Visual Art
[ Naoto Fukasawa’s Juice Skin packaging
i’éét "wife-t: MIXED MEDIA DESIGN) HAPTIC (GROUP HOW) The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Wed 18 Jun—Mon 29 Sep
Kenya Hara, from Tokyo’s Nippon Design Museum, has suggested a new model for design: ‘Whilst affirming scientific progress, I would like to propose that we use not technology, but the human senses to evoke the animating force of manufacturing. So here emerges an alternative design practice — the “sense driven”.’
This summer, Glasgow’s Lighthouse will become home to Haptic, an exhibition curated by Hara consisting of objects specially designed to “awaken our senses’. After commissioning designers from all fields, Hara asked that they ‘respond to the task of making objects that did not simply focus on colour or form, but to the sense of touch as a primary motivation.’ While the sense of touch is fundamental to the exhibition, Hara asked the designers to go further and create ‘something that on sight awakens all the senses.’ The objects created by this multi-disciplinary group do not disappoint.
Naoto Fukasawa’s ‘Juice Skin’ packaging consists of a material that has the feel and look of the fruit within.
Otto Umbehr. Dreamers
102 THE LIST 5—19 Jun 2008
The strawberry juice box ‘skin’ (pictured) is a perfect approximation of the fruit, studded with tiny seeds. Shuhei Hasado is also inspired by the natural world. His Geta shoes’ soles are covered with textured objects designed to make the wearer feel as though they are walking barefoot through the forest over moss, twigs or pine needles, while Kosuke Tsumura’s beautiful/creepy Kami Tama lamp may polarise visitor opinion, as it is constructed from lengths of human hair.
Several ubiquitous technological objects also receive ‘haptic’ makeovers. Panasonic presents a new twist on the remote control: made from gel, this familiar object has an unexpectedly soft textural quality, while the remote control ‘droops’ when it’s not in use or if its batteries are low. Similarly, the French artist Matthieu Manche has reworked the multi-socket extension cable, familiar to every household overstocked with electrical appliances, and reformed it from the material used to make silicone breast implants, in a flesh- coloured tones. Perhaps not all of these products will ultimately be mass-produced, but the designers’ imagination and innovation is evident in the creation of these unusual, engaging objects. (Liz Shannon)
memes-«.- PHOTOGRAPHY
PREVIEW VIDEO
PAUL RODNEY
The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 12 Jul
Liverpool-based artist Paul Rooney's two video works on show at the Collective Gallery include the newa commissioned ‘Lost High Street‘ (2008), which draws on his experiences as an art student in Edinburgh in 1987. Set on an open tour bus and created using a hand- held video camera. the piece casts Rooney as a tourist recounting fragmented stories related to the city. In the film, the tourist is trapped on
’ the bus with the tour guide in a
continuous loop. which gradually brings on a sense of fear and paranoia. The title is based on the Hank Williams song ‘Lost Highway‘. which Rooney‘s tour guide sings excerpts from. ‘lt's a moral song,‘ says Rooney, “about a young guy who makes mistakes in his youth and is condemned to travel the road forever.‘ Also showing here is the video ‘Monster‘ (2004) which Rooney made during a residency in Melbourne. In it, a narrator recites poetic descriptions of the city to a backdrop of Melbourne street scenes. Inspired by a fictional modernist poet called ‘Ern Malley‘. whose complex hybrid poems were intended as a hoax yet achieved considerable success, Rooney similarly weaves together many sources to create his narrator‘s script. The absence of people in ‘Monster' contrasts with the encounter in ‘Lost High Street'. As Rooney says. ‘lt's only recently that people have begun to appear in my work.‘ Yet. the two pieces are thematically united. ‘Bolh works explore different ways of encountering a city,’ says Rooney. ‘I'm interested in the way our mundane and routine world resonates with unfulfilled potentials.‘ (Rosie Lesso)
FOTO: MODERNITY IN CENTRAL EUROPE 1918-1945 Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Jun—Sun 31 Aug
The Dean‘s new exhibition argues that across Central Europe between the wars the driving force of modernity in art could be found in the field of photography. Artists and amateur practitioners alike could come together and explore different views of the world through the defining artform of the industrial age.
‘As empires like the German Reich and the Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbled the resulting nation states found themselves thrust into urban modernity from their previously agrarian conditions,‘ says Foto‘s curator Daniel Hermann. ‘This change was mediated artistically through photography.‘
Using around 150 items, including journals. collages, publications and original photographic prints by pioneers like Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Andre Kertesz. the exhibition demonstrates the creativity of the times while serving as a documentary portrait of the age. After all, the concept of photojournalism was itself invented in Central Europe during the period covered by the display.
‘One of the most important things about the exhibition is showing how important taking photos was to all sorts of people,‘ says Hermann. “One of the sections focuses on amateur or ‘dilettante‘ photography. If you‘re a photographer you need a laboratory as well as a camera. so people would get together in photo clubs and schools. and often these would be supported by unions and workers' movements. Photography was a real utopian project. at the time.‘ (David Pollock)