MoMA | Author: Paola Antonelli

Posts by Paola Antonelli

November 29, 2012 | Collection & Exhibitions, Design

Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

We are very proud to announce that MoMA has acquired a selection of 14 video games, the seedbed for an initial wish list of about 40 to be acquired in the near future, as well as for a new category of artworks in MoMA’s collection that we hope will grow in the future. This initial group, now installed for your delight in the Applied Design exhibition the Museum’s Philip Johnson Galleries, features: Read more

Born out of Necessity: Contemporary Design and the Myth of Problem Solving

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Have you ever encountered a definition—of art, design, poetry, or any creative endeavor—that you found truly satisfying? The ones that have the soundbite-ready punch that allows them to take hold in the public memory tend to be generic and superficial. Unless, as a curator, you learn to use them as doors into the sublime complexity of the field you explore and love. Read more

Talk to Me: A Symposium

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Aaron Straup Cope of Stamen Design. Prettymaps, Manhattan. 2010. Polymaps, Mapnik, and TileStache software. Photo Credit: Stamen Design, base map data. © OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA

In the spirit of the exhibition Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects, we have invited a remarkable group of designers, thinkers, and writers to talk to us on the evening of October 18 and all day on October 19 at The Museum of Modern Art. Read more

Talk to Me Can’t Stop Talking

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Installation view of Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects at The Museum of Modern Art, 2011. Photo © Scott Rudd

The exhibition Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects is up and running in our Special Exhibitions Gallery on the third floor. The public is behaving just the way we dreamt they would, not only diving into individual exhibits, reading, taking pictures and videos, clicking and dragging, and listening, but also taking full advantage of the interactive features in the galleries and beyond. Read more

Digital Fonts: 23 New Faces in MoMA’s Collection

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Matthew Carter's Walker

MoMA has just acquired 23 digital typefaces for its Architecture and Design Collection. Some are of everyday use, like Verdana; others are familiar characters in our world, like Gotham, which was used in President Obama’s election campaign, or OCR-A, which we can find at the bottom of any product’s bar code; and others are still less common, but exquisitely resonant, like Walker or Template Gothic.

@ in Context: Criteria for an Acquisition

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Screenshot of “@ at MoMA” post

Our recent acquisition of the @ symbol has challenged what most people think of as a typical object that a Museum acquires. We thought it best to let you in on our process—how we think about shaping our collection here at MoMA. As you know, museums are defined by their collections. Each collection has a unique point of view that is carefully shaped by its curators, who are always mindful of historical precedents as they look ahead to future developments. When it comes to contemporary design, MoMA’s collection seeks to remain on the cusp of innovation and to support the emerging talents, ideas, and concepts that will become tomorrow’s designed environment. Read more

@ at MoMA

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Ray Tomlinson. @. 1971. Here displayed in ITC American Typewriter Medium, the closest approximation to the character used by a Model 33 Teletype in the early 1970s

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has acquired the @ symbol into its collection. It is a momentous, elating acquisition that makes us all proud. But what does it mean, both in conceptual and in practical terms?

Contemporary art, architecture, and design can take on unexpected manifestations, from digital codes to Internet addresses and sets of instructions that can be transmitted only by the artist. The process by which such unconventional works are selected and acquired for our collection can take surprising turns as well, as can the mode in which they’re eventually appreciated by our audiences. While installations have for decades provided museums with interesting challenges involving acquisition, storage, reproducibility, authorship, maintenance, manufacture, context—even questions about the essence of a work of art in itself—MoMA curators have recently ventured further; a good example is the recent acquisition by the Department of Media and Performance Art of Tino Sehgal’s performance Kiss. Read more