USA: Design exhibition boasts technical innovation, aesthetic beauty and quirky playfulness

Remember when robots were more likely to be found in a futuristic novel, than in our homes? The third triennial Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum's "Design Life Now" exhibition now on display in New York boasts robotic designs that are already being mass produced. iRobot's vacuum and floor washing robots are two such examples. Not all robots are designed to function in the home. One design in this year's triennial, Natalie Jeremijenko's Robotic Dogs, were designed specifically to be able to navigate rough terrain in order to "sniff" out toxins in the soil in urban areas and landfills. Jeremijenko works with teams of high school students; they dismantle toy robots and restructure them to fulfill the needs of the Feral Robotic Dog Project. Another unlikely candidate in safety, this time in aquatic environments, is Robolobster, the brainchild of marine biologist Joseph Ayers. The mechanical lobster is an example of biomimicry, where science imitates nature to find solutions. Robolobster's task is to detect underwater mines autonomously without human direction. Designs which emulate the natural world are highlighted in the current triennial, a logical step considering that design is an integral part of everything we use, according to Matilda McQuaid, one of "Design Life Now's" four curators. "Technology's becoming even more and more advanced, more and more integrated into our lives in very sort of progressive ways. So I think this exhibition shows that, I mean you see so much robotics in this exhibition as well as sort of technological products," said McQuaid. The range of designs is broad. There are many familiar names on view -- Apple's iPod, Nike's running shoes, Google's mapping technology. And there is also design created for primarily aesthetic reasons. David Wiseman's "Cherry Blossom Canopy" installation is positioned on a portion of the ceiling of the Carnegie mansion which houses the Cooper-Hewitt national Design museum. Drawing inspiration from nature, Wiseman's cherry blossoms are made from porcelain and the branches from plaster. "He was here probably for two and a half weeks, twelve-hour days creating just this one spot, so extraordinary amount of time has gone in it, to create, what I think looks so unbelievably a part of this, of the Carnegie mansion. So I think it's very site-specific but at the same time I think it really sort of shows the incredible variety and innovation and beauty that goes into many of these objects," said McQuaid. Despite the many large corporations exhibited in "Design Life Now" there are also many small, one-person design companies represented. Quirky designs such as the gradient dish rack by Gwendolyn Floyd and Leon Ransmeier and the beautiful fiber optics of crossform lighting by Suzanne Tick may soon become mass produced hits with consumers. "Design Life Now" is curated by Matilda McQuaid, Barbara Bloemink, Ellen Lupton and Brooke Hodge and will run through July 29, 2007 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

ITN Source | December 28, 2006

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