This window installation Bloom Skin for Issey Miyake appeared on www.designboom.com a couple of days ago. Designed by a Japanese company called W0W specialising in design advertising installations and exhibition spaces. This very simple idea using fans and thin fabric creates a striking poetic visual piece spanning a 16m space. W0W aims to create art and design together.
'To design and create Sensational, yet timeless work that is free from fashionable trends' www.w0w.co.jp
This piece of work along with another Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka here is one example of Tokujin's work called Snow sensing nature 2010 again a sizeable piece of work filling a 15m gallery space and a perfect example of a experiential piece. Both works caught my eye for several reasons. Firstly the minimal aesthetic provoking quietness, secondly they both capture a certain element of interaction through gentle kinetics and thirdly there is a strong emotional pull to both works you feel yourself being hypnotically drawn in.
I think what I'm building up to here is the sensitive subject of Art vs Design......
Is there a clear division or should labels even be used when trying to define a creative practise or process? This was a question I touched upon whilst writing my Thesis. Bloom Skin has been designed yet place it into a different context it could be viewed as a piece of art. as a designer I get a little fed up with these assumptions that design has to be purely functional without any emotional attachment or impact I believe that there is a fine line between art, design, architecture and craft and will be returning to this subject shortly.