Curious and Unusual Gift Ideas

[cjbreed]

i don't know much about wong specifically but is this one of those times where the motivation of the designer is supposed to inform my perception of it? or can it not be simply what i think when i see the object? i try to differentiate things. this is not fine art. i'm trying not to think critically about it.

for example, i can imagine myself making this crumpled bag for an ipad and telling my friends "check it out i made a crumpled bag for an ipad. maybe they'll sell it in gag stores or something. dude i'm gonna be rich." all as a joke.

now yes i'll admit that if the designer is making said item and trying to present himself as a cultural critic and satirical master in the age of consumption then yes it is totally annoying and that type of art is annoying because it is far too easy. its not provocative. its immature. its like entry level.

[kunk75]

am not a fan of this case but want to get it for my biz partner who's a big wong fan. were these ever produced?

I would suggest any gift by Tobias Wong - the enfant terrible of the industrial design world, who died too young in last May.

His designs were witty criticisms of consumerism, the art world, and the system that produces art stars. It's pretty easy to buy his mass objects still.

I remember seeing his gold pills at a design store and being told that they were to be taken so the consumer "could sh•t gold." Such a prankster.

From his obit:
"A provocateur by nature, Mr. Wong operated at the fringes of the traditional design world, creating objects like a stack of 100 $1 bills, bound in peelable glue like a notepad; a gold-plated McDonalds coffee stirrer (a riff on the company’s plastic version that was apparently popular among drug users before being withdrawn); and an engagement ring with the diamond mounted upside down, so that the wearer could use it to scratch graffiti."

The last item he designed was a iPad case that mimicked a crumpled paper bag, for flying under radar during the those moments when you might run into your too-cool-for-school acquaintances on the F train to Bedford.


Anyhow, we lost a good one.

MBD

[kunk75]

...p.s., if you're going to go fishing for all the bullshit post-modernists, you're going to need a bigger boat. I don;t think an artist I truly enjoy or greatly appreciate has come to be in the last 20+ years.

[plasmoplas]

I think that "20+ years" comment correlates with your age :)


(not that i don't agree with the sentiment on bs post-modernists)

[copacetic]

Okay, design that solves problems. Give me an example of such a problem. Wondering what you have in mind...

[Faust]

Okay, design that solves problems. Give me an example of such a problem. Wondering what you have in mind...

problem: you need to sit. solution: make a device that makes sitting comfortable.

[copacetic]

problem: you need to sit. solution: make a device that makes sitting comfortable.

Hmm... I mean, I knew what you had in mind, but I was just looking for it to be articulated. This particular example is hard to deal with because by and large it is comfortable to sit in pants. In fact, I would say it's more comfortable to sit down in pants that are not made by the designers we respect here! For the solution to that problem, I'll take sweatpants from Wal-Mart.

I guess, let's take a more typical example. At LUC, the project of reversible garments, and making the seams as thin and unnoticeable as possible so that one garment can be reversed and enjoyed two different ways. In that way, the wearer gets more value from the garment.

What I mean to say is, well, we are really talking about bourgeois problems here. (Sorry to bring it to this realm.) They are problems to which we pretty much have very adequate solutions. They are solutions to problems that we didn't know that we had.

And this is great! I love this! We all should. But I don't know if we can hold it up as an absolute ideal that can trump the postmodern project altogether. It seems to me that they exist side by side.

Now when designers create solutions to problems that we already know that we have, and people across the world have...then I'd say we might be able to hold it up as an objective ideal, and any sort of postmodern buffoonery would be childish in comparison.

So do I prefer postmodern project? No, I don't. I agree with Faust and Shucks here. But the material project of LUC, for instance, is still ideological.

[MetroBulotDodo]

indeed...

let me be the first one to use this word to describe you:

fashionista.

I don't understand your retort. Perhaps it's too pragmatic for my post, post-modern tilted mind. (And surprise, I find the post-modern project tired. Like Helmut Lang FW 2007 tired. Just to set the record straight, I'm all "dialectical materialism." )

Gentleman,

I'm afraid that I will have to withdrawal from this conversation as it is making me uncomfortable to hear such, if you will pardon me, self-righteous assholery (not all y'all) in the guise of "tellin'-the-simple-honest-folk-like-it-is." Unfortunately, this conversation revolves around a recently deceased friend/acquaintance -- one whose loss still feels a bit sharper than I'd like. I don't dislike you Aw Shucks, but allow me this temporary release: I'm just not ready to hear such sharp remarks from some Lyotard-tron comrade, whose exposure to enlightened northern European Socialist ideology has done little but to engender a curious caustic-ness I can only explain away to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). That, or an impending visit from his menses. (Don't worry, I have a tampon in my accordian-pleat bag.)

Wong was an here-and-there acquaintance of mine during my long time in NYC. I had no intention of disclosing this since the connection was distant and only growing farther after my move. He recently died of what seems to have been a sleep-walking accident. I knew him as nothing but a shy, sweet young man who was hardly cruel enough to have the last laugh at the expense of anyone who wasn't big enough to take it.

I would never shy away from a sharp critical debate, but perhaps I should have disclosed any personal connection -- no matter how distant it has grown as the years went by -- even though I thought its growing distance rendered it unnecessary. Who knew that an innocent and light comment in "Curious and Unusual Gift Ideas!" could itself be a gift that could continue to give so much pleasure and inspire such warm feelings in me!

Of course I am aware that these words were not to be taken as a personal attack, and they haven't been. But the protective impulse that the spittle of this timely ad hominem tack of conversation stirs in me...frankly, it churns my stomach.

And KUNK, the paper bags were, ahem, never produced. Not as far as I know.

Perhaps it's appropriate to end this lil' note with something as absurd as the situation itself -- a preposterous remark (amended and borrowed) from the wicked Sarah Silverman:

"I don't care if you don't call me a post-modernist...as long as you don't call me fat."

Cheers, and carry on, (omg, there are more smilies than I first noticed!!?!!)

MBD

p.s. can I make a personal request -- and to do so, I have to acknowledge having made some unladylike comments above -- that we continue to be as prescient and critical in our SZ participation but perhaps lose a bit of the churlish-ness moving forward? And this is not to say that any sensitivities require coddling here (I would hate that actually) - only to say that this conversation started by touching a nerve no one could have expected to be raw; in short, I am simply of the opinion that the point could have been made in other ways. Thanks.

[Shucks]

Hmm... I mean, I knew what you had in mind, but I was just looking for it to be articulated.

to be clear: anyone spending their time on industrial design / product design would serve the world better redesigning products to be longer lasting (esthetics and functionality), more available to those who need them the most, more efficient and more sustainable. better than ironic-but-not gold trinkets for a moneyed and jaded elite (which are just a big and very sad opportunity cost to me). imho when it comes to the field of design, we don't need smarmy and parasitic court jesters - we actually need heroes.

ps. sorry for any lack of pseudo-intellectual / bipolar rambling in this post.

[Faust]

MBD, please stay.

[Faust]

Copacetic, I was just joking :-) Indeed, you make valid points - I just couldn't exactly understand your wording in the post I replied to.

And, yes, of course we are dealing with first world problems. I mean look where we are. But, first world problems all of a sudden have become very real problems with global warming and sustainability concerns. And good design, in the wings of good science and engineering of course, may hold some solutions. But that's totally outside the whole modern/postmodern debate.

[copacetic]

to be clear: anyone spending their time on industrial design / product design would serve the world better redesigning products to be longer lasting (esthetics and functionality), more available to those who need them the most, more efficient and more sustainable. better than ironic-but-not gold trinkets for a moneyed and jaded elite (which are just a big and very sad opportunity cost to me). imho when it comes to the field of design, we don't need smarmy and parasitic court jesters - we actually need heroes.

ps. sorry for any lack of pseudo-intellectual / bipolar rambling in this post.

Shucks, that's exactly what I mean. You are preaching to the choir. But most designers we talk about on this forum don't have efficiency or sustainability in mind. Actually, it's precisely the opposite. Aesthetics, yes. Functionality, sometimes. How about CCP? Many times, his clothing is intentionally non-functional. He's actually more like the postmodernist court jesters. Look at this shoe without a sole! This winter coat that restricts your arm movement! Clothes with tape seams intended to decay more rapidly than usual ones!

[MetroBulotDodo]

Dear Faust,

Oh, no, I only meant that I would excuse myself from giving any further two cents about gifts. I mean, what's at stake here?

I am much too far gone with (um...addicted to) SZ. I'm an academic in a man-heavy field -- I have grown a thick skin. Also, would I ever forgo participation in a newly invigorated Ann D thread? I think not.

I'll just stick to playing nice. Undoubtedly, it wears better on me - it tends to on most.

-MBD

[cjbreed]

Shucks what if say, I, am not capable of being a hero. but i am capable of being witty. would it be better that i did nothing at all? for fear of doing something less respectable? trained artists and folksy crafters both create things because they are compelled to. what difference does it make? who is righter? no one. as long as you are being honest.

[syed]

I come looking for unusual gifts, read the recent posts, and leave feeling the need to do a heck of a lot of studying. I would put in my two cents on art and design in Postmodernism and Post-structuralism, but fear it will be all too inadequate.