Week 8: October 25

Week 8: October 25

This week for my creative research I visited the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Here are some of the highlights:

From Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

Zero-waste Scrub Set, 2020 by Danielle Elsener

This zero-waste scrub resulted from when the logo from the NHS (National Health Service) was printed at the wrong size.

I love the unique pattern that is created from the fabric scraps sewn together - it makes it look more high fashion than a normal scrub, even though it was made from a fabric that would normally have been thrown away because of errors.

Next was an exhibit on AI

Expression Portrait by R. Luke DuBois

This piece scanned your face, and guess the emotion that you were showing. It then asked you to hold that emotion for a minute. However, right after, it reveals that it had collected data from you about your age, ethnicity, current emotion, etc., and that the fun activity was not so fun after all. One thing that we noted was that the results for my roommate were a bit more accurate than mine, maybe because AI tends to be better at detecting white faces...?

The next exhibit we went to was designing for peace. I just really liked the theme of this exhibit and it was definitely my favorite due to the variety of cultures, ideas, issues, and solutions that were involved with it.

I through the opening wall was really cool, and how there was a hidden message depending on which angle you were looking at it.

I loved the typography and symbolism in this Black Lives Matter street art, and the imagery that was in each. They still all look cohesive.

Conflict Kitchen is a takeout kitchen in Philadelphia that serves food from countries in conflict with the United States.

The facade of conflict kitchen. It reminds me of Rich’s piece from last year.

This idea is great because it highlights food from countries that many Americans may normally be hesitant to try, due to lack of accessibility, knowledge, or fear of cultural differences. Restaurants representing these countries also may be more likely to face discrimination due to the bad media that they recieve due to the fact that they are the US’s “enemy”. Serving food though gives people the opportunity to associate these countries with something more positive, and experiencing the culture can help to humanize it's people. Food also acts as a gateway to learn more about these countries’ people and cultures in a more positive light that the media does, telling the other side of the story. Cultural exchange is a great was to confront bias and fear that Americans may have.

Take out wrappers for Conflict Kitchen contain interviews with multiple perspectives of people but currently living in and those who moved away from the focus country.

Universal Declarations of Human Rights Posters

“This is My Home” Poster based on the Declarations’s Article 25: Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being.

By Cindy Chen

“Your Thoughts are Illegal” Poster and Postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

By Christopher Kosek

Everybody poster and postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right.

By Christopher Kosek

Sweat Shop Labor poster and postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 23: Everyone has the right to work... to equal pay...

I really like these posters because of the irony in the imagery, and how it gets the message across so clearly. Just the imagery alone implies what the topic of the poster is. The designs are really creative and clever.

I also talked to Jack as he also went to the Cooper Hewitt, and he said that the layout of the museum reminded him of my project, as the exhibits were really close to each other and juxtaposed each other.

I really enjoyed going to the museum this week, but I’m still not sure exactly the direction I want to go for my next project, I loved so many of the projects there, but I’m not exactly sure how some of them relate to my topic, as I feel like they maybe touch more on other interests I have that are not necessarily related. I did get some insirpation on how to present my work, and the various forms that it can take. Who knew medical devices could be placed in an “art” museum? 

For scholarly research this week, I found a book by Gail Dexter Lord and Ngaire Blankenber called Cities, Museum, and Soft Power. 

Citation: Lord, Gail Dexter, and Ngaire Blankenberg. 2015. Cities, Museums and Soft Power. Washington: American Association of Museums. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1341266.

Link to article: http://ezproxy.stevens.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1341266&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_9

Summary: Soft power emerged as a concept in the late twentieth century to describe international relations based not on military or economic strength, but on influence. While the resources of "hard power" are tangible-force and finance-soft power resources include ideas, knowledge, values, and culture, as well as the ability to persuade. This volume discusses soft power from the vantage point of museums and demonstrates how they are quietly changing the world. With contributions by thirteen experts from ten countries, Cities, Museums and Soft Power reveals the world's 80,000 museums to be sleeping giants. Two major characteristics of soft power-the rise of cities and the role of civil society-are pushing museums from the margins toward the center as these institutions serve as education hubs, employers, magnets for creative industries, and engines of economic development. Meanwhile, the growth of technological networks and connectivity has enabled this soft power to spread even farther and deeper across the Internet and groups of people. Whether cozy and local or internationally renowned, museums possess a cultural strength that extends far beyond their walls

It also recaps some information that I learned earlier from a different perspective. 

There was also some discussion about when soft powers collide, how cities and museums can use soft power to better the lives of the people that live there, and how soft power is not always employed positively. 

I am glad this week that I finally found another book talking about soft power in an artistic or more localized scale. I was honestly surprised that a whole book existed. It focuses a little more on cities and museums than I probably will in my paper, but still has some good insight. Particularly, how soft power is not always a power used for good. In a similar way, juxtaposition is a soft power, but it can be used to portray a negative message as well. 

Overall this week I got some really good inspiration from Cooper Hewitt. I particularly like the way that the Human Right posters played with meaning and were so easily able to grab my attention. The format and imagery with the text had great gestalt and already implied the topic at hand even with just the simple imagery. I also feel now after this week that I understand soft power enough in all sense (political, artistic, and the negative sides to it), so will find a different research topic for next week.