Shenzhen sleeps on pillows of gold, if Shenzhen Creative Week is to be believed. The gathering of designers from Europe, America and Asia runs through Thursday, March 22, with new heights of opulence in every corner of the Convention Center. Golden bugs mingle with bejeweled wine flutes; glass and gilt drip everywhere.
But the Swiss Design corner (Building 6, near the northern entrance) cleanses the mental palette with no-nonsense design that reveals true expertise.
The only gold you’ll find under that wooden frame (echoing the curve of the Swiss Alps) is the hand-crafted circuitry of Laura Couto Rosado’s ‘Veilleuse Tellurique.’ The mood lamp resembles a delicate porcelain Dalek, dressed in rows of colored lights that shine without discernible pattern. In truth, the pattern is just much, much bigger than us: the lamp responds to measured seismic activity across the globe.
“Technology is usually a break between us and nature,” Couto Rosado tells That’s Shenzhen. “Here it’s a lamp to bring us aware that we’re part of nature and be reminded the earth is always moving. It’s alive. It’s an ambiance lamp, but the message is to use the technology to connect us to nature and be more aware of what is nature.”
Couto Rosado, resident artist for the CERN particle physics laboratory, also exhibits “a lamp that behaves like a cat.” With AI embedded inside, along with 3D cameras and concert lighting protocols, the lamp can sense your motion around and respond as a comforted or fearful animal might – “to play with the technologies that overwhelm us.”
“We’re used to having emotional connections to sacred, beloved objects. We project our moods,” she explains. With artificial intelligence and an infinite spectrum of responses, our smart objects can project back. “It’s technological animism.”
If the other designers of the Swiss exhibit don’t show off the technology behind their products, it’s no less marvelous.
The delicate tones in ‘Tablescapes’ from Arno Mathies reflect ridges almost like the whirls in your fingerprint, offering interesting new ways to display and appreciate foods, in restaurants or at home. But most intriguing is the computer code that serves as co-creator.
After Mathies designs a plate, cup, or bowl in one program, it’s translated to the language of the 3D printer – and algorithms have their fun. Since 3D products are printed in layers, that’s how the software translates his housewares. By keeping the number of layers relatively low, Mathies produces idiosyncratic ripples for the liquid porcelain molds that he couldn’t fully achieve on his own.
After working in both software languages, he was fascinated by the translation between them and how that could generate something new. “Designers use new tools to create language: it becomes more than just a surface,” he tells us. “I wanted it to be more than just something to look at, but something to use.”
Unlike much of the gilded distractions on display elsewhere, the Swiss exhibit is all about function and simple, effective design.
Daniel Wehrli applies engineering innovations to woodwork, for thin and light constructions that are incredibly sturdy. The result is an elegance that would be lost in cruder hands: a coat rack angled forward like a picture frame bending across dimensions; a bench with no central support stretches on and on.
“I don’t do fashionable,” Wehrli admits. “I’m trying to help people get things done with the least fuss possible. We spend a lot of time with mockups and new forms — [the focus is] utility, but there’s elegance in the forms.”
His countryman Michel Charlot explains it best.
“The thing is, if you try to make things with superior quality, you realize how complex it is. So it’s good to keep it simple. Many times extravagance is used to hide a lack of quality... poor quality wood and a lot of decorations and carving with not much skill, but covered with lots of gold so it looks impressive. We do a minimum of [carving to the wood] and we show the work. We actually make something strong that will age nicely.”
“Earlier in China’s history,” Charlot continues “things were disposable because they were natural products – terracotta, porcelain, etc. But now that it’s made of plastic, that’s more of a problem.” This was of course an issue for other nations confronting the cheap, disposable future of this brave new world.
“In Europe, this mentality completely changed. ... [I]f something is good, you don’t want to throw it away.”
Some of Charlot’s housewares are plastic, but it's because of what the material can do, not because it’s cheap. The process of creating perfectly sleek silhouettes, free of injection marks, is actually expensive to achieve. But like the rest, it’s the no-nonsense pursuit of excellence that sets the works apart.
There’s much more in store from each of these designers and even more artists brought to Shenzhen by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. For us, their contributions to Shenzhen Creative Week are refreshingly clear, with a quality that doesn’t shine in bronze or gold, but in the simple excellence of its design.
Through Mar 22, 9am-5pm. Shenzhen Convention ＆Exhibition Center. See event listing.
0 User Comments