The Human Touch

In the Praise of Shadows

I think the underlying reason behind the love of laquerware in Asian countries is the thought, impact, and overall true beauty of this type of media. 

Although I have not actually held a piece of laquerware, one thing that laquerware has that I can apply to any type of design is the inclusion of all five senses and how it interacts and changes with its surrounding environment. To the touch, laquerware feels smooth and when holding soup, becomes comforting and warm; never scalding hot. Because metal flakes are painted on, light reflects off of it in interesting and visually compelling ways. Also the depth of the blackness of the laquerware is encompassing and invites you to pick it up, hold it, and not want to put it down. The fact that soup is usually served out of laquerware bowls through drinking it right out of the bowl, it brings the soup closer to your face where the smell of the soup becomes more potent.

Hand Work-Machine Work

I think this article is is basically saying that the definition of art and creativity lies in the action of human flesh and human thought being imposed on an object to make it become a piece of artwork. I think this mainly applies to the mass production of items and not towards artists who use machinery as a medium to create thier works. Even though masterpieces have been reproduced and still can be appreciated, the appreciation is for the original work, labor, and thought that was put into the art.

 In conclusion, both articles deal with the human- the impact the human has on objects, and how objects can impact the human. When the human imposes himself onto an object in a creative and purposeful way, the object transforms into art. Similarly, when an object connects to a human through all five senses, the object fulfill a vital role in the human's experience at that point and time.

Bibliography

Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro (1977). In praise of shadows.(T.J. Harper and E.G. Seidensticker, trans.)                                                                                                                                                                             Sedgwich, ME: Leete's Island Books, Inc. (original work published in 1933).

Frank, Isabelle (editor) (200). The theory of decorative art: An anthology of European and American writings                                                                                                                                     1750-1940. New York: Yale University Press

The Technological Hindrance Upon Art

In the Praise of Shadows

In part of the essay "In the Praise of Shadows", Jun'ichirō Tanizaki eats at one of his favorite restaurants in Japan. This time that he comes, they have changed the candle lights on the table to electric ones. He asks for a real candle, and this makes him realize how the lacquerware and experience of eating out of it come alive with candle light. He also realizes that lacquerware is superior to porcelien to him because of its dark color that creates depth and light weight for handling. This shows me that every detail in a room or space matters. Subtle things such as the lighting or color of an object can create a completely different mood.

Red and Black Lacquerware

Hand Work - Machine Work

Adolf Von Hildebrand talks about the changes in works overtime between hand work and machine work. I think he his talking about how the machines of today can make basically the same things that have been hand made for many years. The thing is that this has caused us to lose appretiation for the work that goes in to hand crafting. There is uniqueness in something that is hand crafted and each person who views or used the hand made object has a link to the artist.

Machine vs Hand

Overall, both of these writings talk of how past traditions of some form are better than new ways. Hand work is praised by both Tanizaki and Von Hildebrand. The technology of today has actually hindered these artistic forms. The lacquerware is better suited by candlelight than electricity and hand work is more authentic and appretiated than machine work.

Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō (1977). "In praise of shadows". (T.J. Harper and E.G. Seidensticker, trans.) Sedgwich, ME:  Leete's Island Books, Inc. (original work published in 1933).

Frank, Isabelle (editor) (2000). The theory of decorative art: An anthology of European and American writings 1750-1940. New York:  Yale University Press.

The Theory of Decorative Art

            In the “Significance of Applied Art” Hermann Muthesius states that applied art has constantly been changing in the eyes of the public over the years.  Artistically the designers and craftsmen may change their style in order to fit a certain trend and or to appeal to a larger audience.  Culturally people are constantly changing their minds therefore no one thing can stay in style for very long.  In an economic sense, today applied art is not a major profession bringing in the major money for people.  However the fact that when demand starts to be higher for trendy art items prices can be jacked up and there will be a variance of class level standings.

Trendy Colors

            In “Manifesto of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar” Walter Gropius makes the very important point that in order to be a successful designer you must have a passion for craft.  I completely agree because craft work is inspired by personal expression and in order to design well a person must have an open and creative imagination.  Crafts help people express themselves and if one is good with communicating their own visualizations then they can be successful.

Handmade pottery on the wheel

            In “Type-Needs: Type-Furniture’ le Corbusier says : “To search for the human scales, for human function, is to define human needs.”  By this le Corbusier means that function is the most important part of why he designs.  Basically without considering the human needs it will be impossible to create a design that solves a problem. 

 Fatboy furniture designed with the human in mind

Field Trip to Asheville, NC

Our class took a field trip to Asheville, NC for the American Craft Week. There we got to explore various types of folk art and crafts, which was incredibly intriguing.

Our first stop for the day was at The Folk Art Museum. We learned about the quilt system in the Appalachian region. The Southern Highland Craft Guild was founded in 1930 and is spread to nine states. It was first founded by Francesca Louisa Goodrich when she arrived to the mountains as a Presbyterian missionary teacher in 1890. After creating Allstand Cottage Industries to market arts and crafts from the mountains she later gave it to Highland Craft Guild.
A piece of work I looked into was a an "Indian Madonna" (1953) by a Cherokee potter Amanda Crowe. It was beautiful and looked interesting, telling so much about the history of the area. Amanda Crowe was born in 1928 and was an East Band Cherokee and known for her traditional indian woodcarvings. She also did some pottery, which of this sculpture was a very good example of.

Our next stop was a workshop at Handmade in America, where Yoko Morris told us about using crafts in interior design. She pointed out how easily hand crafted furnitures could be a part of modern decotared home and that way make in unique and much more important, and I have to say that I agree with her. Crafts do not have to be always furniture made by carpenters or cabinet makes, but it can be smaller details like dishware, for example. That's why I took a closer look at a set of clay pottery at the exhibit by Michon Sentner. The pieces were beautiful in their own simplicity and that is exactly how I like them. They were hand crafted out of stoneware clay.

Stonewatnerre pottery by Michon SenThe next stop was the Asheville Center for Craft Creativity and Design. We were suppose to have a bigger assignment once we got there but due to cold weather and short time we did something else. We were guided to take a look at the weaving works of a textile painter artist called Lia Cook who had a small exhibition going at the Center. Her work was not the most typical weaving, since she used photographs to create a picture. I found her work interesting and very special, especially because of the detailed surface of the weaving.

Our biggest place to visit was the Oriole Mill. Their fabrics are made by weaving them with massive mechanical looms of which using requires a lot of physical strenght and understanding the mechanics. The Oriole Mill became to be when Bethanne Knudson and Stephane Michelson bought a closed down frozen food packaging building to store their mill for producing high quality interior textiles and products. They use two types of looms for their fabrics, the Jacquard loom and a Dobby loom. The Jacquard loom is a type of loom that can create more complicated pattern that a Dobby loom. According to Wikipedia, it is the type of device that "can be mounted atop a loom to lift the individual heddles and warp threads".

At the end of the day we headed to River Arts District to see galleries but since it was already quite late we were only able to find a glass factory, which we all wanted to see the most. At the galss blowing factory there were many pieces that were so interesting and beautiful in their own serene way. There were glass balls hanging from the ceiling with plants in them, which I found very intriguing. Also the usage of colours in their class work was astonishing and gorgeous. Blowed glass is one of my favourite materials and I have done it myself too. We met a girl making beads out of glass by melting glass around an iron stick with a small gas torch.

The Theory of Decorative Art Readings

The Theory of Decorative Art

In reading The Theory of Decorative Art, I have a new understanding of architecture and interior design.  The two correlate very much and are very similar.  Architecture deals more with a bigger picture though and interior design focuses more in depth with the design.  From the readings this is what I've gathered:

"The Significance of Applied Art"

After reading "The Significance of Applied Art" I understood a few major points from Hermann Muthesius.  Significance of art is artistic, cultural, and economic.  Interior design is a different language - an artistic language that needs to be deciphered.  Muthesius compares modern art to many other periods of art such as the Renaissance art, Roccoco art, and German art.  He uses these to parallel the different forms of art.

One of the things that I stumbled upon in the reading that I found quite fascinating was "To respond to the conditions of the age in which we live, we must first do justice to the specific factors that govern the individual object" (pg 76).  What is the purpose of what we are trying to achieve in other words?  What is the ultimate goal?

I also found it interesting that he noted that design is a "...violation of these three principles" (pg 77) referring to artistic, cultural, and economic principles.  

The reading explained how new applied art is becoming a culture and already is in Germany; that it has become a universal movement.  Here are two modern art examples that I find are universal movements:

The block idea and spatial overlap with glass windows as a substitute wall has become a universal thing.

Modern furniture with little color and simple block patterns has become universal.

"Manifesto of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar"

In the reading from "Manifesto of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar" I think that the most important point that Walter Gropius was trying to make was that interior design and architecture need to have unity; the two cannot collide, but need to collaborate.  I would say that a good example of collaboration between the two is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's projects, for he designed each house, but also designed everything inside and picked out all of the furniture.  Below is perhaps, Wright's most succesful and well-known piece, Falling Water.

The top picture and bottom picture collaborate because they both have the steel frame that is painted crimson in them.

 "Type-Needs: Type Furniture"

In reading "Type-Needs: Type Furniture" by Le Corbusier I understood that the human measurements are very important.  From the statement "To search for the human scales, for human function, is to define human needs" (pg 84) I understood that the forming things that fit the human body are the essential and most important things that one can do.  Studying the human body and making everything to scale of the human body is important.  For example, stairs have a certain height that is considered regulation height.  This is the height that is comfortable for humans to walk up.  If one stair is heightened or lowered by even an eighth of an inch, then people will trip walking up the stairs.  But when we learn about the human form, the human mannerisms, the human shape, we can define human needs.

Frank, Isabelle (editor) (2000). The theory of decorative art: An anthology of European and American writings 

1750 – 1940. New York: Yale University Press.