I would use in my home. To me functionality has the ability to turn one object into another and make it have the ability to work in someone’s everyday life. Some of the best designs in the world are based on “purpose and function.” 

When a designer decides to change one particular item like recycled parts into something else like this green chair here at the MOMA, to me the end result is simply and elegant. This kind of furniture is made into an “elegant forms" that are made with "high functionality" for the home that could be for the everyday consumer. This item, like this green chair has an “ergonomic designs” and is made to be an uncomplicated item that has maximum comfort, a long serviceable life, and a minimal environmental footprint.

The next thing that I saw in the museum that I thought would be of “high functionality” is this digital wind map. Even though it is not a chair, a desk, or a vase made of bees wax. I found it to be interesting because it gives the directional forces of the weather by wind. As I stood there for at least five minutes watching the interactive map it gave detailed information that shows how that the environment is ever changing rapidly and these changes are forcing the “artic wind” to be forced in an “downward motion.” (As you can clearly see in the photo.) This downward motion is now making the northern states to be stuck in a “cold freezing” and it is making the temperatures lower than the “normal.” Scientist are trying to figure out how these changes will affect us in the future and the way we live. To me that is very important to know because if you have to “live” in these northern states and if the temperature drops suddenly, you and your family would freeze to death if you didn't know what to do. So knowing what is happening in the weather and the “ever changing environment” to me is very important to be able to react to any type of situation. 

This next piece of art work is very puzzling to me it seems that it has no or "low functionality" at all. The core of the design is a rubber piece holding together a bunch of pieces of wood that stick out and attach to flat piece of rubber or a stopper. (As showed in the photograph.) When I looked closer it seemed like the designer took a lot of "bathroom plungers" and stuck them together and made it into a work of art. I could not seeing any “ergonomic use” for this item other than maybe rolling it down a hill to see what would happen. But in comparisons to the “green chair” and being able to sit on this. I don't think so, it seems I might get poked if I sat on it and it might hurt.

The last item I am very confused about because the artist describes this piece as a “basic home” to me it looks similar to a type of weather balloon rather than a “home.” The artist made these “polyester transportable homes” out of the idea that the homeless people could use them and they would be inflated by the heat from the streets and they would remain inflated. I take it the artist has never been to New York can you imagine a bunch of these houses on the streets in a row. I can only image mean people would pop them or they seem thin enough to pop on their own. I guess that is why it is “low functionality” item and in a museum because in real life it wouldn't work out so well, in my opinion.

Lastly I realized that whether an item is “high or low functionality” it truly depends on how you might use the item in your everyday life. I believe that when it comes to “art and design” it is two different things. Art is made up of "creativity" and design is used to create "form and functionality." Even though they are similar they are utilized differently.  

Hope you enjoy my ideas about “Design in Our Life’s” leave comment or like thanks.

all these are located at the moma.org                                                                           “Green Chair”

Title: Endless Flow Rocking Chair

Made: 2011

Medium: Recycled Plastic

Artist: Dirk Vander Kooij (Dutch, b 1983)

Architecture & Design Purchase Fund, 2012

Weather Map

Title: Wind Map

Made: 2012
Medium: Custom Software/interaction touchpad

Artist: Fernanda Bertini Viegas (Brazilian, b. 1971) and Martin Wattenberg (American, b.1970)

Gift of the Designers, 2012

Rubber Design

Title: Mine Kafon Wind-Powered Deminer

Made: 2011

Medium: bamboo and biodegradable plastics

Artist: Massoud Hassani (Dutch, b in Afghanistan 1983)

Gift of Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, 2012

Basic House

Title: Basic House

Made: 1999
Medium: Polyester

Artist: Martin Ruiz de Azua (Spanish, b 1965)

Gift of Martin Ruiz de Azua, 2006