“Art and design should never be frozen in time.”

--Ana Cela, director of the museum shop and publications at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, on the museum's inspired accessories line inspired by Renaissance master Domenico Ghirlandaio's portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni. “I see these beautifully crafted accessories and I’m instantly ‘feeling Giovanna,’ ” she said noting that, while not replicas of objects in the painting, the pieces transmit “the same Renaissance aesthetic.”  [Renaissance Portrait Inspires Gift Shop Goods | NY Times ]

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The Smithsonian Institution has entered into a licensing agreement with QVC to develop a jewelry collection based on artifacts in the National Gem and Mineral Collection, a part of the National Museum of Natural History. According to the Washington Post, the line will include a "smaller version of the Hope Diamond", which will retail at $85.

Millions of people visit the museum each year, admiring its beautiful and rare jewelry and gemstone collection. Now our customers can share these national treasures in a very personal way as we give them access to owning jewelry based on items of great historical significance.

—Debra Puzio, QVC's director of merchandising

The Smithsonian's goal is to "create jewelry that is not only fashionable, but also serves to educate the public about the Smithsonian and the jewelry, gems and minerals found in its collections," according to Carol LeBlanc, director of consumer products for Smithsonian Enterprises. As with most other museum stores (see: the Met),  revenue from the Smithsonian's stores (the organization reported a 15% profit margin in 2007) goes back into the institution to support its programs and educational initiatives, but it's not clear if and how QVC would share the profits of this agreement. I also wonder whether shoppers agree with Carol LeBlanc and see their purchases as vehicles for personal edification--or whether it's instead about the perceived prestige of owning an authorized reproduction of a museum-worthy piece. (Or maybe it just looks nice. Who knows?) With the Smithsonian's move to sell their museum-inspired pieces through a third-party, home shopping TV network instead of directly to shoppers on site or online, it seems to dilute the messages of educational and cultural cachet. [Smithsonian and QVC Announce New Jewelry Line | CNN Money]

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Dancer Sayako Tomiyoshi from the English National Ballet displays a Damien Hirst-designed sign at the British Museum. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

British artists, performers, museum directors, and leaders in theater and film rallied at the British Museum last week for the release of Cultural Capital: A Manifesto for the Future, a new report that demonstrates the economic contributions of the arts and culture sector. These leaders hope to discourage the British government from slashing funding in response to the country's huge deficit, arguing that the arts—especially theatre, music, and museums—both create jobs and contribute to the nation's GDP.

Last year, similar worries over arts funding in America prompted Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein to publish a study takes the argument one step further: artists contribute directly through their own fields, but they have also historically played a major role in scientific and technological innovation. What's more, the most successful scientists are more likely to pursue artistic expression:

...almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."

Their succinct article in Psychology Today gives many examples of scientific discoveries and technological innovations borne of artistic pursuits. "Successful scientists and inventors are artistic people," the authors argue. "Hobble the arts and you hobble innovation. It's a lesson our legislators need to learn."

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When you’re choosing furniture for your home that’s supposed to express who you are, what you are also saying is you want other people to infer what you want them to infer. What if they see something different? Wouldn’t it be really depressing if you’re trying to be bohemian and instead they see you as Rush Limbaugh?

—Dr. Sheena Iyengar, Columbia University business professor & author of the famous study demonstrating the paralyzing effect of too many choices

Dr. Iyengar, who is blind, has a standing committee of friends, family and colleagues who provide recommendations on her wardrobe and interior decor. Her goal is both consensus and criticism, since she does not believe in making decisions based solely on her own taste. When making decisions about things that you hope will reflect your own style, “you cannot get to the heart of how things are going to be perceived unless you ask these [external] judges,” Dr. Iyengar believes. Of course, she remains free to ignore her committee's advice. She says, “Everyone is convinced their opinion is the truth, and that’s what I struggle against. But doesn’t everyone?"

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If you bake some bread in a museum space it becomes art, but if you do it at home you're a baker.

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[By Little Factory, via Core77]

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Art is integral to how we do business. It’s in our DNA.

Laysha Ward, Target’s president for community relations

According to Robin Pogrebin's NYTimes article on Target's philanthropy, the company continues to give 5 percent of its income (roughly $3 million a week) to causes in the arts, education, social services and volunteerism, despite the economic downturn. Pogrebin observes that many of Target's beneficiaries are arts institutions across the nation, who often hold "Target days" offering free or discounted admission to a program, performance or museum exhibition. Laysha Ward's comment above serves a dual purpose within the article: it reminds readers both that Target supports arts organizations through philanthropy, and that they strive for beautifully designed products on their shelves (Ward cites the work of Michael Graves as an example of their commitment to creativity in Target's stores).

Other interesting articles in the NYTimes' Giving section online cover SFMOMA's challenge to find space for Don Fisher's collection, raising awareness (and funds) using social media, and the look of cause marketing during the recession.

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The increased popularity of MoMA under Lowry hasn’t pleased everyone. “There’s never a quiet moment,” said Frank Stella, the 73-year-old American artist, speaking at a packed opening last month for a retrospective of designer Ron Arad.

Stella said the gradual expansion of the museum to artists such as Arad -- who works in various media -- has de-emphasized painting, sculpture and architecture.

“That was the focus of the museum,” Stella said. “Now it’s just a couple of floors in the department store.”

From Philip Boroff's Bloomberg article on highly paid museum directors and MoMA's success under Glenn Lowry's leadership [Museum of Modern Art’s Lowry Earned $1.32 Million in 2008-2009 | Bloomberg]

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If you throw everything away, there will be just a big pile of garbage, and you won’t have anything to make collages with.

Alexandra Lehrer, 5, a student at Beginnings Nursery School in Manhattan. The school's Materials Center collects unwanted materials (everything from LPs to champagne corks to seashells) and uses them in the children's art projects. [ Where One Man's Trash Is Preschoolers' Art Material | NYTimes ]

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Good design is always about the truth... I think our things should reflect that. There is a lot of illusion in design, a lot of surface and playing with reality. That’s why I like things that have a sense of humor. They just seem more true to life.

Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt [Kicking the Tires | NYTimes]

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Kaspen's promotional images for Prague bookstore Anagram Bookshop.

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Michael Cannell has a nicely illustrated post on Fast Company about recent discoveries on the neuroscience of architecture. Among other discoveries, it turns out that our brains are more receptive to rounded, cushy designs instead of hard edges:

A study by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School found that faced with photographs of everyday objects—sofas, watches, etc.—subjects instinctively preferred items with rounded edges over those with sharp angles. Mose Bar, a neuroscientist, speculates that our brains are hard-wired to avoid sharp angles because we read them as dangerous. He used a brain scan for a similar study and found that the amygdala, a portion of the brain that registers fear, was more active when people looked at sharp-edged objects.

And as if in affirmation, Jonah Lehrer observes that the "padded leather womb" of his Eames Lounge Chair makes reading tedious articles a little more approachable; he calls the chair a rare intersection of comfort and modernist (read: characteristically geometric and angular) beauty. (By the way, Lehrer also recently wrote about neuroscience and a different form of art—jazz improv.)

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...and if you hate it, you probably don't know much about typography either, and you should get another hobby.

—Vincent Connare, designer of Comic Sans

Here's a short video project inspired by Gary Hustwit's Helvetica:

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Here's the lede for Wired magazine's article on Dell's snazzy new PC designs:

Dell has been long been the Ugly Betty of the PC industry–functional, smart but severely lacking in the looks department.

But over the last two years, the company’s consumer-targeted PCs have gotten a design makeover that would make Tyra Banks proud.

I understand the journalistic strategy of including cultural touchstones that will draw readers into an article, but comparing product design to fashion makeovers really underscores the point from Frog Design's Max Burton, quoted in the Wired piece:

"Dell needs to treat design as something that is not superficial," says Max Burton, executive creative director for Frog Design in San Francisco. "What they have right now is more of applique design — [it's] more about finishes than real change to the materials and process."

Buried further down in the write-up, Dell acknowledges that design happens beneath the surface, too: Ed Boyd, vice president of consumer products, points out that a Dell Studio hybrid desktop launched in the last year uses 70 percent less material and power than older desktop models.

The focus of the article encourages you to believe that it's only the cosmetic changes that garner attention, create desire, and produce results. The fashionistas that Wired mentions probably want a good-looking computer, true--but what about function? No one wants a beautiful plastic brick (at least, I'd hope not). For products to truly evolve, design needs to consider materials, manufacturing processes, new technologies and thoughtful interface design. And as any Ugly Betty fan knows, true beauty is on the inside, anyway.

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To be a good photographer you have to be a scientist as well.

Hiroshi Sugimoto on his latest project, "Lightning Fields." Sugimoto uses a Van de Graaff generator (capable of creating 400,000 volts) to charge a metal ball that he uses to shock large sheets of film. [Lightning Fields | Modern Painter ]

Above: "Lightning Fields 013" (2006). Gelatin silver print, 59 x 47 in.

Below: Self-portrait by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2008.

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Danish company Fritz Hansen is serious about counterfeit designs. The company, which is the official manufacturer of Arne Jacobsen's Egg Chair, has posted a stunning slideshow of the destruction of the knock-offs they have confiscated.

Fritz Hansen also posted a brutal (though gratuitous) video of a tractor destroying a fake Egg Chair on their Facebook group for their "Be original, fight the copies" campaign.
Interestingly enough, though the company goes to extremes to protect their original designs, they also provide CAD drawings of many of their products. Fritz Hansen also takes furniture theft seriously; you can register your missing furniture on their website.

[via the excellent BAGnewsnotes, where Robert Hariman posted an interesting interpretation of the photos]

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The San Francisco Chronicle's art critic announced today that SFMOMA hopes to double its exhibition space by adding to its current footprint. However, the museum is still in the exploratory phase and is investigating the necessary permits and funds to make the expansion possible. Says museum director Neal Benezra,

It's an optimistic announcement, but we're being very modest about it. It's important that people don't think we're announcing a capital campaign in the middle of a recession.

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