MoMA
Posts tagged ‘Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye’
January 15, 2016  |  Five for Friday
Five for Friday: The Art of David Bowie

Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection.

To call David Bowie an art enthusiast would be something of an understatement; at times it seemed that his very existence was an art project.

January 12, 2016  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Radio On

One of the all-time best Christmas presents I ever received was a tiny black plastic transistor radio. It came with a single ear plug, a corded wrist strap, and a thin black vinyl case. There are no words to describe how absolutely fabulous it was, but I have a wonderful memory of bebopping through the snow across the street to my best friend’s house on Christmas night with my new little black transistor radio pressed up close to my ear. I couldn’t wait to show it to her.

November 3, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions
See and Hear Your Favorite Stars on Scopitone!
"See and Hear Your Favorite Stars on Scopitone" advertisement. c. 1965. Lithograph. Gift of Bob Orlowsky, Film Study Center Special Collections

“See and Hear Your Favorite Stars on Scopitone” advertisement. c. 1965. Lithograph. Gift of Bob Orlowsky, Film Study Center Special Collections

My first encounter with Scopitone came about during the course of a joyride with out-of-state friends in in the summer of 1971. As evening fell they thought it would be amusing to leave me by the side of an unfamiliar suburban road in Connecticut, as a test of character. This sounds like the opening scene of a film noir or a creature feature, but instead I found myself in a roadside soda fountain filled with teenagers eating ice cream and watching dancers move on the screen of an unusually big jukebox.

May 21, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions
LP Covers—Music in Your Hand

As a member of a pre-mp3 devices generation, I have fond memories of trips to the record store. Holding a great LP cover is like holding its music in your hand; the best are a visual expression or translation of the music they deliver.

March 10, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Sounds from Outer Space: The Moog at MoMA
View of the concert performed by Robert Moog and the Moog Synthesizer, part of the Jazz in the Garden series, The Museum of Modern Art, August 28, 1969. Photographer: Peter Moore. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

View of the concert performed by Robert Moog and the Moog Synthesizer, part of the Jazz in the Garden series, The Museum of Modern Art, August 28, 1969. Photographer: Peter Moore. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

The exhibition Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye explores the ways in which sound technologies have shaped the way we listen to musical culture. Highlighting both technical innovation and design aesthetics, the exhibition includes a number of modern instruments, including a Yamaha Portatone Keyboard and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

Looking at Music, Mayhem, and Rock-n-Roll

Leading up to her new class After-Hours: Making Music Modern, instructor Marianne Eggler sits down with MoMA’s Susannah Brown to share her excitement for this unique new program.

February 24, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions
The LP Cover: A Counter-Cultural Icon

The Beatles’ Revolver, with Klaus Voorman’s haunting illustration and photo-collage work, was the first LP cover added to the design collection in my time at MoMA and I was thrilled to see it arrive. Recently Help!, Rubber Soul, and Sgt Peppers’ Lonely Heart’s Club Band LP covers were acquired and all are currently on view in Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye along with The Beatles, aka the White Album, from MoMA’s drawings and prints collection. Exhibited together, these Beatles album covers offer a design-based narrative of the band’s evolution, and at same time read as a cultural narrative of the times.

January 28, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions, Videos
Making Music Modern: Sourcing the Stratocaster
Leo Fender, George Fullerton, Freddie Tavares. Left: Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. Designed 1954, this example 1957. Wood, metal, and plastic. Right: Fender Bassman amplifier. 1959. Wood, metal, and plastic. Committee on Architecture and Design Funds

Leo Fender, George Fullerton, Freddie Tavares. Left: Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. Designed 1954, this example 1957. Wood, metal, and plastic. Right: Fender Bassman amplifier. 1959. Wood, metal, and plastic. Committee on Architecture and Design Funds

As a curatorial assistant at MoMA, one of the most fun aspects of my job is researching and facilitating new acquisitions for the Museum’s collection. In the Architecture and Design department, we collect a range of materials, from architectural models to video game interfaces. And then there’s the time we acquired a 1957 Fender Stratocaster

January 8, 2015  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Sound and Vision: A Making Music Modern Virtual Tour and Playlist
Installation view of Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye, The Museum of Modern Art, November 15, 2014–November 1, 2015. Photo: John Wronn

Installation view of Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye, The Museum of Modern Art, November 15, 2014–November 1, 2015. Photo: John Wronn

“Don’t you wonder sometimes/’Bout sound and vision?” sings David Bowie wistfully on a track from the album Low, released in 1977. Recently I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how music—an essentially invisible and immaterial art form—grounds us in the physical world, influencing the mood and tone of everyday life. Without it we definitely lose our bearings.

December 18, 2014  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Consider the Rock Concert Poster

I’m one of those people that carries a notebook everywhere so I can be sure to record what mostly turns out to be a lot of useless information, for example rock concert set lists—though not religiously, just when I feel like it. Recently I tried using the notes app on my phone, but it’s just not the same.