Hasta La Ideas

London’s Design Museum has reopened its doors with an exhibition that charts the evolution of electronic music and its symbiotic relationship with design. Curator Gemma Curtin shares five must-see exhibits from the show.

After a slightly delayed launch due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Electronic: from Kraftwerk to the Chemical Brothers exhibition is on view from now until 14 February 2021.

It has been adapted from a show originally debuted at the Philharmonie de Paris’s Museum of Music last year and tweaked to feature a greater focus on UK rave culture, as well as highlighting how design and electronic music can come together to create more impactful experiences than either could separately.

“Because it is so abstract, electronic music needs to collaborate with design in order to present itself to the world,” said Curtain.

“And designers enjoy working with DJs because they give them the freedom to respond to their music in different ways. Whether it’s through vinyl sleeves, the interface of a Roland synth or incredibly technical and complex live AVs [audiovisuals], the exhibition is very much about telling that untold story of the connection between design and music.”

This is achieved with the help of a soundtrack curated and mixed by French DJ Laurent Garnier, as well as 400 exhibits spread across four sections – Man and Woman Machine, Dancefloor, Mix and Remix, and Utopian Dreams and Ideals.

These explore the genre via the technology through which it is made, the club culture that surrounds it, the practice of DJing itself and finally its social and political implications.

“It’s a broad brush through the genre to show its cultural impact and all these satellite creative elements that work with the music and make it into something more,” said Curtain.

“It’s also about showcasing all of these creative talents that work in this field. Of course, this massive industry which supports so many livelihoods is on hold at the moment. But I hope the exhibition gives people a chance to feel and to remember and hopefully ultimately to make sure that this isn’t lost.”

Below, Curtain shares five designs from the exhibition that showcase the synergy between the two fields at its finest.

The Visitor by Yuri Suzuki and Jeff Mills

Jeff Mills is a DJ who was there, in Detroit, at the birth of techno music. He’s a genius, some people say. And he used to play on this Roland TR-909 drum machine from the ’80s.

It was really battered, he’d used it so many times. But actually its buttons are quite slender, the slides are quite close together. And his speed when mixing is such, that he wanted a new interface for using it.

He worked with Yuri Suzuki, the Pentagram partner, sound artist and product designer, to actually take the electronics from his Roland and put them into this shiny, spaceship-like desk. Suzuki used gaming buttons, which he arranged in a circle because Mills felt this would be a much more effective set-up for him.

The legs are a reference to a Los Angeles Times photograph from the 1940s, of these searchlights roaming the sky above the city. They were looking for bombers but there was this urban legend that they actually found a UFO. Suzuki used the imagery of these searchlights as a reference for the dynamic legs on this machine, to create a product fit for presentation and performance.

Aphex Twin’s Collapse album by Weirdcore

We contacted Weirdcore because we wanted to show how he created the visual identity for the Collapse album by his longtime collaborator [English musician] Aphex Twin. Weirdcore’s design process essentially involves using digital software, to create this very intense, almost disturbing imagery that he describes as seeing through the eyes of a hallucinating android.

To try and show the process behind that, we created an installation of various different screens. One shows some initial, raw footage he took of Cornwall, which is where Aphex Twin is from, and then another shows how he manipulated these images to crumble and deconstruct. You can see how he uses the sound data, the beats per minute to guide the visuals.

We also see the final video, which went on to inform the live performance and the promotional materials around that. It’s a good example of how design is not just the album. It’s also the video, it’s the live audiovisual (AV) it’s all sorts of things, that are now part of the presentation of music.

Haçienda club designs by Ben Kelly and Peter Saville

Tony Wilson, one of the founders of Factory Records, opened the Haçienda club in an old yacht showroom in the middle of Manchester in 1982.

This was really the start of super clubs in the UK and it was people like Wilson who really started investing in design. He got Peter Saville to do the graphic design and Ben Kelly did the interior.

It’s no longer any old church hall or basement in a sports centre with a few lights – these are designed interiors. Kelly used bollards and other elements that you normally see in the public realm and this visual language became a really identifying element for the club. The exhibition features a neon sign that hung above the bar and a replica of one of the columns.

Haçienda had a very slick, professional approach to its graphics and identity where before it was all photocopied or hand-drawn flyers. And this went on to influence other big clubs that helped to regenerate inner cities. The Hacienda did a huge amount for Manchester, much like Gatecrasher in Sheffield or Cream in Liverpool.

Core by 1024 Architecture

One of the key elements of the exhibition is its soundtrack, which features mixes that span the history of electronic music. So there is a Detroit mix, a Chicago one, a German one. And in the middle of the exhibition is an installation by 1024 architects called Core that is responsive to the sound.

It consists of 24,000 LED lights and 81 of these incredibly tall, three-metre LED rods. The installation offers another interpretation of music through visual means and gives visitors a moment of pause in the exhibition where they can really enjoy the soundtrack.

One of the unique characteristics of electronic music is that it is generally 120 beats per minute. That is really what separates it from other music because you’re not reliant on the speed of the drummer. And seeing the music visually makes you think about this pace in a very immersive way.

Got To Keep On installation by Smith & Lyall

A lot of the time, digital design is used to present electronic music. But with Adam Smith and Marcus Lyle, the creative directors for the Chemical Brothers, their work is actually based on film. So their practice involves this huge team of creatives including live performers, choreographers, costume and lighting designers.

We asked them to create an experience for visitors as they leave the exhibition and the result is an installation based on the song Got To Keep On.

There’s a huge floor-to-ceiling screen showing a video of dancers dressed in these incredible outfits, huge and bright pink almost like Teletubbies. There are light effects and haze – you feel like you’re immersed in a live performance.

For everybody who’s experienced it, the contrast between being stuck at home during Covid and entering this room is quite extreme. It’s this visceral reminder of our senses.

It’s not just visuals, it’s the beat that’s vibrating through your body. We unpack all of the detail throughout the exhibition but the reality is when you’re in there, you just feel it.

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When BMW first debuted the E24 way back in 1976, you’d best believe it instantly became an icon, serving as a departure from BMW’s previous design language, with an edgy attitude and its legendary sharknose tip – a protruding, forward-slanting front detail that gave the car its signature appeal along with a sense of speed and a leader-of-the-pack attitude. The sharknose went on to become one of BMW’s most epochal details… in fact, there’s even a dedicated community of BMW sharknose-automobile owners and aficionados (they congregate every year for an annual Sharknose Meeting).

While the sharknose detail was eventually phased out as BMW’s design language evolved and matured, it lives on in the annals of history, and Grigory Butin’s BMW 6 concept hopes to rekindle its glory. The BMW 6 concept is a confluence of the German auto manufacturer’s current design styling, but with a renewed interpretation of the sharknose. The BMW 6 showcases streamlined bodywork, which Butin feels “has a very unique and emotional appearance.”

The car embraces the coupé format, although with proportions that match the original E24, including elongated front and rear ends. Sleek headlights and taillights give it a more menacing glare, and the kidney-grilles on the front are smaller than usual, although they don’t take away from the car’s predatory personality. It only makes sense that to complement it, the car comes in a shark-esque gray color too! While the BMW 6 only currently exists as a fan-made concept, it comes future-proofed, with pop-up door handles and camera mirrors. Let’s hope someone at BMW is reading this and seriously considering bringing the iconic sharknose back!

Designers: Grigory Butin

A recent browse on Present and Correct led us to a deep dive on the tradition of omiyage, which is essentially a formality in Japan where work colleagues bring each other edible souvenirs back from places they’ve traveled to (I suppose as a way to prove you didn’t just play hooky?). An experience described on GaijinPot reaffirms the peril of not bringing omiyage back to coworkers as incredibly awkward. The writer details a trip with a friend to a Kamakura giftshop, saying “she couldn’t relax until we made a pit-stop at an omiyage shop so she could pick out gifts for her coworkers. We ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time in that shop, as she browsed through endless boxes, trying to find the perfect omiyage with just the amount of sweets, the correct portion size and price for her office.”

Stress aside, from our own research the hunt for the perfect omiyage seems like a worthwhile endeavor as there are tons of entertaining varieties. We’ve collected a number of examples to browse (all sourced from Haconi-wa Mag’s interactive omiyage map):

Starting with a souvenir that caters to your industrial designer co-workers, these nut and bolt chocolate morsels with functional threads from the Neiji Chocolate Factory in Kitakyushu City are bound to be a hit.

This sugar crystal treat is infused with a boysenberry flavor, a fruit found when traveling around the Azumi River in Shiga Prefecture.

This cookie from a famous confectionary Iseya in Ota City has a fun backstory, as their shop is coincidentally right in front of the city’s Subaru factory. So this omiyage is a great souvenir for car lovers, and even includes a pamphlet of different Subaru models.

Who wouldn’t want a cookie depicting the subject of Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream? If you have a craving, you can find this sweet at the Tokushima Otsuka Museum of Art.

These fun gummies can be found in Kyoto and are in the shape of different monuments and iconography native to the area.

This lollipop is a surprisingly detailed illustration of the Great Buddha of Kamakura just outside of Tokyo.

Nagano Prefecture is famous for its unique strains of apples with beautiful marble-like patterns on the insides, so I was happy to discover these candy treats for co-workers who need a sugar fix that an apple can’t satisfy. I also love the details included on the apple box packaging.

I would love to see an American version of these amazing intricate snacks. A cookie depicting Mount Rushmore? A Space Needle lollipop? A wound-up ball of licorice at the World’s Largest Ball of Twine rest stop? Comment below with your best ideas.

To be clear, I’d never buy this toy-like xDrill from Robbox; in the demo video you can actually see the run-out in the chuck and bit. Also, the last thing I want is a power tool with an LED touchscreen.

However, it’s got at least one killer feature–the ability to indicate when you’re drilling dead level (I assume this works for plumb too).

Having the ability to drill perfectly perpendicular holes is the only reason I still covet a drill press. Why doesn’t every handheld drill have this feature?

Architects and designers in Beirut have shared their first-hand accounts of the huge explosion that destroyed a large part of the city on Tuesday, with one describing the devastation as “beyond an apocalypse”.

“I thought it was a tsunami or a bomb, or even a nuclear blast,” said architect Lina Ghotmeh, who witnessed the massive explosion from a waterside cafe.

“No one can possibly imagine the scale of the disaster, it is beyond an apocalypse, the entire city is in rubbles,” said co-founder of design studio T Sakhi, Tessa Sakhi, who was at home when the explosion happened.

“PSLab Beirut HQ is gone, completely wiped,” added Rania Abboud, communications director of lighting designer PSLab.

The explosion at a warehouse where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was being stored on 4 August caused widespread destruction in the Lebanese capital.

It is estimated to have killed 149 people and injured more than 5,000. Local architect Jean-Marc Bonfils was among the dead.

A number of buildings in the city were also destroyed or badly damaged, among them Pierre Neema’s 1965 headquarters for power company Électricité du Liban and the Sursock Museum.

“I honestly still don’t believe we are alive”

“Since it happened by the seaside, the explosion was very powerful,” Ghotmeh told Dezeen. “You could feel that the water had actually taken on a lot of the charge of the explosion.”

Ghotmeh, who was shortlisted for a Dezeen Award in 2018 and had just completed her first project in Beirut, was sitting in a small cafe by the water across from the part of the port where the incident occurred when the warehouse exploded.

“What was really surprising were the red fumes coming out of the water,” she continued.

“It was surreal because you couldn’t understand if it was bombardment from a plane, a natural event, or something chemical because the fumes were a completely different colour. I thought it was a tsunami or a bomb, or even a nuclear blast.”

Ghotmeh stayed on the scene with her son and her family in the aftermath of the explosion.

“You just stay in place because you don’t know what’s going to happen – having left the war, in these events, one bomb happens and then you expect another, so you stay in place and wait to understand what’s happening,” she explained.

“Then you discover the consequences,” she continued. “My sister’s home was completely shattered, my eight-year-old nephew was hit by shattered glass. My partner’s office completely collapsed – the false ceiling was ripped off and four-metres high glass panels were shattered.”

“I was there just 30 minutes before the explosion and I honestly still don’t believe we are alive.”

“Every single person in the city and outskirts had a near-death experience”

Beirut-based architect Sakhi, who was in her house four kilometres away from the explosion, thought that she was witnessing an earthquake.

“I thought it was a strong earthquake and since I live in a typical old Lebanese house, I was afraid it might collapse,” she told Dezeen.

“I grabbed both my dogs and the next thing I remember was a massive sound of an explosion,” she said. “My windows exploded, glass shattered everywhere, ceilings and walls were falling, objects exploded, and there was immense smoke.”

Sakhi tried to get to the only room in her house without windows, something she says her parents taught her and her sister during the Lebanese civil war, but the ceiling had fallen.

“Every single person in the city and outskirts had a near-death experience and is suffering from physical injuries and emotional trauma,” she explained. “Physical and psychological scars we will carry for the rest of our lives.”

“The scale of the explosion and the amount of damage it has caused will take years to rebuild.”

“It’s like a nuclear bomb happened”

Ghotmeh recently completed her first project in Beirut, the Stone Garden housing complex, which is located about a kilometre from where the explosion occurred.

“The next day I went to the site immediately,” the architect said.

“I was shaking because it’s close by and I didn’t know what to expect. And it was there, just standing, but all the glass had shattered completely. It’s like a nuclear bomb happened.”

Only a few apartments were occupied, and the tenants and people working on the project had all escaped unharmed.

Ghotmeh had intended the building to be a bunker or protective shield for the city. “As a child here, you grew up with the city completely destroyed and being reconstructed,” she said.

“It has always been able to rebuild but that always a part of the feeling and I wondered, how can architecture be a place of shelter?”

Lighting designer PSLab said that its Beirut headquarters, which includes one of the city’s only Bauhaus buildings was been completely destroyed.

“PSLab Beirut HQ is gone, completely wiped,” said Abboud, communications director of the lighting brand. “One of our buildings is one of the only remaining Bauhaus buildings of Lebanon. Structurally it is not salvable.”

According to Abboud, much of the neighbourhood surrounding the headquarters was also destroyed, but she was confident it would be rebuilt.

“Our neighborhood has a small gem collection of old Lebanese houses – they are mostly gone,” she continued. “It will surely rebuild. We will rebuild. But the old Mar Michael and Gemayze neighborhood is forever gone.”

Increasing anger with “corrupt government”

In the aftermath of the explosion the people of Beirut have come out to help get the city back to normal, but there is also a lot of anger among residents.

“There is a lot of anger as well, against the government and against the negligence that has been happening,” said Ghotmeh. “People want to change that.”

Abboud added that she was “angry” as “for five years we have been working with those dangerous chemicals under our noses.”

According to Sakhi there is little sign of help from the Lebanese government on the ground.

“The French and German aids are present, yesterday the French president was amongst us on the streets,” she said. “But none of our so-called Lebanese authority aids, and a government we have been revolting against since our Revolution in October 2019.”

People are devastated, she added. “Our homes were our only safe haven from such an unstable country, now we are left with nothing. Grief and mourning, for the friends and family we lost and got injured. And anger. Massive anger towards our corrupt government for their 40 years of murders and criminal acts.”

The explosion ravaged some of the city’s most important and historical architectural landmarks, as well as museums, galleries, residences and residencies.

“They survived the 15 years civil-war but did not survive this explosion, that is how strong it was,” said Sakhi. The structural, electrical, mechanical and plumbing works are just inconceivable at this moment due to our financial and economical crisis. We do not have any money whatsoever to buy nor import anything.”

The post Beirut explosion was like a “nuclear blast” say Lebanese architects and designers appeared first on Dezeen.