Today's Adventure

I have just returned from NYC. I visited the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in the A.M. It was an exciting time at the institution, which is the coordinator of National Design Week. I went to a very interesting talk by a museum educator / public programmer on their staff. She elaborated on the museum's educational mission, especially its responsibility as the "National Design Museum" to educate a broad audience. It is no surprize that the rather small museum has turned to the web to connect with their largest audience, defined as people that cannot visit the museum. While this is unusual for a museum that is related to the arts, one that you would expect to be object-centered (it does in fact have amazing and expansive collections), it works. The educator attributed their success on the web to their focus on "design thinking" and "ideas of design." The objects and exhibitions are expressions of the discipline of design, but they are the end product of a rich creative processed from which equally as much can be learned off-site. The new website launched in tandem with this week's festivities features the new Educator Resource Center. There are discussions, lessons plans, and documents that explore why design should be adressed in the classroom, and how it can be applied in dynamic cross-curriclar situations.
Here is a link:
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EDU/index.asp

The afternoon I spent in awe of the work of Zaha Hadid mounted at the Guggenheim. While she is an "architect" if she must be labeled, her work blurs the boundaries of two-dimensional (graphic) and three-dimensional (spatial) design, and four-dimensional (interactive) design. Simultaneously, her work is as much sculpture as is architecture. The exhibition afforded me the clearest understanding of a very personalized artistic process that I have ever seen. I found myself engaged by the smallest lines and specks of color despite the overwhelmingly huge collection. Her sensitivity to, and exploitation of media, materials, and processes in turn elevated my level of awareness and perception.