Response: Wolfsonian

The Wolfsonian’s Art and Design in the Modern Age Collection was a diverse assortment of works collected to showcase and document development around the world since the industrial revolution to today. The media of the works vary from pots and pans and schema of pots and pans to propaganda to stained glass, paintings and cabinets, you name it they might have it. The exhibit had a ton on display such as design reformation caused by the industrial revolution, objects no longer made by hand but by machine and how designers and artist responded to that.

 I think a section that stood out during my walk through the exhibit was the Modern Decorative Arts because of how the artists and designers embraced reform and moved away from geometry and simplification and were inspired by nature. The gate made by Alessandro Mazzucotelli was great cause it was used for its purpose of dividing space instead of just putting it up against the wall to display it. And the patterning

Response: Deep Surface: Ornament and Pattern

Humans have always wanted to give more meaning to our lives, developing ways to embellish our lives.  “We demand more of existence than mere survival.” Pattern and ornaments are meant to engage the eye however, like transformers there’s more than meets the eye. Recognizing pattern among things allows us to add layers of meaning with visual context and embellish how we see the world. A deaf person often times cannot read because letters are just symbols when you take away sound. Pattern is the language of silence. Ornament and pattern are form-based languages visually articulating our ideas. “Contemporary ornament communicates histories, customs, lore, and a shared appreciation of craft”. Ornamentation has the power to narrate and make us better at understanding and appreciating the things we often take for granted. Design can call our attention to over-looked aspects of daily life, full of movement. Yet, our everyday surroundings give us the illusion of stability and permanence.

Ornament has the ability to adapt and change with different contexts and aesthetics over time. The article organizes contemporary artist and designers who make and use patterns and ornaments into 6 themes. Amplification, designers intensify ornament or patterns making them more complex in order to tell stories and make simple objects beautiful. The Everyday takes everyday objects and imposes patterns and ornaments that change your views on these objects. Kits-of-parts is open-minded, offering options and play. Elaboration makes things more complex being able to translate into the digital world with its intricacies. Inheritances manipulate old patterns, reviving them to make new ones and harkens back to tradition. Fantasy exists to amuse and possibly provoke thought. Something that stood out to me was how great of an influence ornament and pattern has on the modern world. The article showed different styles and variations of ornament and pattern and helping the reader to open their mind to how immense and imposing ornament and pattern are. Pattern and Ornamentation encompass our daily lives in such subtle ways it’s hard to pay attention to unless we consciously make the decision to “stop and smell the roses.”

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Re: Got Crafts?

Got Crafts?

Response: “Ornament” and the Sources of Design in the Decorative Arts

Throughout the reading Ivins focuses on the role played by design and ornamentation and why it is relevant and necessary to archive prints and drawings and books of them to study their role within the context of their time and to inspire new design. Ivins parallels the works of engravers to the work of composers as an example of works intended to be manipulated by others hands and viewed through fresh eyes. Engravers were influenced by painters, continuously manipulating one idea to the next.

            The invention of the printing press revolutionized accessibility to designs and illustrations of patterns. Ivins highlights the importance of studying drawings, prints, and book decorations because they will help us learn more about the growth and development of ornaments within their time and beyond and to use them as inspiration for new design.