Modern Design

SUMMARY: In his film " Secret Beyond the Door " (1947), German director Fritz Lang introduced the symbolic concept of " felicitous room " developed by a character who is an architect exploring a thesis according to which the way a place is designed determines what happens in it. Appropriating the concept of " felicitous room " , this paper intends to problematize the earlier collective work of artist Querubim Lapa and architect Francisco da Conceição Silva, especially addressing the case of Rampa, a store in the centre of Lisbon, and the " felicitous " story of its doorframe, designed in 1956.

This paper is part of the project “Back to the Future- Romanian design at a Crossroads” and aims to raise awareness of important historical moments of Romanian design at the intersection with other disciplines, correlated with the recuperation of a personality from the pioneering period of socialism and design and design education in Bucharest, the architect Ion Popa. The year 2020 was the commemorative year of 30 years since his disappearance.

This essay investigates the intermedial relationship between printing, painting, and textile design in the late 19th century through a case study of Imao Keinen's (1845-1924) Painting Album of Flowers and Birds (Keinen kachō gafu, 1891). Initially published in 1891, Keinen's painting album was a set of four-volume books. It became widely popular among Japanese, Chinese artists, designers and Western collectors. Different from previous painting manuals, it aimed to promote the design quality, in addition to offering scientifically accurate representations of nature. This manual signified a new model of collaboration between textile companies and artists in response to the growing domestic and overseas markets. Keinen's training in painting, printing and dyeing prepared him well to be a textile designer. This paper argues that such collaboration was possible not only due to the market demand but also the technical innovation in textile production and synthetic dyes, which could simulate gradations of color and chromatic effects to create sophisticated pictorial designs on textiles. Furthermore, the curriculum of painting and design at major art schools in the 1890s cultivated a new generation of artists who could easily work across media and changed how Japanese prints, paintings, and designs looked in the next decade. The goal of this painting album was multiple: it aimed to integrate science into art by demonstrating early modern artistic traditions while offering invaluable design ideas in response to a growing overseas market.

KEYWORDS: Romanian design; modern design; industrial aesthetics; design education; modernism; industrialization; socialism

This paper attempts to trace connections and intersections between the Western notion of modernism and the development of Romanian design in the inter-bellum and the socialist periods in relation to the European and international context. It also rehabilitates the history of Romanian design, suggesting the manner in which a history seen as minor and peripheral is historically and theoretically an integral part of the so-called major, hierarchized, and non-inclusive canonical history of modern industrial design.

This paper was published in Bulgarian in 1999, as follows:
Bulgarian Women in Foreign Art Life  - Mara Utschkunowa Auböck and Ana-Lülja Praun. Art Studies Quarterly, 2 (1999): 57-60
“Българки в чуждестранния художествен живот – Мара Учкунова-Аубьок и Ана-Люля Симидова Праун”. - Сп. Проблеми на изкуството, 2 (1999): 57-60
[ https://www.academia.edu/14314898/ ].

Until then nobody knew in Bulgaria about the connection of Mara Utschkunowa with the famous school of Bauhaus. Afterwards, my investigations proved that she was the only person with Bulgarian origin who had been officially registered as a student in Bauhaus for the period 1919-1933.
Although she was not an architect, she had lived and worked in an architectural and creative environment and contributed to the development of contemporary design and modernist interior architecture.

Ensaio publicado no catálogo da exposição 'TEMPOS MODERNOS | Cerâmica Industrial Portuguesa Entre Guerras | Colecção AM-JMV', com curadoria de Rita Gomes Ferrão, decorrida no Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisboa, de Setembro de 2018 a Agosto de 2019.
Num momento particular da história da Europa, enquadrado por duas Guerras Mundiais, a indústria cerâmica portuguesa reconfigura-se segundo novas leis impostas pelo Estado Novo, modernizando as suas propostas de modo a encontrar o gosto internacional e os mercados das colónias ultramarinas. Enquanto a mecanização tarda em instalar-se, os industriais apoiam-se em feiras, exposições e publicações internacionais, para delinear os modelos a fabricar, interpretando amiúde o design de peças estrangeiras, que assim dá entrada no mercado interno. O uso do léxico Art Déco ou de técnicas como a pintura a aerógrafo (spritzdekor), articula-se com a geometrização das formas, as decorações abstractas ou a figuração estilizada, introduzindo na vida doméstica portuguesa um vislumbre de modernidade.
Reunindo fragmentos de uma história de indústria, de empreendimento individual e busca coletiva por uma vida melhor, esta mostra tomou emprestado o título do filme "Modern Times", de Charlie Chaplin (1936), como metáfora para as dificuldades de adaptação a uma nova vida, da qual só saberá após a II Guerra Mundial.

Constructed as a think piece, this paper aims to unfold the aesthetic construction of iPhones, or in a wider scope, of Apple products. This investigation started in opposition to the idea suggesting that only a small portion of iPhone design had aesthetic content, whereas the main design activity was about engineering design. In this article, this assertion was critically interpreted as a prejudice made by design researchers on the side of the engineering fields. The engineering aspects around the production of the iPhone are indeed extensive but this does not invalidate the aesthetic qualities that the iPhone is possessed of. Moreover, the denied or neglected aesthetics quality of electronic multimedia devices are included in a new paradigm of unconventional aesthetics, along with their micro-chips inside them. But beside this, Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and former CEO, and Jonathan Ive, the company's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design shared an admiration for Dieter Rams' design philosophy, which espoused a modernist view that emphasizes minimalism and simplicity. Was it possible to underestimate the modernist design aesthetics that has been established for decades and which had a marked influence on many product designers and companies? Or was it appropriate to assume that the overt simplicity-one of the core design values of Apple company by means of both form and function – as being indicative of small aesthetic content? This study attempted to gather and create ideas about these discussions.

The loss of the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire in the aftermath of the disastrous Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71 was a serious blow to French national pride, one which the majority of the nation's citizens tried mightily to forget in the ensuing decades. But in southern Lorraine, centered on the city of Nancy--which the Germans did not annex in 1871 and where many émigrés from these "lost provinces" had resettled--the memory of the war and the division of the region of Lorraine remained strong. Nancy's citizens mounted a campaign through all types of media, beginning in the 1880s and lasting until the end of the First World War, to reawaken the national drive to return Alsace-Lorraine to French rule. This essay reveals the myriad means of communication and material culture used by Lorrainers to rekindle this desire on regional, national, and international levels, and make it the central unifying tangible goal of the weary French nation as the First World War dragged on.

Presentación de la conferencia "ARNE JACOBSEN, PIONERO DEL DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL MODERNO: LAS FORMAS ABSTRACTAS DE LA NATURALEZA”, pronunciada el 2 de marzo de 2018 en la Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales de la Universidad de Valladolid con motivo de las XXVII Jornadas de las Ingenierías Industriales organizadas por la UVa.

marca de revista, moderno, pós-moderno As revistas foram um dos reflexos de todo um processo da mudança de comportamento e conceitos ocorridos na sociedade durante o século XX. A evolução da tecnologia, da cultura e a globalização no decorrer do século nos trouxeram até hoje vários estilos diferentes. Padrões tradicionais modernos, padrões irreverentes pós-modernos, assim diz ver a sociedade sobre as aparentes diferenças entre os estilos. Mas na verdade, o que diferencia as marcas de revistas modernas das marcas de revistas pós-modernas? O objetivo deste artigo é fazer uma análise comparativa de marcas de revistas modernas e marcas de revistas pós-modernas, procurando identificar a relação que há entre suas características estéticas que diferenciam seu estilo. Foi realizada uma análise nas capas das revistas evidenciando e após comparando seus aspectos sintáticos como variação de cor, tipo, tamanho e posição na página (layout) para verificar quais os maiores contrastes que poderiam definir cada uma das marcas como modernas e pós-modernas. magazine trademarks, modern, post-modern Magazines were one of the consequences of a whole process of changes of behavior and concepts occurred in the society during the 20 th century. Tehcnological and cultural evolution , and globalization through the 20 th century have put a wide range of styles in evidence. Classifying traditional standards as Modern, and irreverent standards as Post-modern has been a common place to cope with apparent differences between these styles. But what is actually the differential between modern magazines' trademarks and post-modern magazines' trademarks? This article intends to make a comparative analysis between these types of trademarks, by identifying the relationship that exists between their aesthetic characteristics which differentiate their style. An analysis of the magazines' layers was carried out evidenciating and comparing their syntactic aspects as variation of color, type, size, and position in the page (layout) to verify which are the biggest contrasts that could define each one of the trademarks as modern and post-modern.

Sustentabilidad "Que se puede sustentar o defender con razones". Economico Ecologico Social Susten-table Sopor-table Viable Equitativo El desarrollo que satisfa-ce las necesidades del presente, sin compro-meter la capacidad para que las futuras generaciones puedan satisfa-cer sus propias necesidades. + Utilizar recursos ambientales de manera sostenible, planificando acciones a largo plazo. + Atencion a las necesidades del conjunto de la pobla-cion y generaciones futuras. + Utilizacion creativa de la variedad natural y la varie-dad cultural. + Ubicacion prioritaria de la problematica del consumo y de las tecnologias como areas vitales de decision. + Enfatizar lo regional, lo local, la diversidad, la adapta-bilidad, la complementariedad, como pilares opuestos a la centralizacion y homogeneizacion que puja este mundo globalizado (No siempre "lo de alla, sirve aca"). Si no se cumple, se reduce % de sustentabilidad. 1º-Coste / + Eficiencia 2º + Coste /-Eficiencia Lograr que la ma-yoria de los ma-teriales de una obra puedan ser reutiliza-dos en otra.

Sustentabilidad "Que se puede sustentar o defender con razones". Economico Ecologico Social Susten-table Sopor-table Viable Equitativo El desarrollo que satisfa-ce las necesidades del presente, sin compro-meter la capacidad para que las futuras generaciones puedan satisfa-cer sus propias necesidades. + Utilizar recursos ambientales de manera sostenible, planificando acciones a largo plazo. + Atencion a las necesidades del conjunto de la pobla-cion y generaciones futuras. + Utilizacion creativa de la variedad natural y la varie-dad cultural. + Ubicacion prioritaria de la problematica del consumo y de las tecnologias como areas vitales de decision. + Enfatizar lo regional, lo local, la diversidad, la adapta-bilidad, la complementariedad, como pilares opuestos a la centralizacion y homogeneizacion que puja este mundo globalizado (No siempre "lo de alla, sirve aca"). Si no se cumple, se reduce % de sustentabilidad. 1º-Coste / + Eficiencia 2º + Coste /-Eficiencia Lograr que la ma-yoria de los ma-teriales de una obra puedan ser reutiliza-dos en otra.

This paper focuses on the role of women as producers and consumers of design in Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century. The denigration of contemporary design by its association with the feminine is a well-known trope in European writing on modern design around 1900. To be overly ornamented was to be false, frivolous, wasteful and unnecessary. Instead traits associated with masculinity-simplicity and functionality-were prized. This essay looks at the specific parameters of this argument as it was framed in Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century. Specifically it focuses on the discourse on design that took place in sociological circles centered on University of Chicago and the Settlement House movement. Sociologists of the Chicago School were concerned with the effects of mass production and consumption on modern urban citizens. In the pages of their journal, the American Journal of Sociology founded in 1895, they published articles on the role of women's dress, sweatshop labor, and the lives of department store clerks amongst other topics. While not primarily concerned with aesthetics, these writings shed light on the tightly intertwined cultural and economic roles of design. Any discussion of design and sociology in Chicago at this time means, of course, looking again at the influential writing of the economist Thorstein Veblen. Seen within his framework, Veblen's work is revealed not only as the creation of a brilliant and idiosyncratic mind, but deeply informed by the work of others, including the women of Hull House, particularly Jane Addams and Florence Kelley. Placing Veblen's writing side by side with theirs, we begin to see a particularly Chicago-centric version of the gendering of design in the modern industrial age. Their writings describe the debased status of women and children in the landscape of industrial production of Chicago, and by implication the products of industrial design. This intellectual attitude towards industrial design in the context of Chicago industries and markets prefigured ideas that were to become popular across the country a generation later, and may be seen as the beginning of a developed theory of modern industrial design in the United States.

Algunos de los artistas de vanguardia que lucharon en el frente durante la Gran Guerra consideraron que tenían ante sí un espectáculo visual cubista, pues un sólido parentesco parecía ligar las formas que ellos mismos habían ideado con las que les procuraba su experiencia más inmediata. Quizá por ello se mantuvieron más firmes en el lenguaje vanguardista que los artistas de la retaguardia, entre los que cundía, y quizá también se imponía políticamente, un deseo de retorno al orden. Ahora se entendía mucho mejor por quépoco antes el arte había empezado a perder su calma. Pero la contribución de las vanguardias, y sobre todo del cubismo, a delinear visualmente la guerra no se limitó a esta prefiguración de una realidad fragmentada; el cubismo fue uno de los grandes inspiradores del nacimiento y primer desarrollo de la pintura del camuflaje militar en su versión moderna. Como no podía ser de otro modo, una vez más su "jefe de filas", Picasso, sería el encargado de anticipar la idea. El 7 de febrero de 1915 le sugería "una buena idea" por carta al artillero Guillaume Apollinaire: "la artillería sólo es visible para los aeroplanos; como los cañones, incluso pintados de gris, conservan la forma, habría que pintarlos de colores vivos y a trozos rojos amarillo verde azul blanco en arlequín". Picasso estaba proponiendo que se aplicara al equipamiento de guerra lo que él mismo y Braque llevaban haciendo en su pintura desde aproximadamente 1908: el principio de descomposición de la forma por medio de planos o facetas de colores. Casualmente, sólo una semana después de que escribiera esta carta, el Ministerio de Guerra francés ratificaba la existencia oficial de la primera sección de camouflage, bajo las sugerencias del pintor Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola, uno de los inventores del arte del camuflaje contemporáneo, aparte del jefe de la recién creada Unité de camoufleurs y autor del diseño de su insignia: un camaleón dorado bordado sobre un fondo rojo. Los más tempranos críticos y simpatizantes del cubismo habían percibido y expuesto desde el primer momento la filiación cubista del arte del camuflaje. André Salmon dedicaba de hecho uno de los capítulos de su Art vivant, de 1920, a explicar esta paternidad, así como a defender al cubismo de las acusaciones de arte boche en las que ya desde antes de que estallara la guerra se empeñaba el chauvinismo más ramplón, alegando que su contribución a la invención y puesta en práctica de este tipo de arma defensiva era la prueba irrefutable de su inocencia. Especialmente explícita fue Gertrude Stein, que en la Autobiografía de Alice B. Toklas relacionaba el tratamiento de los edificios que Picasso ideó en la serie de pinturas de paisaje de Horta de Ebro, en 1909, con el procedimiento básico del camuflaje de armamento de guerra, atribuyéndoles además a ambos, de una forma un tanto curiosa, una raíz española. Pues a su juicio, la arquitectura vernácula española, y la trascripción pictórica que de ella había hecho Picasso, no sigue las sugerencias del terreno, sino que penetra en el paisaje confundiéndose con él. Gertrude Stein cuenta también la reacción de Picasso el día que, paseando con ella por el boulevard Raspail, se toparon de bruces con el primer cañón pintado, es decir camuflado, que veían en sus vidas: "C'est nous qui avons fait ça", exclamó estupefacto el pintor. Muchos años después, Dalí aseguraría que el camuflaje de la Primera Guerra Mundial fue fundamentalmente cubista y picassiano, mientras que el de la Segunda había sido surrealista y daliniano. Aunque las técnicas de camuflaje bélico no nacieron con la Primera Guerra Mundial (antes se habían utilizado sólo de manera esporádica), sí experimentaron entonces un extraordinario desarrollo e incluso dejaron de estar desprestigiadas como signo de debilidad incompatible con una actitud guerrera basada en el alarde de técnica y valor. En tierra, la eficaz mimetización, confusión, mezcla o fusión de soldados, equipamiento, instalaciones y armamento con su entorno, de forma que resultaran invisibles para la vigilancia aérea, entrañaba el desafío de organizar un engaño visual a gran escala; ¿a quién podía corresponder esta tarea sino a esos milenarios artífices del engaño visual que son los artistas? Por eso en la Primera Guerra Mundial se reclutó a estos especialistas en artimañas visuales capaces de ocultar, de disimular, de disfrazar, de idear formas susceptibles de múltiples interpretaciones, para que pusieran inmediatamente estas habilidades, que tanto les había reprochado Platón, al servicio de la guerra. Consciente de que se exponía al reproche de apelar a "pintores, digamos, germanófilos y absurdos, de hecho, a cubistas", desde el primer momento el responsable de los camoufleurs franceses, Lucien Victor Guirand de Scevola, recurrió a inspirarse en procedimientos cubistas; porque, como confiesa en sus Recuerdos del camuflaje, le mostraban la vía adecuada para deformar completamente el objeto, pero también porque como "lo que pintan los cubistas no se parece en nada a su modelo, estaban predestinados a pintar cañones que nadie tomaría por cañones". Es evidente, así,