Identifying Transformation in Art & Design
- Gabrielle Vebryzky
- Aug 1, 2021
- 5 min read
OBJECTIVE:
To understand the technological influence in transforming creative practices in art & design
Video #1
What motivated the application of technology in the design practices?
The application of technology in the design practices creates a new problem-solving method that not only is effective but also efficient in both design and technology.
What influenced the designer in doing the practices based on the technology?
Daan Roosegaarde became aware of the global problems that are currently happening. With this awareness, the designer decided to use technology and design as the means for solving environmental problems.
How do technology able to support their design practices?
The use of technology in the designs provides an unlimited amount of ways and opportunities to create a solution for the problems, whether it is for creating new inventions, or for spreading awareness regarding the problem.
Historical Context
The application of technology in design begins when Daan Roosegaarde got a request from the Van Gogh foundation where they are planning to celebrate the 125th anniversary in the Netherlands. From there, he began connecting the idea of technology and design together.
Contemporary Context
Since then, Daan Roosegaarde began experimenting with different technology and design ideas that will help solve environmental problems. These include the creation of the smog vacuum cleaner, smog-free bicycles, energy-producing dance floors, and many more.
Video #2
What motivated the application of technology in the design practices?
The application of technology in her design practice is motivated by making a connection between science and fashion, providing people with their individual needs through the use of bacterias and textiles. The concept of the human body, more specifically the bacteria, as well as the artificial "skin", or clothing are the main components that further motivated her practice.
What influenced the designer in doing the practices based on the technology?
The practice done by Sonja Bäumel is influenced by the concept of the human body, which is largely composed of bacterias. She wants to spread awareness regarding the human body and how bacterias largely cover it and help to adapt to new environments. By doing this practice, she hopes to give fashion more meaning in the future.
How do technology able to support their design practices?
Technology and science made it possible to understand the behaviour of the microorganism and fuse them together with textiles.
Historical Context
To learn and further understand the behaviour of the bacteria on the body, Sonja Bäumel created 4 projects, the first being the crocheted membrane. From there, she began her continuous research regarding bacterias. This is done during an internship at a microbiological lab at Wageningen University. She learned new concepts about the behaviour of bacteria. One example is regarding how bacterias grow and operate individually. After learning about the bacteria's behaviour, she began experimenting with the bacterias and textiles.
Contemporary Context
With her understanding and knowledge, Sonja Bäumel emphasizes the point of how fashion and science are detached, and she believes that by combining fashion and science together, there would be a fashion/clothing that would provide humans with their needs. She also mentioned how her project is to bring awareness to people that the human body is composed of bacterias that helps keep us alive. By using fashion as her main experimental media, she hopes people would have a clear visualisation of the scientific knowledge regarding the human body.
Video #3
What motivated the application of technology in the design practices?
The application of technology in the design practices is motivated to create a connection between the older generations and the younger generation, make different types of jobs easier to do, and create a new experience for everyone to enjoy.
What influenced the designer in doing the practices based on the technology?
After analysing the behaviours of the millennials, they designer understood how the use of technology could create a new experience for everyone, as well as innovate and discover new things in which people have not thought of or discovered.
How do technology able to support their design practices?
Technology has allowed the designers to explore new ideas, which connects the millennials with the older generations. They are also able to tap into new form of design ideas, making it branch into the digital world as well.
Historical Context
The younger generations have always known about technology since birth. Because of this, there is a huge difference between the lifestyle of the older generations and the younger generations. To bridge this gap, the designers began to learn about the behaviour of the younger generations and how they use technology today.
Contemporary Context
By understanding how the younger generations use technology, the designers began to apply the concept and understanding as a part of their design practice. This results in the creation of interactive apps for museums, augmented reality glasses for farming jobs, and many more.
What’s happening now, is the design practices that they do still relevant?
After learning about the practices these designers did, it could be concluded that their work is still relevant today. By combining technology and design to create a problem-solving machinery or service, their work would still be considered as one of the essential practices done today.
What's the relation or the interrelation between the historic (past) and the contemporary practices (current) with each designer's practices?
The relation between the past and current practices done by each designer is by applying the past history or workflows to the current practice, and vice versa. This could be seen in the designers' works, which includes:
- Daan Roosegaard: In doing the Van Gogh 125th anniversary project in the Netherlands, he applied the awareness of being energy-friendly in the future by using glow-in-the-dark stars, while also commemorating the memories of Van Gogh as he lived and walked there in 1883.
- Sonja Bäumel: The knowledge about the microorganisms, which is discovered in the mid-1880s, is applied to fashion in hopes of being able to provide people with their needs as their artificial skin.
- Lava Lab: Creating an app to provide information for museums to make the younger generations aware of the past histories.
Evaluation:
What works now that stems from the past?
There are many things that are included in the current workflow that came from the past. This includes the histories, theories, concept, and works from the past in which the currently are being developed into new ideas and projects. This could be seen from the works of Sonja Bäumel (using the study of the microorganism), Daan Roosegaarde (inspired by Van Gogh 'The Starry Night'), and Lava Lab (inspired by a traditional piece of glass found in every Russian house).
What stays and what goes?
The main difference between then and now is the connection of different industries. Back then, it could be seen that there is a lack of connection between different industries (e.g. science and design), now the interaction between these industries create a new branch involving two or more, providing more problem-solving methods for the current concerns or business idea for the future generations.
Is it better now or then? Why?
I personally believe that it is better now. By having new interlacing branches between different industries, design could provide more beneficial works, which could be used in many different ways to solve the current problems.
Bibliography:
Design Indaba. 2016. Lava Lab on the millennial renaissance. [YouTube Video]. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9b3yviXUWQ [Accessed at: August 1, 2021].
Design Indaba. 2020. Sonja Bäumel. [YouTube Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=T2d2I45yWb0 [Accessed at: August 1, 2021].
TED. 2017. A smog vacuum cleaner and other magical city designs | Daan Roosegaarde. [YouTube Video].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFYhbHpfqU [Accessed at: August 1, 2021].
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