75 Watt, Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen’s performance design project, brings new meaning to the concept of the medium is the message.

Posts tagged ‘Department of Architecture and Design’
Guns and Design

From left: Claes Oldenburg. Empire (Papa) Ray Gun. 1959. Casein on papier-mâché over wire. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist. © 1959 Claes Oldenburg. Photo: MoMA Imaging Services; Vija Celmins. Gun with Hand #1. 1964. Oil on canvas. Gift of Edward R. Broida in honor of John Elderfield. © 2013 Vija Celmins
If you visit Claes Oldenburg’s Ray Gun Wing, currently on display in MoMA’s Marron Atrium, you can see his collection of toy guns, metal gun-like constructions, and gun-evoking pieces of detritus, all arrayed like exotic butterflies in a naturalist’s cabinet of wonder.
Digital Fonts: 23 New Faces in MoMA’s Collection
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
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.
@ at MoMA

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.
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