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8/7/2010

TechnoCraft

YBCA - Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco

Curated by acclaimed industrial designer Yves Béhar

YBCA announces TechnoCRAFT, a major new design exhibition that charts current movements blurring the boundary between designer and consumer. Curated by acclaimed industrial designer Yves Béhar, TechnoCRAFT looks at the different ways that consumers are personalizing design in efforts to assert creativity and individuality in an age of mass-production.

The history of design and craft began with individuals making what they could not afford to buy, which created a deep and personal connection between owner and object. However, with the Industrial Revolution, the tradition of craft mostly disappeared as people became enamored with the abundance and affordability of mass-produced, high-quality goods.

The rise of mass-production and mass-consumerism undeniably elevated the average person’s quality of life. However the cultural sameness that materialized, combined with the loss of individual connection to objects, left many feeling dissatisfied. As a result, they took matters into their own hands...

TechnoCRAFT explores how an emotional connection to objects has been resurrected in individuals and how the two realms—design and mass production—have combined to once again allow for "Design in the Age of Individuality."

These new "makers and craftsmen" range from the everyday person to the tech entrepreneur; from the young curious designer to the multinational, focused on custom solutions. All of whom share a new sense of "making", and openness to collaborate while operating in a more individualized marketplace.

This rise in popularity of integrated and collaborative design has been aided by a number of social and technological trends such as social networking, access to sophisticated design tools, open source technology, "fab labs," and the overwhelming desire to create.

TechnoCRAFT is organized around six subthemes: Crowdsourcing, Platforms, Blueprints, Hacks, Incompletes, and Modules. The following is a brief description of each of these themes with one project from the exhibition to serve as illustration.

Crowdsourcing mines the collective talent of the community to develop new design solutions. From product generation to the voting process, Crowdsourcing puts the decision-making power in the hands of the masses. One participant in the exhibition, Threadless, is an online apparel store that solicits consumers to design and vote for new t-shirts each week.

Platforms consist of designers creating open, software-based platforms, that provide the tools for individuals to create and/or customize their own unique products. From shoes to t-shirts to fantastic creatures, platforms make it easy for individuals of all skill levels to take on the role of designer. PUMA’s Mongolian Barbeque is an iconic example of this theme.

Blueprints act as ideas that can be given away or sold, putting the power to create in the hands of the consumer. Rather than create and sell a finished product, designers sell or give away instructions so that anyone can create/recreate the design in their own way. Autoprogettazione (or "self design") is Enzo Mari’s collection of designs for furniture you can make yourself.
Originally exhibited in 1974,Mari gave out a free catalogue with detailed instructions for making these basic, easy-to-assemble furniture pieces using off-the-shelf lumber and nails.

Hacks is a term that has moved far beyond the manipulation of computer software, extending into the public’s consciousness. Tables, iPhones, and bikes are revised, modified and manipulated to achieve a new look or new functionality.

Incompletes intentionally leave room for creativity on the part of the user. The degree to which the end user is involved varies with each design, but all depend on the role of the user to provide input for a design to properly function. With Marijn van der Poll’s Do hit chair made by Droog, through a hammer or other tool you can change the original stainless steel cube into a chair of your own design.

Finally, modules are individual components that come together to create customized creations. Intelligently designed modules allow for the user to develop an outcome that is driven in equal parts by ingenuity and budget. Designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Clouds, made in collaboration with Kvadrat, allows the user to arrange and re-arrange a variety of tiles to create installations and new designs.

A full list of designers and projects participating in the show will be announced in May. Those who have been confirmed span four continents and include: Enzo Mari for Autoprogettazione; Max Lamb for Pewter Stool; 5.5 Designers for Wallpaper Games, Reanim, and Tab Stool; Lindsey Adelman for You Make It Chandelier; various designers for Puma Mongolian Barbeque; various designers for Bike Hacks; various designers for Threadless; Sangho Kim and various other designers for Local Motors; Martino Gamper for 100 Chairs in 100 Days; Andrew McCandish, Tom Reynolds, Jared Delorenzo, Alexandra Powell, Tim Peet, and Alie Thomer for Eames Hack; Studiomama for Pallet Project; San Quentin Prison Museum for Prison Hacks; Studio Proxy for Ikea Hacks; Berber Soepboer and Michiel Schuurman for Color-in-Clothing; Marijn van der Poll for Do hit chair made by Droog; Martí Guixé for Do Frame made by Droog; Mey and Boaz Kahn for Fragile Salt & Pepper Shakers; Il-Gu- Cha for Trace of Time; Studio Makkink and Bey for House of Furniture Parts made by Droog; Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Clouds made by Kvadrat; Peter Marigold for Make/Shift made by Movisi; Nelson Ruiz Acal and Cate Högdahl for Oz; Olafur Eliasson for Starbrick made by Zumtobel; Thomas Meyerhoffer for Chumby; various designers for Freitag, Will Wright for Spore made by Electronic Arts; Daniel Eatock for Utilitarian Poster/Cards, Hila Rawet Karni for Kishut; and Martin Konrad Gloeckle for Shaded Sconce.

In conjunction with TechnoCRAFT, YBCA also presents eight Sunday matinee screenings of films on themes of design and architecture. Highlights of the series will include the local premiere of Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio; Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect; Wow and Flutter; The Greening of Southie; Handmade Nation; Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner and a sneak preview of The Visual Language of Herbert Matter. The film series kicks off with Refrigerator Fetish: Vintage Industrial Design Films, a selection of funny, bizarre, and maybe even educational vintage product design films, from the 1920s forward.

TechnoCRAFT is presented as part of PUSH PLAY > summer@ybca, a summer festival featuring an adventurous music series, a performance installation, a film series, and more!

ABOUT YVES BÉHAR
Yves Béhar is the founder of the San Francisco design studio, fuseproject. He is focused on humanistic design and the "giving" element of his profession, with the goal of creating projects that are deeply in tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected with human emotions, and that enable self-expression.

For Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, fuseproject designed the world's first $100 "XO" laptop aimed at bringing education and technology to the world's poorest children. Béhar’s commercial projects set out to be equally impactful as exemplified by the Herman Miller LEAF Lamp, the Aliph Jawbone and, most recently watches for Issey Miyake and the sustainable Puma shoe box.

Béhar’s work has been the subject of two solo exhibitions and resides in the permanent collections of international museums worldwide, including the MOMA, the Musée d'Art Moderne/Pompidou Center, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Munich Museum of Applied Arts.
Béhar is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Design Award for Industrial Design celebrating design as a "vital humanistic tool shaping the world" awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum. He has also received the INDEX: Design to Improve Life, Community Award for his role in creating the "XO" laptop.
In addition to his responsibilities at fuseproject, he has taken on creative, business-partner roles with Jawbone and other client-companies.

Press contact:
Mona Baroudi Phone: 415.615.2735 Email mona.baroudi@sbcglobal.net
Jackie Hasa Phone: 415.321.1383 Email jhasa@ybca.org

Opening Night Party Fri, Jul 9, 8-11 pm

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103
Gallery Hours: Thurs – Sat 12pm – 8pm; Sunday 12pm – 6pm
Closed Mon-Weds except the first Tuesday of the month when the hours are 12pm – 8pm

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