Gneumatic

I finally got up to MoMA last weekend to see the exhibit Design and the Elastic Mind. While there were a number of interesting pieces, overall, the show seemed to lack curatorial focus. Ostensibly it is about the accelerated pace of change that technology has fomented in the past decade, and the necessity of human adaptability or “elasticity” in response. The wall text at the beginning of the exhibit (presumably written by Paola Antonelli, the show’s curator) proposes that design is changing “our rapport with time and space… the physical nature of objects… and our essence as individuals.” The pieces in the show are intended to convey “the change in the role of designer from form-giver to essential interpreter of a dynamic and crucial moment in history.”

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I went to an IXDA-sponsored talk with Peter Morville promoting his book Ambient Findability last night. Peter didn’t lead with any opening remarks and immediately opened the floor to questions instead. So the discussion started out a little slowly, but quickly picked up steam. Things really began to get interesting as talk around Web 2.0 morphed into a consideration of how Information Architecture and Interaction Design overlap.
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