Four of our designers shared their answers in an office-wide discussion session last Friday. The first 2 presented their thoughts on how we’d get to what’s next, and the last 2 focused on a couple of emerging trends in interactivity.
The Future of Art & Design, Via Kanye West Designer 1: Adam Puncochar
Adam showed how Kanye West evolves culture by opening himself up to the influence of other artists, musicians, designers, and more. Picking 4 of West’s collaborators—Daft Punk, Takashi Murakami, Jeremy Scott, and So Me —Adam showed how West’s own work has grown from project to project.
The crucial point was not that West is plagiarizing (he’s not), or even that he’s standing on the shoulders of giants (he is, but so are the best of us). It’s how he interacts with current culture, mixing parts of it together and adding his own art to it, creating something new. Then the rest of us can react to that, pushing everything forward again. And so on.
Isn’t this the roadmap to the future of art and design? Be like Kanye West. Develop something new by building on what’s now. Insert yourself into it, and move it forward.
I’ve always loved how one person like West can take you into a web of influences. Kanye West might not be your touchstone, but take your favorite artist and see where he or she can lead you. It’s like self-improvement through six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Just try somebody cooler than Kevin Bacon.
Hybrid Spaces, Via Holland Designer 2: Shawn Hoekstra
Our own Dutch Boy, Shawn shared part of how he’s lately been trying to force himself to move into the future of art and design. Starting with some of the great architecture in Holland, he focused on what he calls “hybrid spaces”—spaces that mix, deconstruct, or redefine interactive and “real” spaces.
Among his wealth of examples and thoughtstarters: a Dutch park that seeks to reimagine a cultural space in a park supported by corporate grants. A museum with an interactive collection that lets you sort and make your own connections between pieces. A house split in half by a power saw. Koolhaas’ Prada store. Projection bombing that turns outdoor space into a graffiti artist’s screen.
Shawn’s underlying idea was that we need to force ourselves to question how we interact with our computer screens, and how we expect them to interact with the world.
