FineArtDesign I An Opportunity for Good

Sweeping social change requires revolution. For a return there has to be an investment and when it comes to taking care of the poor, the sick and even the planet these investments can be hard to come by. The demand by the rich and powerful for avant-garde art has never ceased. Throughout history fine art has been a medium of change. Each society rebels against the one before through art. The ideas of the avant-garde can become the sweeping, globally available, mainstream ideas of their followers. For this reason the crossroads between art and design, however big, wide, and wavering the gray line, can be the birthplace of massive global scale change. On the other hand, it can easily become a place of decadence, escapism and impracticality. I believe it is important for designers to see their work in the context of global social issues no matter how they identify and label their work, who buys and collects their work or where it is shown.

An example of a time when this awareness fell apart was during the early part of the 20th century when the wealthiest families in America invested millions of dollars into their summer homes in Newport, RI. Just a short distance from here we can go and see incredible, elaborate decadent homes that contain some of the finest pieces of limited production and custom furniture in the world from that time. While these houses were occupied America fell into a deep economic depression during which unprecedented numbers of people were unemployed and in poverty. Viewing these homes raised my ethical questions about art to a new level. When we design expensive, limited production pieces while all around the world people are going without their basic needs met, what kind of a world are we creating? It is possible what we are creating can be a better world.

I believe that used correctly even very expensive limited production work has positive social implications. There is money available to the wealthy even when the rest of the world is poor and the explorations of the wealthy can lead to discovery that will benefit everyone. Sunjars are a good example. What is now a kitchy, expensive gift shop object has large environmental and social applications. By using the technology as a novelty for the rich designer Tobias Wong has made available photoluminescent lighting technology for other applications that are more need based. Another example is the Segway which is largely useless except as novelty, but it’s mainstream novelty appeal led to development of iBot, a revolutionary wheelchair. Unlike the Newport Mansions, in these examples devices with the potential to do good were born from a fine art/ expensive limited production design object.

Fine art design has the power to demand new developments in technology and make the development of new technology economically viable as well as the power to present new ideology to the very wealthy and powerful. These characteristics make it a very powerful tool for the conscious and a dangerous weapon for the ignorant. It is imperative we learn to use it well.