It has been a recurring theme recently that the reflection of a successful artist/architect/designer is to use the technology of their time to do what has never been done before. For Ferda Kolatan, this defines design finesse. For Gaetano Pesce, that meant using the materials of your time. He famously said, "When someone expresses himself in a certain time, he does so with the tools and materials being discovered then. Stone or wood are from another moment." As I spoke about earlier with art, I believe that it is up to everyone within their field to not only question what defines their field, but to push the boundaries of what that field encompasses. This process so clearly happened in art in the 20th century, but it has happened to varying degrees in other fields. It seems to me it happens less in fields dependent on consumerism. This frontier experimentation with architecture almost exclusively happens in the realm of competitions and the speculative. I see it even less in Industrial Design, a field that is more focused on product design and has a tighter relationship with the consumer in general. Art has been blessed with this distinction that is pursued for its own sake, that it stands separate from the commodity world, and when it does engage it, it has two levels of consumerism: the extravagant auction market that few of us can participate in and the free visual consumption that exists for the majority. Within my field, I have only gained marked respect for those who push the frontier of architecture and make it mean more than it does as of yet. We are taught so often to perfect presentation, to be good at what is already understood and to stand out in that way, but I do not find that any of us can stand out unless we experiment.
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