Do you know the history behind delicious Campbell Soup?

In 1960, Andy Warhol began producing his first canvases, which he based on comic strip subjects. In late 1961, he learned the process of silkscreening from Floriano Vecchi who had run the Tiber Press since 1953. Though the process generally begins with a stencil drawing, it often evolves from a blown up photograph which is then transferred with glue onto silk. In either case, one needs to produce a glue-based version of a positive two-dimensional image (positive means that open spaces are left where the paint will appear). Usually, the ink is rolled across the medium so that it passes through the silk and not the glue. Campbell’s Soup cans were among Warhol's first silkscreen productions; the first were U.S. dollar bills. The pieces were made from stencils; one for each color. Warhol did not begin to convert photographs to silkscreens until after the original series of Campbell’s Soup cans had been produced.


Although Warhol had produced silkscreens of comic strips and of other pop art subjects, he supposedly relegated himself to soup cans as a subject at the time to avoid competing with the more finished style of comics by Roy Lichtenstein. In fact, he once said "I've got to do something that really will have a lot of impact that will be different enough from Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist, that will be very personal, that won't look like I'm doing exactly what they're doing." In February 1962, Lichtenstein displayed at a sold-out exhibition of cartoon pictures at Leo Castelli's eponymous Leo Castelli Gallery, ending the possibility of Warhol exhibiting his own cartoon paintings. In fact, Castelli had visited Warhol's gallery in 1961 and said that the work he saw there was too similar to Lichtenstein's, although Warhol's and Lichtenstein’s comic artwork differed in subject and techniques (e.g., Warhol’s comic-strip figures were humorous pop culture caricatures such as Popeye, while Lichtenstein’s were generally of stereotypical hero and heroines,inspired by comic strips devoted to adventure and romance). Castelli chose not to represent both artists at that time, but he would, in 1964, exhibit Warhol works such as reproductions of Campbell's Juice Boxes (pictured below right) and Brillo Soap Boxes. He would again exhibit Warhol's work in 1966. Lichtenstein's 1962 show was quickly followed by Wayne Thiebaud’s April 17, 1962 one man show at the Allan Stone Gallery featuring all-American foods, which agitated Warhol as he felt it jeopardized his own food-related soup can works. Warhol was considering returning to the Bodley gallery, but the Bodley's director did not like his pop art works. In 1961, Warhol was offered a three-man show by Allan Stone at the latter's 18 East 82nd Street Gallery with Rosenquist and Robert Indiana, but all three were insulted by this proposition.


Irving Blum was the first dealer to show Warhol’s soup can paintings. Blum happened to be visiting Warhol in May 1962, at a time when Warhol was being featured in a May 11, 1962 Time Magazine article "The Slice-of-Cake School" (that included a portion of Warhol's silkscreened 200 One Dollar Bills), along with Lichtenstein, Rosenquist, and Wayne Thiebaud. Warhol was the only artist whose photograph actually appeared in the article, which is indicative of his knack for manipulating the mass media. Blum saw dozens of Campbell’s Soup can variations, including a grid of One-Hundred Soup Cans that day. Blum was shocked that Warhol had no gallery arrangement and offered him a July show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. This would be Warhol’s first one man show of his pop art. Warhol was assured by Blum that the newly founded Artforum magazine, which had an office above the gallery, would cover the show. Not only was the show Warhol's first solo gallery exhibit, but it was considered to be the West Coast premiere of pop art.


Article Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell's_Soup_Cans


Adakah anda tahu sejarah di sebalik penciptaan sebuah komputer?



Capaian ke laman-laman yang berkaitan

1. Sejarah komputer:
a) Sejarah 1
b) Sejarah 2

2. Siapakah bapa komputer?

3.
Kronologi Sejarah Mikrokomputer

4. Sejarah Virus Komputer
a) Sejarah
b) Computer Virus Timeline

5. Computer Timeline
a) Timeline 1
b) Timeline 2

6. Computer Mouse History


Do you remembered Memphis?



exhibition at the design museum, london contemporary design gallery 7 september – 4 november 2001 and 24 november 2001 – 27 january 2002

The design museum marks the 20th anniversary of the debut of memphis, the legendary italian design collective led by the milanese designer and architect ettore sottsass.

Memphis was a landmark in design history. Sottsass called memphis design the new international style and plunged the sophisticated and influential milan design world into a labyrinth of visual irony, puns and provocations. The standards of 'good form' design that had been considered unassailable for years lost their claim to timeless validity for sottsass and his fellow-workers. the idea they had in common was to eliminate the peaceful conformity of furniture design and present concrete alternatives to the late 70s standard formal culture.

The playful colours, cheap materials and kitsch motifs of the furniture, ceramics and glassware unveiled by memphis designers at the 1981 milan furniture fair split the design world and caused a media sensation after years of drab rationalism.

Lots of brightly coloured, neo-1950s plastic laminates covering everything from crazy sideboards to bonkers beds. Was this gimcrack stuff really so influential? Had the brown-and-orange 1970s been so boring that product design had to descend into these cartoon capers? It was about turning the design world upside down.

The ideas of the memphis collective were embraced by design students of the time: memphis was the major influence on philippe starck, jasper morrison and marc newson...

Nathalie du Pasquier, one of the memphis team, describes it as 'a way of life, of transferring into the world of the western home the culture of rock music, travel and a certain excess'.

Jasper Morrison says: 'it was the weirdest feeling - you were in one sense repulsed by the objects, but also freed by this sort of total rule-breaking. I came back to college and immediately
did my one and only memphis piece (which hopefully has now disappeared forever).'

Memphis pieces were snapped up by international collectors such as paris based fashion designer, karl lagerfeld, he says: ' it was love at first sight. I'd just got an apartment in Monte Carlo and I could only imagine it in memphis. now it seems very 1980s, but the mood will come back. the pretensions of minimalism made it difficult for memphis in the 1990s, but I think sottsass is one of the design geniuses of the 20th century.'

Many designers still talk of memphis in the way that rock musicians of the same age speak of the clash and blondie. even the first Memphis exhibition opening in 1981attained the same iconic status in design circles as the sex pistols’ debut gig in music.

Ettore Sottsass himself :

'I'm always offended when they say that I play when I do memphis work; actually I 'm very serious, I'm never more serious than when I do memphis work. It's when I design machines for olivetti that I play.'and ' we draw our product-language stimuli not so much from institutionalized culture, not from technology, not from some sort of institutionalized certainty, but from spheres where everything starts afresh again, is uncertain, contradictory, without firm outlines.'

This exhibition recaptures the vitality of the work of sottsass, branzi, cibic, mendini, thun, de lucchi and the rest of the memphis collective at a time of growing interest in early 1980s aesthetics. As well as displaying many original pieces of memphis furniture, ceramics, lighting and glassware, 'memphis remembered' analyses the movement’s enduring influence over contemporary designers.

Links:
1) Who is Ettore Sottsass?
2)
Other Ettore Sottsass designs
3) Powerpoint about Memphis (Author S.Smith)

Article Source : http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/memphisremember.html



Pelajar-pelajar Washington State University (WSU) Amerika Syarikat (AS) baru-baru ini telah mencipta sejenis alat yang mungkin akan digemari oleh kanak-kanak yang suka merosakkan atau memecahkan permainan mereka.

'Breakinator' iaitu sebuah mesin yang berfungsi untuk memecahkan peralatan kepada bahagian-bahagian yang lebih kecil, diperkenalkan baru-baru ini pada pameran sains keluarga yang diadakan di Pusat Pengembaraan Sains Palouse, Amerika Syarikat.

Mesin tersebut telah direkacipta oleh pelajar sains material WSU dengan matlamat untuk mewujudkan kesedaran yang lebih baik berkenaan lapangan sains bahan. Ia dicipta untuk menjadikan aktiviti memusnahkan barang lebih jelas dan pengguna boleh membayangkan serta membuat perbandingan secara mikroskopik di antara bahan-bahan yang telah dipecahkan.

"Di bahagian timur Washington, ramai pelajar yang berminat dalam bidang kejuruteraan tidak didedahkan dengan kejuruteraan sains material di sekolah mereka menyebabkan negara kehilangan pelapis yang berpotensi di dalam bidang tersebut," demikian menurut pelajar-pelajar tersebut.

Bagi melengkapkan projek itu, pelajar terbabit telah memohon geran sebanyak RM2,000 daripada ASM Antarabangsa iaitu sebuah badan kebajikan profesional dalam bidang sains bahan.

Kumpulan tersebut merupakan satu-satunya kumpulan daripada lima kumpulan di negara tersebut yang mendapat anugerah pada pameran berkenaan.

Nota : Adakah mesin ini lebih banyak memberi manfaat atau keburukan ?
Sumber artikel : http://www.johordt.gov.my/sainsteknologi/files/arkib.htm



Kebanyakan mentol lampu hari ini diperbuat daripada kaca dan logam. Mentol tersebut diperbuat daripada kaca, yang diisi dengan gas lengai, biasanya argon.

Di tengah-tengah mentol, sekeping filamen akan di pegang oleh lapisan logam. Filamen tersebut diperbuat daripada logam tungsten yang boleh menahan suhu yang sangat tinggi lantas menghasilkan cahaya.

Sebelum Thomas Alva Edison (klik untuk lihat video ucapannya tentang penciptaan mentol) mencipta mentol lampu pada tahun 1879, beliau menghabiskan masa selama dua tahun untuk mengenalpasti apakah bahan yang paling sesuai dijadikan filamen. Antara bahan yang telah digunakan oleh beliau termasuklah, straw minuman, tali tangsi, kayu, malah rambutnya sendiri. Akhirnya beliau menggunakan benang karbon sebagai filamen.

Mentol lampu selepas itu menggunakan logam sebagai filamen.

Nota : Cuba anda bayangkan dunia anda ketika ini jika tiada sebarang penemuan tentang lampu elektrik.....
Sumber artikel : http://www.johordt.gov.my/sainsteknologi/files/arkib.htm


Adakah anda tahu bagaimana kanta lekap dicipta?


Idea untuk mencipta sebuah kanta kecil yang boleh digunakan di mata telah difikirkan oleh para saintis dan bijak pandai sejak kurun ke-16. Ia sebenarnya merupakan buah fikiran artis terkenal Itali, Leornado da Vinci. Beliau melukis model sebuah alat berisi air yang dipakai dan digunakan di mata untuk memperbaiki penglihatan seseorang.

Kanta lekap yang pertama dicipta pada tahun 1880 oleh seorang saintis Switzerland bernama A. Eugene Fick. Kanta beliau dicipta menggunakan teknik tiupan dan memenuhi keseluruhan mata pemakainya.


Ia hanya boleh dipakai beberapa jam sehari kerana ia sangat tidak selesa. Pada tahun 1947, seorang warga Amerika Syarikat bernama Kevin Touhy mencipta kanta diperbuat daripada plastik yang hanya menutup bahagian kornea mata.

Nota : Yang mana anda lebih suka; menggunakan kanta lekap atau kaca mata? Kenapa?
Sumber artikel : http://www.johordt.gov.my/sainsteknologi/files/arkib.htm


Do you know history of Pop Art?



Abbreviation of Popular Art, the Pop Art movement used common everyday objects to portray elements of popular culture, primarily images in advertising and television. The term Pop art was first used by English critic, Lawrence Alloway in 1958 in an edition of Architectural Digest. He was describing all post-war work centered on consumerism and materialism, and that rejected the psychological allusions of Abstract Expressionism. An attempt to bring art back into American daily life, it rejected abstract painting because of its sophisticated and elite nature. Pop Art shattered the divide between the commercial arts and the fine arts. The Pop Art movement originated in England in the 1950s and traveled overseas to the United States during the 1960s. Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, both members of the Independent Group, pioneered the movement in London in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the movement was carried by Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney, Allen Jones, and Peter Phillips. In the early sixties, Pop art found its way to the United States, seen in the work of Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg. It developed in the United States as a response to the wealth of the post World War II era and the growing materialism and consumerism in society. The most recognized Pop Artist, Andy Warhol, used a photo-realistic, mass production printmaking technique called seriagraphy to produce his commentaries on media, fame, and advertising. Pop Art made commentary on contemporary society and culture, particularly consumerism, by using popular images and icons and incorporating and re-defining them in the art world. Often subjects were derived from advertising and product packaging, celebrities, and comic strips. The images are presented with a combination of humor, criticism and irony. In doing this, the movement put art into terms of everyday, contemporary life. It also helped to decrease the gap between "high art" and "low art" and eliminated the distinction between fine art and commercial art methods. The movement inspired a later related style named Capitalist Realism, led by German artist Gerhard Richter.

Pop Art in United States

Temporally, the British pop art movement predated the American; however, American pop art has its own origins separate from British pop art. During the 1920s American artists Gerald Murphy, Charles Demuth and Stuart Davis created paintings prefiguring the pop art movement that contained pop culture imagery such as mundane objects culled from American commercial products and advertising design.

Pop Art in Spain

In Spain, the study of pop art is associated with the "new figurative." which arose from the roots of the crisis of informalism. Eduardo Arroyomass media communication and the history of painting, and his scorn for nearly all established artistic styles. However, the Spaniard who could be considered the most authentically “pop” artist is Alfredo Alcaín, because of the use he makes of popular images and empty spaces in his compositions. Also in the category of Spanish pop art is the “Chronicle Team” (El Equipo Crónica), which existed in ValenciaManolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes. Their movement can be characterized as pop because of its use of comics and publicity images and its simplification of images and photographic compositions. Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar emerged from Madrid's "La Movida" subculture (1970s) making low budget super 8 pop art movies and was subsequently called the Andy Warhol of Spain by the media at the time. In the book "Almodovar on Almodovar" he is quoted saying that the 1950s film "Funny Face" is a central inspiration for his work. One pop trademark in Almodovar's films is that he always produces a fake commercial to be inserted into a scene.

Pop Art in Japan

Pop art in Japan is unique and identifiable as Japanese because of the regular subjects and styles. Many Japanese pop artists take inspiration largely from anime, and sometimes ukiyo-e and traditional Japanese art. The best-known pop artist currently in Japan is Takashi Murakami, whose group of artists, Kaikai Kiki, is world-renowned for their own mass-produced but highly abstract and unique superflat art movement, a surrealist, post-modern movement whose inspiration comes mainly from anime and Japanese street culture, is mostly aimed at youth in Japan, and has made a large cultural impact. Some artists in Japan, like Yoshitomo Nara, are famous for their graffiti-inspired art, and some, such as Murakami, are famous for mass-produced plastic or polymer figurines. Many pop artists in Japan use surreal or obscene, shocking images in their art, taken from Japanese hentai. This element of the art catches the eye of viewers young and old, and is extremely thought-provoking, but is not taken as offensive in Japan. A common metaphor used in Japanese pop art is the innocence and vulnerability of children and youth. Artists like Nara and Aya Takano use children as a subject in almost all of their art. While Nara creates scenes of anger or rebellion through children, Takano communicates the innocence of children by portraying nude girls.

More article about Pop Art:
1) Artikel 1
2) Artikel 2
3) Question and Answer about Pop Art


See videos about Pop Art :

1) Videos 1
2) Videos 2
3) Videos 3
2) Videos 4


Article sources :
1) http://wwar.com/masters/movements/pop_art.html
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art


Do you know the history of 'Bahaus'?

is an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933, and for its approach to design that it publicized and taught. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for "build") is Architecture House. Bauhaus was associated with the trend toward less ornate art and architecture and greater utility. The inspiration for this concern was the rise of the working class and the desire to meet the needs of masses rather than a small number of wealthy patrons. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture, and one of the most important currents of the New Objectivity.


The Bauhaus art school had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in architecture and interior design. It existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different architect-directors (Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1927, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933). The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. When the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, for instance, although it had been an important revenue source, the pottery shop was discontinued. When Mies took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.


László Moholy-Nagy revived the school for a single year in Chicago as the New Bauhaus in 1937, before its transformation to the Institute of Design.


Context


The foundation of the Bauhaus occurred at a time of crisis and turmoil in Europe as a whole and particularly in Germany. Its establishment resulted from a confluence of a diverse set of political, social, educational and artistic development in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Political

The conservative modernization of the German Empire during the 1870s had maintained power in the hands of the aristocracy. It also necessitated militarism and imperialism to maintain stability and economic growth. By 1912 the rise of the leftist SPD had galvanized political positions with notions of international solidarity and socialism set against imperialist nationalism. World War I ensued from 1914–1918, resulting in the collapse of the old regime and a period of political and social uncertainty.


In 1917 in the midst of the carnage of the World War I, workers’ and soldiers’ collectives (Soviets) seized power in Russia. Inspired by the Russian workers’ and soldiers’ Soviets, similar German communist factions—most notably The Spartacist League—were formed, who sought a similar revolution for Germany. The following year, the death throes of the war provoked the German Revolution, with the SPD securing the abdication of the Kaiser and the formation of a revolutionary government. On January 1, 1919, the Spartacist League attempted to take control of Berlin, an action that was brutally suppressed by the combined forces of the SPD, the remnants of the German Army, and right-wing paramilitary groups.


Elections were held on the January 19, and the Weimar Republic was established. Still, Communist revolution was still the goal for some, and a Soviet-style republic was declared in Munich, before its suppression by the right wing Freikorps and regular army. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country.


Bahaus And German modernism


The design innovations commonly associated with Gropius and the Bauhaus—the radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit—were already partly developed in Germany before the Bauhaus was founded.


The German national designers' organization Deutscher Werkbund was formed in 1907 by Hermann Muthesius to harness the new potentials of mass production, with a mind towards preserving Germany's economic competitiveness with England. In its first seven years, the Werkbund came be to regarded as the authoritative body on questions of design in Germany, and was copied in other countries. Many fundamental questions of craftsmanship vs. mass production, the relationship of usefulness and beauty, the practical purpose of formal beauty in a commonplace object, and whether or not a single proper form could exist, were argued out among its 1870 members (by 1914).


Beginning in June 1907, Peter Behrens' pioneering industrial design work for the German electrical company AEG successfully integrated art and mass production on a large scale. He designed consumer products, standardized parts, created clean-lined designs for the company's graphics, developed a consistent corporate identity, built the modernist landmark AEG Turbine Factory, and made full use of newly developed materials such as poured concrete and exposed steel. Behrens was a founding member of the Werkbund, and both Walter Gropius and Adolf Meier worked for him in this period.


The Bauhaus was founded in 1919, the same year as the Weimar Constitution, and at a time when the German Zeitgeist turned from emotional Expressionism to the matter-of-fact New Objectivity. An entire group of working architects, including Erich Mendelsohn, Bruno Taut and Hans Poelzig, turned away from fanciful experimentation, and turned toward rational, functional, sometimes standardized building.


Beyond the Bauhaus, many other significant German-speaking architects in the 1920s responded to the same aesthetic issues and material possibilities as the school. They also responded to the promise of a 'minimal dwelling' written into the Constitution. Ernst May, Bruno Taut, and Martin Wagner, among others, built large housing blocks in Frankfurt and Berlin. The acceptance of modernist design into everyday life was the subject of publicity campaigns, well-attended public exhibitions like the Weissenhof Estate, films, and sometimes fierce public debate.


The entire movement of German architectural modernism was known as Neues Bauen.


History


Weimar


The school was founded by Walter Gropius in the conservative city of Weimar in 1919, as a merger of the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts. His opening manifesto proclaimed the desire to


"to create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist."

Most of the contents of the workshops had been sold off during World War I. The early intention was for the Bauhaus to be a combined architecture school, crafts school, and academy of the arts. Much internal and external conflict ensued.


Gropius argued that a new period of history had begun with the end of the war. He wanted to create a new architectural style to reflect this new era. His style in architecture and consumer goods was to be functional, cheap and consistent with mass production. To these ends, Gropius wanted to reunite art and craft to arrive at high-end functional products with artistic pretensions. The Bauhaus issued a magazine called "Bauhaus" and a series of books called Bauhausbücher. Since the country lacked the quantity of raw materials that the United States and Great Britain had, they had to rely on the proficiency of its skilled labor force and ability to export innovative and high quality goods. Therefore, designers were needed and so was a new type of art education. The school’s philosophy basically stated that the artist should be trained to work with the industry.


Funding for the Bauhaus was initially provided by the Thuringian state parliament. The primary support came from the Social Democratic party. In February 1924, the Social Democrats lost control of the state parliament to the nationalists, who were unsympathetic to the Bauhaus' leftist political leanings. The Ministry of Education placed the staff on six-month contracts and cut the school's funding in half. Gropius had already been looking for alternative sources of funding, so this loss of support proved insurmountable. Together with the Council of Masters he announced the closure of the Bauhaus from the end of March 1925. The school moved to Dessau the next year.


After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, a school of industrial design with teachers and staff less antagonistic to the conservative political regime remained in Weimar. This school was eventually known as the Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and in 1996 changed its name to Bauhaus University Weimar.

Dessau


The Dessau years saw a remarkable change in direction for the school. According to Elaine Hoffman, Gropius had approached the Dutch architect Mart Stam to run the newly-founded architecture program, and when Stam declined the position, Gropius turned to Stam's friend and colleague in the ABC group, Hannes Meyer. Gropius would come to regret this decision.

The charismatic Meyer rose to director when Gropius resigned in February 1928, and Meyer brought the Bauhaus its two most significant building commissions for the school, both of which still exist: five apartment buildings in the city of Dessau, and the headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau. Meyer favored measurements and calculations in his presentations to clients, along with the use of off-the-shelf architectural components to reduce costs; this approach proved attractive to potential clients. The school turned its first profit under his leadership in 1929.


But Meyer also generated a great deal of conflict. As a radical functionalist, he had no patience with the aesthetic program, and forced the resignations of Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, and other longtime instructors. As a vocal Communist, he encouraged the formation of a Communist student organization. In the increasingly dangerous political atmosphere in the Weimar era, this became a threat to the existence of the school, and to the personal safety of anyone involved. Meyer was also compromised by a sexual scandal involving one of his students, and Gropius fired him in 1930.


Berlin


Although neither the Nazi Party nor Hitler himself had a cohesive architectural 'policy' in the 1930s, Nazi writers like Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg had labeled the Bauhaus "un-German," criticizing its modernist styles, deliberately generating public controversy over issues like flat roofs. Increasingly through the early 1930s, they characterized the Bauhaus as a front for Communists, Russian, and social liberals. This characterization was helped by the actions of its second director, Hannes Meyer, who with a number of loyal students moved to the Soviet Union in 1930.


Under political pressure the Bauhaus was closed on the orders of the Nazi regime on April 11, 1933. The closure, and the response of Mies van der Rohe, is fully documented in Elaine Hoffman's Architects of Fortune.

Architectural Output


The paradox of the early Bauhaus was that, although its manifesto proclaimed that the ultimate aim of all creative activity was building, the school wouldn't offer classes in architecture until 1927. The single most profitable tangible product of the Bauhaus was its wallpaper.

During the years under Gropius (1919–1927), he and his partner Adolf Meyer observed no real distinction between the output of his architectural office and the school. So the built output of Bauhaus architecture in these years is the output of Gropius: the Sommerfeld house in Berlin, the Otte house in Berlin, the Auerbach house in Jena, and the competition design for the Chicago Tribune Tower, which brought the school much attention. The definitive 1926 Bauhaus building in Dessau is also attributed to Gropius. Apart from contributions to the 1923 Haus am Horn, student architectural work amounted to unbuilt projects, interior finishes, and craft work like cabinets, chairs and pottery.


In the next two years under the outspoken Swiss Communist architect Hannes Meyer, the architectural focus shifted away from aesthetics and towards functionality. But there were major commissions: one by the city of Dessau for five tightly designed "Laubenganghäuser" (apartment buildings with balcony access), which are still in use today, and another for the headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau bei Berlin. Meyer's approach was to research users' needs and scientifically develop the design solution.


Mies van der Rohe repudiated Meyer's politics, his supporters, and his architectural approach. As opposed to Gropius' "study of essentials," and Meyer's research into user requirements, Mies advocated a "spatial implementation of intellectual decisions," which effectively meant an adoption of his own aesthetics. Neither Mies nor his Bauhaus students saw any projects built during the 1930s.


The popular conception of the Bauhaus as the source of extensive Weimar-era working housing is largely apochryphal. Two projects, the apartment building project in Dessau and the Törten row housing also in Dessau fall in that category, but developing worker housing was not the top priority for Gropius or Mies. It was the Bauhaus contemporaries Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig and particularly Ernst May, as the city architects of Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt respectively, who are rightfully credited with the thousands of housing units built in Weimar Germany. In Taut's case, the housing may still be seen in SW Berlin, is still occupied, and can be reached by going easily from the Metro Stop Onkel Tom's Hutte.


Impact


The Bauhaus had a major impact on art and architectural trends in Western Europe, the United States and Israel (particularly in White City, Tel Aviv) in the decades following its demise, as many of the artists involved either fled or were exiled by the Nazi regime.


Gropius, Breuer, and Moholy-Nagy re-assembled in England during the mid-1930s to live and work in the Isokon project before the war caught up to them. Both Gropius and Breuer went on to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked together before their professional split in 1941. The Harvard School was enormously influential in America in the late 1940s and early 1950s, producing such students as Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Lawrence Halprin and Paul Rudolph, among many others.


In the late 1930s, Mies van der Rohe re-settled in Chicago, enjoyed the sponsorship of the influential Philip Johnson, and became one of the pre-eminent architects in the world. Moholy-Nagy also went to Chicago and founded the New Bauhaus school under the sponsorship of industrialist and philanthropist Walter Paepcke. Printmaker and painter Werner Drewes was also largely responsible for bringing the Bauhaus aesthetic to America and taught at both Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. Herbert Bayer, sponsored by Paepcke, moved to Aspen, Colorado in support of Paepcke's Aspen projects.


One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art, craft, and technology. The machine was considered a positive element, with industrial and product design as important components. Vorkurs ("initial" or "preliminary course") was taught; this is the modern day Basic Design course that has become one of the key foundational courses offered in architectural and design schools across the globe. There was no teaching of history in the school because everything was supposed to be designed and created according to first principles rather than by following precedent.


One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus is in the field of modern furniture design. The world famous and ubiquitous Cantilever chair by Dutch designer Mart Stam, using the tensile properties of steel, and the Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer are but two examples.


The physical plant at Dessau survived World War II and was operated as a design school with some architectural facilities by the Communist German Democratic Republic. This included live stage productions in the Bauhaus theater under the name of Bauhausbühne ("Bauhaus Stage"). After German reunification, a reorganized school continued in the same building, with no essential continuity with the Bauhaus under Gropius in the early 1920s .


In 1999 Bauhaus-Dessau College started to organize postgraduate programs with participants from all over the world. This effort has been supported by the Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation which was founded in 1994 as a public institution.


American art schools have also rediscovered the Bauhaus school. The Master Craftsman Program at Florida State University bases its artistic philosophy on Bauhaus theory and practice.


Article source :
1) http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bauhaus
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

Look also :
Bauhaus architecture


Did you know the famous Barcelona Chair?


The Barcelona Chair is so named because it was exclusively designed for the Barcelona World Fair of 1929 as part of the German Pavilion. The Barcelona chair inspired by Mies van der Rohe and his long time partner and companion, the architect and designer, Lilly Reich , is one of the most stylish and elegant pieces of modern furniture of the 20th Century and probably the most recognized piece of modern furniture around. The frame is crafted from stainless steal with thick leather straps supporting the seat pad and chair back (Straps attached using velcro). The padding used is visco-elastic memory foam, which is fire resistant to comply with all UK safety laws. This model is of the highest quality and would make a great addition to any modern home. Though it has a "machine made" appearance it is almost 100% hand laboured. The frames are made of massive suspension stainless steel. It requires extreme precision and highest craftsmanship to weld and finish the joints.

History

The years after the First World War had found Europe in a turmoil and the postwar years preceding the Barcelona Exhibition were challenging for the nations. Despite or possibly because of the widespread devastation, designers, industrialists, architects, and artists were inspired by new technology, materials and possibilities. Literary creativity and with it advertising and commercial promotion and film making commenced with feverish vigor. The German Government, more than any other, after losing the war and struggling to for political stability, eagerly agreed to participate in the Barcelona Exhibition.

Philosophy and economics

Although many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era, were intent on providing well designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for the 'common man', (and van der Rohe was very much in agreement with this philosophy), it was and still is not possible to do this in the case of the Barcelona Chair as the materials and labor are too expensive. Its tufted and buttoned, supple high quality leather cushions are hand sewn and individually stitched and piped require twenty eight hours of highly skilled labor to produce.

The timeless, iconic Chair has never ceased to be in production and has always been a 'must have' for both wealthy aficionados as well as architects and designers. Ottomans, loveseats, sofas, daybeds and benches, even inspirational versions of the chair, loveseat and sofa with arms have been added to the 'range'.

Although the original rights of reproduction were purchased by Knoll, unaffiliated reproductions of the Barcelona Chair are today manufactured by a vast and diverse group of manufacturers, each varying considerably in their price, quality and even specifics of the design.

Article sources :
1)http://www.miesbarcelonachair.com/en/barcelona-chair/barcelona-chair-ottoman-2.html
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_chair
Look also :
Barcelona Daybed


Do you know a chair named as African Chair ?


A work from the early years of the Bauhaus, presumed lost for the past 80 years, has been recovered: the African Chair, created by Marcel Breuer in collaboration with the weaver Gunta Stölzl. Made of painted wood with a colourful textile weave, this chair embodies the spirit of the early Bauhaus like no other object. It is the first work by Marcel Breuer, who later went on to write design history with his tubular steel furniture. With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, it was possible to secure this legendary and unique work for the collection of the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin.

Even today, the colourfully painted and upholstered oak chair evokes visual associations that are linked to its title; however, this provides no information about the original purpose of the chair. A wide range of hypothetical uses at the time of its inception are possible: the chair could have served as a 'throne' for the Bauhaus director, who defined his role as master of a building lodge in accordance with the self-image of the early Bauhaus. The throne-like construction could also refer to the understanding of architecture as the mother of all arts in classical architectural theory, with the architect as leader and organiser - a role with which Walter Gropius identified all of his life. Equally conceivable is the interpretation of this piece of furniture as a symbolic wedding chair, giving expression to the close relationship between Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stölzl at the time. All of these attempted explanations are filtered from the many ideas and theories that were circulating simultaneously in the early years of the Bauhaus; neither then nor later were any specific comments made regarding the chair. With the emergence of the Bauhaus maxim Art and Technology - A New Unity beginning in 1923, it became a symbol for an era of Bauhaus history that had come to an end. Accordingly, it is a peerless physical manifestation of the complex conceptual universe of the early Bauhaus.


The Bauhaus Archive is presenting this chair within the context of additional works from the early Bauhaus which emphasise its unique significance. The exhibition also includes a representation of Marcel Breuer's Bauhaus Film, which was published in 1926 and attempts to demonstrate the development of furniture design at the Bauhaus - from the African Chair to tubular steel furniture.


Article source : http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2004/06/16/32127.html


Walkman adalah barisan jenama bagi pemain stereo peribadi keluaran Sony. Pada mulanya, istilah Walkman hanya merujuk kepada produk stereo peribadi keluaran Sony, tetapi kini istilah tersebut menjadi istilah umum yang turut merujuk kepada produk sama daripada pengeluar lain. Walkman telah mengubah cara hidup pengguna dengan membolehkan pengguna mendengar lagu-lagu kegemaran mereka secara bersendirian tanpa mengganggu orang lain.

Pada Mac 2007, Sony mengembangkan jenama Walkman melalui model Walkman video pertama, NW-800. Selain jenama Walkman, Sony pernah menggunakan pelbagai jenama bagi jenis pemain stereo peribadi yang tertentu, antaranya termasuklah Discman bagi produk pemain cakera padat peribadi, namun Sony mula menghimpunkan kesemua produk pemain stereo peribadinya di bawah satu jenama iaitu Walkman pada lewat 1990-an. Produk Walkman tidak hanya terhad kepada alat pemain stereo peribadi semata-mata; ia turut dikembangkan dalam bentuk pemacu kilat USB dan juga telefon bimbit keluaran Sony Ericsson iaitu model-model siri W.

Sejarah

Model pertama Walkman(TPS-L2) adalah model berasaskan pemain kaset, dilancarkan pada 1 Julai 1979. Model tersebut adalah ciptaan jurutera bahagian audio Sony iaitu Nobutoshi Kihara untuk pengerusi Sony pada ketika itu, Akio Morita, yang mahu mendengar lagu-lagu opera semasa berulang-alik menaiki kapal terbang untuk lawatan kerja yang kerap. Beliau pada mulanya amat membenci nama "Walkman" sehinggakan beliau mahu nama model tersebut diubah, tetapi sudah terlambat kerana nama tersebut sudah pun digunakan dalam kempen promosi serta dalam pengeluaran. Akhirnya, Morita tunduk kepada keputusan syarikat untuk terus menggunakan nama Walkman. Model TPS-L2 mendapat sambutan yang sangat menggalakkan, dan sejak daripada itulah jenama Walkman mula terkenal.

Nota :
Pada awalnya pemain kaset Walkman memerlukan 4 biji bateri saiz AA untuk beroperasi, tetapi model-model kemudiannya hanya memerlukan 2 biji bateri saiz AA sahaja.
Sumber artikel : http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman



Adakah anda tahu Yoyo bukan sekadar permainan tetapi juga senjata?

Anda mungkin berfikir bahwa senjata adalah sebuah alat yang berbahaya dan harus dihindari. Tetapi, jika anda pernah memainkan Yoyo, bererti anda sudah memainkan sebuah senjata.

Yoyo sudah wujud sejak lama, tetapi baru muncul dan diperkenalkan di Amerika pada tahun 1929. Orang Filipina membuat Yoyo dari batang pohon yang merambat yang hujung-hujungnya diikatkan dengan batu-batu keras. Mereka melempar batu-batu itu dengan menarik batang rambatnya.

Yoyo pertama di Amerika terbuat dari kayu. Donald Duncan mempunyai idea dengan meminta orang Filipina memperagakan Yoyo di pusat belibelah. Demikianlah orang Amerika menyedari bahawa Yoyo juga dapat dipergunakan sebagai alat mainan. Akhirnya, Yoyo dibuat dari bahan plastik warna-warni dan dapat dibeli di kedai mainan.

Nota :
Nama Yoyo berasal dari bahasa Tagalog Filipina, yang bermaksud "Mari, Mari"
Sumber artikel : http://yudhim.blogspot.com/2008/02/asal-usul-yoyo.html


Saat demam emas melanda Amerika Syarikat di tahun 1848, ada seorang pemuda berusia 20 tahun dari New York berniat mengadu nasib. Namanya Levi Strauss.

Di tempat asalnya dia adalah seorang penjual pakaian. Strauss berangkat ke California dengan berbekalkan beberapa helai tekstil untuk dijual selama perjalanan ke Barat.


Sesampai di California, Levi Strauss telah menjual semua barang yang dimilikinya, kecuali segulung kanvas. Segulung kanvas? Apa gunanya? Siapa yang mahu memakai pakaian dibuat dari kanvas?


Di California, Strauss memperhatikan bahawa para pekerja tambang memiliki seluar yang cepat sekali rosak. Untuk itu Strauss mencuba membuat seluar kerja dari bahan kanvas.
Kerana tidak sepenuhnya suka dengan bahan dari kanvas, Strauss mula menggunakan bahan lain yang dipesannya dari Genoa, Itali. Para penjahit di sana menyebut bahan itu “genes”. Strauss mengubah namanya menjadi “jeans”, dan mulailah ia menghasilkan seluar jeans pertamanya, yang diberi label “Levi’s”.

Hanya dalam waktu singkat seluar ini menjadi “pakaian rasmi” para penambang dan koboi, dan akhirnya dapat kita temui sekarang sebagai ”pakaian kebangsaan” banyak orang.

Nota : Jenama Levi's adalah jenama pertama dan menjadi pelopor bagi segala jenama jeans yang popular kini
Sumber artikel : http://bukamata1107.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/asal-mula-celana-jeans/#more-36


Pin keselamatan direka oleh Walter Hunt secara tidak sengaja semasa beliau sangat memerlukan wang. Ketika itu, Walter telah meminjam wang daripada seorang kawan sebanyak US Dollar 15. Ketika itu, dia duduk di meja dengan sebatang wayar besi tanpa mengetahui apa yang hendak dilakukannya. Lalu, dia memutar wayar besi itu secara bulat dalam masa lebih kurang 3 jam. Apabila dia melihat hasilnya, Walter mendapati dia telah mencipta sesuatu tanpa diduga. Hasil ciptaannya itu boleh dijadikan penyemat baju ataupun pin baju. Walter telah mencipta pin baju yang pertama di dunia.

Walaupun telah banyak yang menggunakan pin selama ini, namun pin yang digunakan itu tidak selamat dan seringkali mencucuk badan. Pin ciptaan Walter selamat digunakan, sebab itulah ia dipanggil pin keselamatan(safety pin). Pin yang dihasilkan oleh Walter tajam pada bahagian hujungnya, mempunyai gegelang bulat pada tengahnya yang berfungsi seperti spring dan pada hujungnya direka pelindung atau penyangkut bahagian yang tajam tersebut. Pin ini sangat selamat digunakan kerana ia tidak mencederakan tempat yang disemat.

Pada mulanya, Walter menamakan pin tersebut sebagai pin pakaian(dress pin). Kemudian, dia menukarkannya kepada pin keselamatan(safety pin).

Pada tahun 1849, Walter Hunt telah mematenkan hasil rekaannya itu. Dia menjual paten rekaannya dengan harga US Dollar 400. Dengan itu dia dapat membayar hutang kawannya. Setelah beberapa lama, pin tersebut mendapat sambutan ramai dan digunakan di seluruh dunia. Pin tersebut diubah suai dalam pelbagai bentuk tetapi fungsinya tetap sama.


Nota : Pernahkah anda menggunakan pin keselamatan sebagai pengganti sementara butang baju atau kancing seluar anda ketika saat terdesak? : )
Sumber artikel : http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_keselamatan


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