Future Beauty

Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion is an exhibition currently on at the Barbican Centre, which I went to see last week.
Featuring works from designers such as Issey Miyake, Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto.

Mechanisms_ Michael Kontopoulos

I have found and become interested in the work of the artist Michael Kontopoulos. Shown in the video above is his piece called, 'Machines that almost fall over', where a mechanism causes a hammer to swing back and forth before attempting to knock itself over. I came across this piece when I looked further into the work of Kontopoulos after I initially came across his work when I was looking into Umbrella mechanisms. There is an interesting 'Mechanical Umbrella Prototype' that he has also created at http://www.vimeo.com/1609181. Here is also another link to his website http://www.mkontopoulos.com

Theory

Other theory that I have been reading which has been helping inform my design practice have been these. I will add in specific quotes when I have chance.

The Poetics of Space' Gaston Bachelard
'Made in Tokyo' Momoyo Jaijima, Junzo Kuroda, Yoshihary Tsukamoto
'On Altering Architecture' Fred Scott
'The Eyes of the Skin'
'The Endless City' The Urban Age Project by LSE and Deutsche Bank's Afred Herrhausen Society
'Le Coffet de Santal' Charles Cros
'The Gold Bug' Edgar Alan Poe

Constantining Structures

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'Articulated Lair' Louise Bourgeois

Andrea Zittel

These are projects taken from 'Andrea Zittel: Critical Space'.
I think there are some similarities to the furniture at the Museu D'Orsay.

TO BE UPLOADED

Museu D'Orsey Furniture

TO BE UPLOADED



These are some photos from the Museu D'Orsay which I visited at the weekend as I went to Paris. I particularly liked the furniture exhibition, and I thought it was particularly relevant for my project as it explores notions of foldability of adaptability. I think the functionality of the furniture at this period is something which isn't so popular in contemporary furniture being produced at the moment.

Function/ Non-function

 'The Gift' Man Ray

'The Bicycle' Marcel Duchamp

These two sculptures are taken from such familiar items that we think we know what their function is, but they have been altered in such a way that they completely loose this function and in the case of Man Ray's 'Gift' become the opposite of what they were, and the title 'Gift' becomes ironic.