Comments for Glass House Conversations

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by thorstenbrinkmann

thorstenbrinkmann — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:44:25 +0000

I collect all what seems to be interesting for my artwork.
It´s all the time used stuff, I did start with the trash of the streets, in the meantime I also go to flea markets. I really like objects, when it is hard to tell what it is. I don´t have a special kind of object I am into. They have to have formal qualities and I like it if they have a kind of an abstract side. Then the surface can look like paintings. There are many objects you also just can use as a sculpture, just like they are.
They also get into my focus, when they have qualities like a body part, that they work like a prosthesis. If you put a smashed trashcan on your head, all of the sudden that can become a face, or you put a bottle cooler on your hand, it looks like your are having just one hand. I love them when they have a lot using traces, like scratches or that you can see a dark spot somewhere, because someone did touch it there all there years again and again. Objects are big storytellers. About their life, about the time they had been produced for and about the society they have been made for.
And it is interesting how easily you can change the meaning of it, or how you can produce new meanings.
I like it, to work with them in doing collages. If you put just two objects together, it can happen that all of the sudden they tell a complete new story. It is something what you could not think about before. That is all the time impressing again, the unexpected meaning of them, beyond their usual function.
I collect now about 12 years and I keep almost all in a big storage in my studio, some of them are there since the beginning and some of them had been used already for different art pieces. I like the idea, that they are getting from the street into the museum. From low to high, in a very democratic way. It is a change of meaning and value.

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by Eric Shiner

Eric Shiner — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:50:53 +0000

So it seems as though our readers’ collections are just as diverse as Warhol’s! I love that Carly collects shoes from the places she visits…how chic! And I think that Charles and I must be kindred spirits, as I also collect mid-century modern furniture and thrive on the clash of aesthetics, forms and periods in my own living environment. Obviously, collecting was a passion of Mr. Johnson as well, and a trip to Glass House will definitely reveal how and why!

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by charleslutz

charleslutz — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:12:22 +0000

I’ve been a collector all of my life. I find most artists I know are. In addition to collecting art of other contemporary artists and works by artists that preceded them, I’ve gravitated toward collecting industrial objects from the turn of the century as well as Eames and Knoll furniture from the 50′s and 60′s. I like to have clashing aesthetics around me. Formally these two time periods have a very different look, yet their spirit of ingenuity is quite similar. In the 50′s and 60′s, everything was about new materials, similar in the way that during the turn of the century everything was about mechanization and bring things into mass-production. In a way, it’s kind of a lineage. Without industrialization Eames and Knoll would have looked quite different.

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by carlyhagins

carlyhagins — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:00:25 +0000

I like to collect shoes.

On first blush, I know that sounds so very stereotypically feminine. But as a young and quite mobile designer, I’ve found that shoes are the most reasonable thing to collect. I almost always buy a pair when traveling, and then I’m able to enjoy them for years into the future, always being reminded of where that particular pair was acquired.

By the time the shoes are worn out (or ‘worn in,’ as some would say), I’ve likely been lucky enough to have had more adventures—and collected a few more pairs of shoes. It’s a collection that fits my lifestyle well.

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by brianlang

brianlang — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:46:52 +0000

I recently starting collecting vintage Jim Beam china whiskey decanters, most of which were made in the ’70s. They’re amazing in their designs (many of animals) and glazings. I have them displayed on shelves in my kitchen. One of my favorites is of Paul Bunyan and his ox, Blue. His blade of his axe is painted with a metallic gold glaze. Very cool.

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by nicholaschambers

nicholaschambers — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:17:37 +0000

I’ve collected vinyl lps since I was around 19 and am currently dealing with the stressful business of moving the collection from Brisbane, Australia to Pittsburgh. I collect for the recording as well as the cover art. A recent, and rather thrifty acquisition ($5), was Mason Williams’ 1968 lp, ‘Music’, with a very handsome cover design by Ed Ruscha!

Comment on What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it? by Eric Shiner

Eric Shiner — Mon, 14 May 2012 00:12:57 +0000

In my collecting life, I tend to focus on contemporary art that includes text and photography dealing with gender and identity issues, as well as antique travel souvenirs that I pick up on my travels around the globe.

Comment on What does it take to create beautiful, comfortable spaces that encourage play, health and well-being? by heejunelee

heejunelee — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:19:54 +0000

I want to introduce a land mark building in Seoul. It’s name is “Dongdaemun Design Plaza”(DDP).

“Dongdaemun” means a “Big easten gate”. The gate was established in east side of Hanyang(ancient name of Seoul) fortress in 1396. There held the most popular market. When market opened, people were gathered, buying fresh food, watching performances and playing. It had been a exciting place for 530 years.

In 1926, During japanese colonical period, fotress walls were destroyed by city planning. On the place where fortress and places of historic interest were demolished, the Dongdaemun Stadiums were built for the celebration of Japanese prince’s wedding.

In December 2007, Stadiums were demolished and DDP construction was started. It has a beautiful shapes, comfortable spaces and creative contents. DDP is expected to recall nostalgic memories of old exciting market and playing and to maintain welfare value as a leading service design district of the city.

I suggest that you visit DDP(http://ddp.seoul.go.kr/eng/) to know a attempt of creating beautiful,comfortable spaces that encourage play, health and well-being to our citizen. Seoul metropolitan government will open DDP in 2014.

Comment on What does it take to create beautiful, comfortable spaces that encourage play, health and well-being? by dalebell

dalebell — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:44:57 +0000

UCLA doctor focuses on children’s health In new PBS series:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/ucla_doctor_focuses_on_childrens_health_in_new_pbs_series_20120502/

Link submitted on behalf of Dr. Richard Jackson by Dale Bell, Executive Producer/Director Designing Healthy Communities http://designinghealthycommunities.org

Comment on What does it take to create beautiful, comfortable spaces that encourage play, health and well-being? by cecilyselby

cecilyselby — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:15:35 +0000

Yesterday, thanks to Peter Daniel and Christa Carr, a friend and I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at the Glass House: aesthetically and spiritually, engaged by Johnson’s architecture and the scenery it honors. There, I found some answers to this Conversation’s question, “ What does it take to create…” the kind of spaces this Conversation, through Joyce Lee, promotes. From my layman’s point of view, I could see 3 key factors that enabled Johnson to create his spaces: Design, Resources and Customers. Clearly he had Design—in his head and on his drawing board. He had Resources—education, travel, talent and the private money needed to provide them. And he had Customers—whom he attracted to build what he designed.

I understand that there is no lack of good Design today, but that there is a shortage of Resources and Customers to bring them to life. To access resources and “customers,” a need for so many good causes, again and again I find myself saying that we must make the values and actions we seek “fashionable”—i.e. to become something that everyone decides they want to have, to make or do…

In science education, we are promoting scientific inquiry, its products, and technology design fashionable by engaging everyone in them. As a science educator, I try to illuminate how and why a useful understanding of how the world works, within and around us, can promote actions to help them work better—i.e.healthier. Following this Conversation, I will be including a useful understanding of the technologies of healthy and beautiful spaces within definitions of technological and environmental literacy. This is, at least, one way to advance support for improved human-made environments.

At the New York Hall of Science we promote a science and technology literacy that includes healthful living as our building and playground are within a space that is beautiful , comfortable and encourages play. Clearly, such educational, media and public relations strategies must be employed throughout all our communities, as publications referred to by Joyce Lee suggest, to achieve the “fashion” for healthy, beautiful human-made spaces so badly needed by academic, industrial, governmental and residential communities.