Bring back the art in design

In the recent week, I saw a couple of movies on design from the TED conferences (the D stands for Design) and one got me specifically thinking about the change that design has lived through in the recent decades. Obviously technology has shaped our homes and public spaces in an immense manner, look at the mass spread of computers just in the last 5 years, but what is less noticeable and people rarely care is the design of the small details and appearance of the objects around us. We live in the 21st century, and as with those science fiction stories from the last century about people traveling in the future, we can also assume that if someone comes from as near as the 1920s (less than a hundred years ago), he would be stumbled and shocked by the futuristic world we have created. It is quite significant how we have managed to reshape our environment as if waiting for a visitor from the past, to solidify the doctrine that the future must necessarily look futuristic in comparison with the present. But is it really modern art that has influenced us to that point, or is it merely a superstitious desire to prove that we have advanced technologically?

With the end of the Second World War and the rise of consumer technology, the multitude of objects that surrounds us, and that we see and use every day, has changed globally. With plastic replacing metal and wood for its lighter weight and cheaper price, and with glass being more predominant and left naked in buildings with the frames hidden behind, we're moving on from one era into another that's highly influenced by the art of futurism. In case you are not familiar with this art, futurism was an artistic movement created in the early 20th century in Italy. Its main dictum was that art should clean itself completely from the old and classical tradition and embrace emblems of the future such as speed, technology, cars, airplanes and the industrial city. Its main inspiration came from the industrial society and the dynamism of modern life, and even if it seemed a bit far fetching at the time, it progressed quickly due to the scientific and economic progress of the 20th century. And even if looking at our cities today we see a mix of all arts, not only of futurism, the influence of futurism on the general design of everyday objects has been quite noticeable. There are less and less furniture and decorative objects that feature classical elements and engravings on them, if you go to a modern furniture store like IKEA you would see that predominance is given to the simplicity of forms and joints. And while I approve of the modern feel and functionality of the IKEA homes, I cannot but stumble with incomprehension at the total negligence of artistic form around us. If you walk on the streets, go to a public mall or a restaurant, or simply look at most of the homes today, you would see that the influence of Neoclassicism, Baroque and Rococo is almost forgotten, and we don't have any furniture or decoration any more that can presents us with some artistic reflection and make us feel good in our environment. If in the old era people used objects that have no use even rather than sitting on a shelf (like an old clock, or some vases with no flowers in them) now we tend to give advantage to functionality rather than beauty. Bookshelves are designed to carry the most books possible and even possible some CDs and DVDs, desks are produced with the expectation that there is going to be some computer sitting on them, and so on. And that's not everything, if we look at the general design on street lamps, highway barriers, obsessive road signs and things as simple as edifice windows and walls, you will see that we live in cities that are just plain simple in terms of these elements that we take for granted. True, this is not real art, but then again art is our expression of nature, and if we cannot find it when we look out at the street albeit spotting a couple of street artists, then we should ask ourselves what has gone wrong. I am a supporter of moderate use of technology, and I'm proud we live in a technologically advanced era, but I can't help myself but feel the loss of the details and the knowledge they bring to us just by being in our plain of view.

When I watched the video of Tim Brown criticizing the obsession of today's designer with functionality, I was startled that someone expresses my thoughts exactly to the point. He proposed as a solution a collaborative thinking in design projects, but I see as a bigger problem the artistic expression of today's design, and while I do not think that a return to the classical art is necessary, I believe that a greater engagement of the artist with the object is absolutely necessary. This engagement must pass through the view of the designer of what they are creating as art and it must be trying to break the boundaries of conventionality by giving the object a distinct artistic detail from a similar object while incorporating the author's feelings and thoughts. I understand far well that is not possible at this point in time to completely redesign every small detail in our cities, since it's an economical matter also, but we should encourage diversity and experimentation in design as much as it is possible. We should try and change our environment in a manner that not only is the easiest to built, but is also the most valuable in terms of quality of life. Because at the end the beautiful and the artistic challenging is much more rewarding for our daily life hardships than the neutral and futuristic. Let's life in the present, the world is changing but humanity still rests on the same principles.