NYCxDesign: Baseballs, Burgers And Birdhouses Transformed Into Sensory Design Experiments
In Brief
A collection of installations during NYCxDESIGN 2017 explore how our senses affect they ways we perceive design
What are the influences that create positive or negative reactions to design? This is a question explored in an exhibition titled Common Sense that opened at A/D/O during NYCxDESIGN 2017. Common Sense explores the influences, particularly to our senses that drive us to respond in a certain way. A series of six individual experiments aim to reveal the range of perspectives people can have on the same subject. The project offers an underlying commentary what we may think is a shared perception and where commonality might actually exist.
Visitors get a welcome folder which contains a brief explanation of the exhibition. Each station has a physical experience and a series of printed sheets that represent a different viewpoint of that experience. Individual sheets can be collected together forming a unique catalog of an individual’s experience with the exhibit.
Common Sense was designed by New York based Playlab, Inc. They collaborated with nearly two dozen other designers, photographers, writers, and musicians. Each of the catalog sheets contain text and illustrations as well as suggested reading references.
The Color of the Sky: This experiment studies color in design. The setup is a wall of papers, in different tones of blue. Visitors pick what the color of the sky is for them.
The Flip Side of a Burger: This experiment aims to discuss advertising and branding. A hamburger is on display in a trade-show-style-looking structure. Exhibition visitors choose from 4 narratives on the theme.
The value of a Baseball: This experiment explores the relationship between design and art. The same object is repeated in a vitrine. Exhibition goers pick between options that suggest their value.
The Thing About Me: This experiment plays with the meaning of identity in design. Different interpretations describe in images how it is to represent one’s self today.
The Feeling of Sound: This experiment’s goal is to explore emotion in design. A soundtrack is played in all bathroom stalls. Users choose between options for what they felt while listening.
A series of birdhouses in the courtyard are printed with common text messaging abbreviations. The birds don’t perceive these messages the way we do and only associate the houses with food and shelter.
Images: Dave Pinter
What are the influences that create positive or negative reactions to design? This is a question explored in an exhibition titled Common Sense that opened at A/D/O during NYCxDESIGN 2017. Common Sense explores the influences, particularly to our senses that drive us to respond in a certain way. A series of six individual experiments aim to reveal the range of perspectives people can have on the same subject. The project offers an underlying commentary what we may think is a shared perception and where commonality might actually exist.