Design
Posted on May 2, 2007
Filed Under For Argument's Sake |
It is 30 days to the opening of the new gallery – focused on digital art, or art where the artist has managed, dealt with or transformed imagery with technology. It won’t be the first gallery in the world that focuses on images and technology but I hope it will become one of the more interesting.
I confess to being an old fashioned socialist. Well, maybe not so old fashioned. I don’t associate socialism with blue collar workers or the struggle for basic rights and I’d be happy if socialism was still around and it equated to basic decency. That would be enough to make it a novel, and much needed, political movement. Why I got thinking socialism after all these years is I just finished an article on design.
Thinking about design for a fortnight I was sometimes dismayed by the effort that goes into creating products for that perfect moment when our aspirations and a new sports cap on a bottled water gloriously coincide. It’s one of the true ironies of recent history that we were persuaded the system we belong to is best, and indeed so it seemed as left wing politics receded and prosperity increased. Only, of course, the political system we belong to has destroyed the natural system we live in.
Design has become an act of refinement, a way to tweak products so that they catch today’s mood when what many of us really want to see is a change of mood altogether (here’s another take on design - the web type). I meet hardly anyone these days who doesn’t want to change their lifestyles to patch up the environment but who also gets caught up in design. I just bought a new coffee pot for my Fairtrade beans and yes, it is aluminium, gleaming and looks really great on the table.
In contrast to these trivia the art I’m looking at is distinct because it is beautiful i na way that gives you that: Think again, moment. Among the ideas I’m mulling over for the autumn are artists who are tackling the issue of environmental consciousness and those who transform design. I hated much of what I saw in conceptual art but now I really get the sense art is back (in the lives of people like me): intelligent, politically astute, innovative, emotional, relevant and still capable of beauty.
Comments
One Response to “Design”
Leave a Reply
Have only just come across your blog- a real interesting read! Great stuff!