Hasta La Ideas

At the entrance to the “ParaDesign” exhibit currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, visitors get to read a definition of the term. ParaDesign, we are told, is work that is “about, against, around, aberrant to, alongside, or not quite design.” The work we are about to see, the curators continue, “was intended not to solve problems, as professional architects and designers must do, but to pose keen, significant questions about the codes and habits that give built and designed objects their air of inevitability.”

Somewhat surprisingly, my reaction on reading this was not one of giddy joy and expectant excitement. Rather, it was one of grim foreboding. “Oh dear,” I sighed aloud, to the slight consternation of the man standing next to me.

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