This document provides an overview of different categories of artifacts: art, vernacular objects, and design objects. It discusses how art is often privileged over other artifacts in Western cultures. Vernacular objects are ordinary items with obscure origins. Design objects are those created through careful consideration to have both function and aesthetic appeal, such as fashion, interior, product, and graphic designs. The document emphasizes that design aims to improve the relationship between people and the objects that surround us. Good design makes this relationship a happy one.

1. module 10.1
objects by design
A r t 1 0 0
U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

2. agenda
upcoming Hour Test 3
Thurs April 9, 5 to 6:20 PM
on Compass
covers Weeks 7 through 10
Technology
Graphic Design
Material Culture
Product Design

3. Artifacts…
reveal huge amounts of information about the people (and the
cultures) that made them.
We can “read” these images to learn about
other societies, and about ourselves.

4. In the West (Europe and the USA),
this kind of artifact has been “put
on pedestal” as the most exalted
kind of artifact.
Here we tend to privilege art above
other kinds of artifacts.
(E.g., Krannert vs. Spurlock Museum)
Augustus St.-Gaudens, Diana,
1892-4, in Philadelphia Museum of Art
One category of
artifacts is art.

5. How are objects presented in these two
different venues?
What does the method of display convey about the
value/significance of the objects displayed?

13. How are objects presented in these two
different venues?
What does the method of display convey about the
value/significance of the objects displayed?

17. Another category of things is
“vernacular” objects.
Shaker side chair, maple with rush seating, c. 1880

18. These are ordinary objects which have wide popularity
and whose specific origins are obscure.
Shaker side chair, maple with cane seating, c. 1880 Plastic outdoor chair, c. present

19. Bryan Ropar with a small sample of his plastic chair collection

20. Maarten Baas, in collaboration
with Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai
Plastic Chair in Wood, 2008
elm wood

21. Sam Durant, Porcelain Chairs,
2006

22. Jules Prown
“…works of art constitute a large
and special category within
artifacts because their inevitable
aesthetic and occasional ethical
or spiritual (iconic) dimensions
make them direct and often overt
or intentional expressions of
cultural belief. The self-
consciously expressive character
of this material, however, raises
problems as well as
opportunities; in some ways
artifacts that express culture
unconsciously are more useful
as objective cultural indexes.”
(Prown, “Mind in Matter,” p.2)
Siegfried Giedion
“We shall deal here with
humble things, things not
usually granted earnest
consideration, or at least
not valued for their
historical import. But no
more in history than in
painting is it the
impressiveness of the
subject that matters. The
sun is mirrored even in a
coffee spoon.”
(Giedion, “Anonymous History,” p. 294)
The value of “anonymous history”

23. Now we’re going to look at a third
category of artifacts…
DESIGN OBJECTS.

24. What is design?
We use this word often, for example:
Fashion design
Interior design
Product design
Packaging design
Graphic design
Automotive design
Digital design

25. Sonia Rykiel
Paris, Spring 2015 collection
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada
Milan, Autumn/Winter 2009 collection

26. Kelly Wearstler

27. Katie Ridder

32. 50% recycled PET

40. Fashion design, or product
styling?

41. tailfin of a 1959 Cadillac, designed by Harley Earl, GM design legend
Art and Color Department (1927)
Styling Department (1937)
“dynamic obsolescence”

44. We need a
distinction
between:
Something made through a process
of careful consideration, often but
not always credited to a specific
maker.
Something made with both function
and aesthetic appeal in mind.
AND
relatively minor changes in
the appearance of a product
design vs. styling

45. Packaging design: compare/contrast
What stylistic choices are made in these package designs? Let’s list as many as we can.
What meanings do we attribute to those stylistic differences?

46. Design is:

47. Design defined
“Very few aspects of the material environment are
incapable of improvement in some significant way by
greater attention being paid to their design.
Inadequate lighting, machines that are not user-
friendly, badly-formatted information, are just a few
examples of bad design that create cumulative
problems and tensions.”
—Heskett, p. 2

48. Between us, as people, and the
objects that surround us.
Good designers try to make this
relationship a happy one.