History and Theories of Design: Questioning the Collection
The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design which believes that through promoting art and design knowledge, such as art history, would be able to enrich people’s lives and widen people’s horizons by engaging them in creative industries. (V&A) As an internationally well-respected art and design museum, the V&A has gathered around a wide range of exhibits from jewelries to paintings, from fashion and textiles to performance and theatre, not only to provide a platform for designers and artists get inspirations, but also to create an educational, knowledgeable creative platform for the public.
Undoubtedly, with a free entry fee, the V& A provides access to diverse audiences, allowing people from all over the world, with different interests, background, cultures to gather in a museum to admire the art and design collections. However, the question remains whether the museum is doing a great job in “educating” the public with collections of artwork and designs.
“Education” is about interactions. There are countless objects in the V&A, categorised by time, history, genre and media. Few of the collections are really connecting with visitors where we are allowed to look into artworks’ details and texture while someone sits down in front of the artwork and starts sketching. This is learning. I particularly love the Performance and Theatre collection which recently has a change in setting and display. I love the way the museum recreates the atmosphere of the stage of musicals through different lighting effects and the arrangement of the display of theatre costumes. Visitors are also given a chance to learn more about the backstage of musical performances through interacting with the collection. Yet, some collections certainly make visitors feel distant and what visitors could learn from them is limited such as the Jewellery section. In parts of the museum, visitors are not only not allowed to take pictures, but also permitted to sketch.
As I was walking in the museum, I was drawn to the part of the museum where the collection represents the complexity of design and society since 1945 where many of the objects illustrated how our surrounding environment and behaviours shaped design trends while these designs reconstructed our society.
The artifact I chose was “Bookcase: ‘This Mortal Coil’” which was designed by Ron Arad in 1993 with mild steel, in the “Contemporary” section within the “20th Century” collection. Here in this section, it shows that designers practiced intense experimentation with materials and forms adding emotion as an element in design practices. This led to the object I chose which was created during Ron Arad’s exploration of the structural potential of mild steel when being held under tension in a coil. His designs continue to challenge the audiences’ expectations by designing boldly when it comes to testing materials. As the designer himself, he admitted that “it was very exciting to do shelves that are unlimited in length, shelves that are not parallel to each other, shelves that are fixed to the wall almost like magic and new typology I never seen before…”. (Audio- Ron Arad. This Mortal Coil and Bookworms) In fact, designers are still amazing themselves as much as they amazed us when designing new objects.
Regarding the manufacturing process of this bookshelf, it was constructed from a single strip of mild steel, coiled into a spiral shape, manufactured by One Off Ltd, London. During production, the mild steel used for the bookcase was immersed in oil in order to allow it to cool at a determined rate ensuring its spring as the coil was designed to be able to be tightened and reduced in size for transportation and storage. Other than that, the surface was finished with a conventional wax-based spray-on furniture polish. (V&A)
Being a unique yet simple piece of design, “This mortal coil” introduced curved sculptural forms to the society, leading to a surprising commercial success when it was manufactured by the Italian manufacturer, Kartell with a different kind of material. (V&A)Besides, such explorations in the nature of materials were further developed into pieces of furniture with a new type of movement such as the “Bookworm”. Despite being rather simple without all the political and cultural backgrounds, this design was honoured to be shown in the V&A because of its originality in terms of design, structure, material use and typology.
In this design, Arad started a new page to the history of the movements of furniture. Nowadays, a spiral-shaped bookshelf doesn’t fascinate us as much. Anyone on the street may be owning interesting-designed bookshelves or shelves, placing by the side of their couch in their living room. Yet, there wouldn’t be so many inspiring and breath-taking designs if designers never explored and pushed through boundaries by making the impossible possible. Therefore, as a design student, I should not be limited by what I know, but should question and explore the unknown for better designs.
Museums may be a place for people to learn but knowledge is out there in the cities, on the streets, waiting for us to explore. If we just rely on the information we get from museums, we are limited. To make think out of the box, we first have to walk out of the box.
Audio- Ron Arad. This Mortal Coil and Bookworms. (n.d.). Retrieved from MoMa MultiMedia: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/162/1792
Barringer, T., & Flynn, T. (1998). Colonialism and the Object. Routledge.
Robertson, B. (2004). The South Kensington Museum in context: an alternative history. University of California.
V&A. (n.d.). Organisation of the V&A. Retrieved from V&A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/o/organisation-of-the-v-and-a/
V&A. (n.d.). V&A Mission and Objectives. Retrieved from V&A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/v-and-a-mission-and-objectives/
V&A. (n.d.). V&A Search the Collections. Retrieved from V&A: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O50989/this-mortal-coil-bookcase-arad-ron/
