Originally posted on sciy.org by Rich Carlson on Sat 10 May 2008 10:45 AM PDT
Click on this Link to Design and the Elastic Mind Online Exhibition
In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes
in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space,
matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling
with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images,
gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve
some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale.
Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such
abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between
revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change. Designers
have coped with these displacements by contributing thoughtful concepts
that can provide guidance and ease as science and technology evolve.
Several of them—the Mosaic graphic user's interface for the Internet,
for instance—have truly changed the world. Design and the Elastic Mind
is a survey of the latest developments in the field. It focuses on
designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science,
and social mores, changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments
in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that
people understand and use.
The exhibition will highlight examples of successful translation of
disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as
reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular
interest will be the exploration of the relationship between design and
science and the approach to scale. The exhibition will include objects,
projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and
engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the
cosmological scale. The objects range from nanodevices to vehicles,
from appliances to interfaces, and from pragmatic solutions for
everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future
choices. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated
catalogue
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