The Genius of Design, Part 2

Since the 1920s, Our lives have been curiously shaped by design movements that would help us adapt to new social trends.  After the First World War, the growth of industrialization influenced our surroundings, as well as our relationship with tools.

An incubator of this idea was Bauhaus, a movement wherein designers closely examined objects and their functions, taking examples from mass production, using raw materials with no ornamentation, providing their clients with ergonomic objects and spaces whose efficiency and ease of use made life easier.

An example of this reimagination of efficient space at Bauhaus was the Frankfurt kitchen, where the floor plan was organized for efficiency, allowing the cook to easily access either the condiments or the pots, wherever she stood within that space.

Other rooms of houses saw similar redesigns. It was a radical idea for those days when most buildings were  highly ornamented, thanks to the influence of Art Nouveau. The influence of Bauhaus would give us more control of our spaces, allowing us to divide them and make them multifunctional.
 
The age of heavily ornamented living spaces was fading. Antiques would still complement homes with more modern floor plans and furnishings. New York, the mecca of art and innovation, was on forefront of this movement of twofold elegance and simplicity, from the design of the Bauhaus era and beyond.

A major influence of the genius of design occurs when the designer has the best interests of the buyer and the producer at heart. Times change, and when our lifestyles reflect that, the adept designer is quick to spot the new trend, providing us with ways to negotiate with our new surroundings. It's been happening since after the First World War, with the growth of industrialization: our evolving relationship with our living (and working) spaces.

The Bauhaus movement encouraged us to consider the implications of industry for lifestyle. In our homes, we might want to think about how we might make basic home chores more efficient.  Is it any wonder that our most basic household appliances--keeping the modern family in mind--issue the greatest good for the greatest number?

The Frankfurt Kitchen, an early project of the Bauhaus movement, was all about the measurement  of space, posing the question: how can we most easily route the kitchen user to both the condiments or pots, the dishes and the silverware, from any vantage point in the room?

This concept would influence how we would repurpose the remainder of our living space. If it was to be a flexible house, like Bauhus said, then we should have control of our space, to be able to divide it into as many areas as was needed to improve its multifunctionality. 

All this pushing away of the old style! But did this mean that devotees to the Bauhaus effect would throw out their furniture? Existing furniture had a place in the democratic movement that was Bauhaus, making one's household investment ornamental to the times. A showcase for this evolution was New York, and that did little to prevent the new floor plans and furnishings from finding their way into homes across the the US.

Innovation, possibilities, designers and all the details that are involved in the creation of objects have become iconic and indispensable nowadays. But what do we mean by the genius of design?



A great design makes a product useful, and it has to communicate visually with its owner. It can reflect the zeitgeist, taking it's cues from economics, capitalism, industrialization, new materials, technology, environmentalism, etc. In this sense, design chronicles our innovations, 'writing' history with visual language.



Before the industrial revolution the expression of each product was unique because it was made by hand, one by one, But automation of production gave us more products for less money, though some of the old handcrafted methods are still in use today.



The discovery of of new material and metals opened new ways of construction and, with them, mass production, manufacturing and processing. This is a key feature of the beginning of industrialization.
But design is not just about saving money; it also allows us a closer relationship with our devices.



Japanese design, for example, would have us see beauty in the function of the product, creating harmony between its design and purpose, through the use of almost poetic visual cues. We've asked our design to be both visually appealing and functionally sound--and at a price we can afford--and our wish has been granted.

Look at a typical department store. It is so filled with the blessings of this genius that the upcoming generations will not be imagine a world without the smartphone, the microwave, the personal computer, and many other things that were newfangled for their predecessors (but indispensible for them).

Light box functionality added to blog

I was messing around with some Javascript this morning, and I found a way to expand images, projecting them onto a transparent window above the original window. Click on the uploaded image above to see what I mean.

It was a difficult week for coming up with lesson plans, but I wanted to do at least something that would enhance the blog, since I had spent a lot of the week focusing on front end development, learning more that I could apply to my own sites.

This week we will forge ahead with the exercises in the Clear Speech book, by Judy Gilbert. As far as I know, my other learner has reserved a copy of this, but I will try to bring my scanner with me today. That way, I might be able to send you PDF files of the more important exercises--c

Pebbles

Original image: Everest Chiropractic

Everybody loves long weekends. Some lie on the couch, while others do the chores that have been piling up. My own weekend was a bit different this time.

After taking care of my own chores, I had time to do some walking. My feet led me to I the back of a building, close to the train tracks, where the foliage was starting to lose color, bringing those oranges and reds that sometimes make our minds wander.

The sun, breaking through the trees, shining on the train rails, created a perfect travel poster-like view. Then, I heard the noise of the heavy wheels approaching, hypnotically repeating, one after another, making my mind wander and my eyes close.

gee-gling-gee-gling-gee-gling-gee-gling-gee-gling...

After a long breath, I could feel how the breeze was lifting me. Slowly, I open my eyes, and I could see myself as a 7 year-old, playing on the train tracks, throwing pebbles onto the train tracks, making sounds and imitating a gun shot. My grandfather would be laughing, talking with his friends, all of whom were wearing suits and hats, holding their jackets on one arm. How long ago was it that I felt this way: worry-free, enjoying every moment, happy just to be grabbing as many pebbles as I could fit into my hand?

The whistle of the train awoke me from my trance and, in a few seconds, I went back in time, feeling, hearing and noticing that particular smell of metal, wood and oil. It reminds me how simple life can be and how life is not just about rushing. Sometimes we just need to sit awhile and enjoy the simple moments also.

New Learning Tool: The Kazoo

I will talk about this later in class, but this is a very effective way to improve stress and intonation in English. I may be able to bring some kazoos from the store so that we may practice this technique.

Judy Gilbert is an internationally respected authority on teaching English pronunciation, and I will try to find you some of her written resources the next time you come to class.

Judy, borrowing a quote from Shakespeare, argues that "each language has its music, and it matters".

And now my tongue's use to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or harp,
Or like a cunning instrument case up,
Or, being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony

(Richard II, Acr 1, Scene 3)

Shakespeare is writing about someone who has been exiled to a foreign land. Our goal in this class will be to tune that harmony that is mentioned above.

Elocution and Pronunciation
in
Marlon Brando's Superman Speech

For next week, read through the script below, paying attention to Jennifer Lebedev's advice on pronunciation in the Youtube videos we watched in class.

Try recording your speech with the mp3 software we downloaded earlier. Blogger should allow you to insert a sound file into a post in the blog; otherwise, post the link to your public folder on Dropbox.


Lois Lane: Any more at home like you?

Clark Kent: Uh, not really, no.

Lex Luthor: This is Lex Luthor. Only one thing alive with less than four legs can hear this frequency, Superman, and that's you.

Lex Luthor: It's kryptonite, Superman. Little souvenir from the old home town. I spared no expense to make you feel right at home.

Lex Luthor: [swimming in the pool, listening to news broadcasts about Superman] Miss Teschmacher! Turn it off.

Miss Teschmacher: [lying by the sunlamps] Lex, what's the story on this guy? Do you think it's the genuine article?

Lex Luthor: If he is, he's not from this world.
Miss Teschmacher: Why?

Lex Luthor: Because, if any human being were going to perpetrate such a fantastic hoax, it would have been me! Otis! My robe!

Otis: Right away, Mr. Luthor!

Lex Luthor: It all fits somehow, his coming here to Metropolis. And at this particular time. There's a kind of cruel justice about it. I mean, to commit the crime of the century, a man naturally wants to face the challenge of the century.

Otis: Listen, Mr. Luthor, maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?

Lex Luthor: [Lex gets out of the pool, and stops at the top step. Otis starts helping Lex on with the robe as the bottom of it proceeds to get soaked] Passing through? Not on your life. Which I would gladly sacrifice, by the way, for the opportunity of destroying everything that he represents. And, Otis, by the way, next time put my robe on *after* I'm out of the pool.

Otis: Oooohhhh!

Miss Teschmacher: [after learning that there is a missile heading toward Hackensack] Lex, my mother lives in Hackensack.
[Luthor checks his watch and shakes his head]

Lex Luthor: [in Luthor's underground hideout] Miss Teschmacher, how many girls do you know who have a Park Avenue address like this one?

Miss Teschmacher: [sarcastically] Park Avenue address? Two hundred feet *below*?

Source: IMDB.com

Sustainable Architecture

For the past couple of lessons we have talked about how architects need to be mindful about not only about aesthetics; they need to care about making our homes more energy-efficient and sustainable. For the next lesson I would encourage you to consider this .PDF file on sustainable architecture.

Jennifer ESL on Stressing Syllables in English

I am recommending this documentary because it extends your thought that our happiness is influenced by architecture.

The perfect home is something we all think about every moment of our lives. Since the moment of our birth we organize the space around us, moving furniture and placing ornaments on the walls. we call this "our space".

Not everybody will agree, but one thing is clear: we all try to compensate for what we lack, escaping from the monotonous and industrial feeling of a city, deciding to live in a house that on the exterior has the look of one or two centuries ago.

Maria Antonietta made the same exodus, but from her point of view. Escaping from the palaces of Versailles, she built a rustic village, known as the Queen's Hamlet. But it was an unreasonable facsimile of the peasant villages she thought she understood. The one thing she could not escape is that she liked living large. But no peasant could afford the large windows of her neo-vernacular estate. The expression, let them eat cake clearly belongs to this woman, as oblivious as she was.

We follow her steps nowadays, trying to hold on to something that is no longer around us, yet we still insist upon having our self-indulgent bells and whistles. We should learn from our past mistakes and start living more mindfully building homes that more efficient in materials and energy.

There are some around the world trying to make this change but as long we don't put aside our selfishness and indulgences we'll continue making the same mistakes.

Gaudi's Sand Bag Modelsby Tito Ballesteros

The image and its vertically flipped counterpart showing how Gaudi used the weight of small sand bags to help shape the columns and arches of La Sagrada Familia

Original image by Julia Meyer

Antonio Gaudi: a well-known name if you study architecture or if you just love art.
Born of Catalan origin in Spain during the mid 1800s, Gaudi was an architectural visionary whose buildings were more than plain cubes. These structures were inspired by the architectures of nature, following function with form, allowing for both aesthetic beauty and sound construction.

An architectural renegade, Gaudi took this inspiration and mimicked its shapes and curves, developing a different way to model his buildings. He would hang strings from the celing, tying small sandbags to them, and tying the strings to each other, creating the stronger columns and letting gravity make the arch shapes. This creates a solid structure, and one that is dramatic and breathtaking.

The wide openings at the bottom of the structure gradually narrow as your eyes move upward, drawing an "ah" from your mouth. The shapes, the colors, the use of natural materials and the ironwork all work together to give us a view that is calm and inspiring, both inside and out.

Nowadays, the purpose of a building is to show wealth and power. But where are the buildings that inspire us? if a healthy human brain gets stimulated by its surroundings, what kind of stimulation are we getting from modern buildings that we'd rather escape? Gaudi didn't intend for us to buy more, make more, consume more, be like this and not like that? The result of his careful planning and execution was not the escapism we see today. It was something far more sublime.

The Em Dash

Last week, in reviewing the course writings about Home: a Documentary, I saw the em dash, or "--", In a couple of places in the text of these postings. This sort of punctuation is meant to set off an abrupt change of thought. Please do check out this grammar page to get a more complete explanation on the use of the em dash. It is to be used sparingly, not every time you wish to set aside a phrase that can be handled by either parentheses or commas. And we have used these dashes sparingly; we just need to use them as effectively as we can.

Cheers. Here's hoping your week is going well

Since  the stone age we have been changing our surroundings, adapting to them and learning along the way. The population has grown along with the demand for food, water and land.

Nowadays our machinery allows us to produce food for commercial use, but in the old days, food was produced only for our sustenance. Since the agricultural revolution, we have produced more than we have been able to consume. The balance between pastures and cattle has changed radically, and what looks more  like a concentration camp is the main source of our daily meal. 

How can we have food to waste  with so many starving people in the world? Modernization may well be both a curse and a blessing. While the richest parts of the world have managed to change the desert to a  modern paradise, other parts of the world are suffering. People there live like our ancestors use to live--with just the basics--and care for of their most important assets, their children, whose extra helping hands are a blessing.

Now we shape the land as though we were performing a sacrificial rite, taking its life so that we can survive.

Petroleum is an aspect of this, allowing a few to become richer and cities to become larger; so large that is getting  difficult to  sustain or way our life. Our addiction to oil is not unlike a drug addiction. We need more of this drug to preserve our illusion of prosperity.