What happens when art and design engage with the public realm to shape social and aesthetic experience is at the heart of th GSD’s MDesS concentration in Art, Design and the Public Domain. Sometimes a new sensory experience is born, as in the recent Food Opera: Four Asparagus Compositions, hosted by recent grads Jutta Friedrichs (MDesS ‘12) and Elizabeth MacWillie (MDesS ‘12), and Sara Hendren (MDesS ‘13).
The students, along with Dan Borelli (MDesS ’12), are founders and co-curators of 40K Curatorial Space, a gallery and platform for redefining the boundaries of collaborative art practices and cultural production. Their initiative captures the spirit of the Art, Design and the Public Domain program as it tracks the zeitgeist of the design discipline. The concentration was created for students interested in contemporary issues of urban, historical, aesthetic and technological culture. It also is aimed at practicing architects, artists, filmmakers and cultural producers wishing to ‘switch gears’ and develop a practice of creative and imaginative speculation, or art-related work, with an emphasis on sophisticated thinking, advanced fabrication techniques, and social and aesthetic engagement.
For Food Opera, the curators paired Bondir restaurant’s executive chef Jason Bond with sound artist and video game composer Ben Houge. Together they created an inspired and inventive tasting menu and a lush, ambient soundtrack to explore the convergence of harmony, texture, color, development and form.
The event caught the interest of NPR and was featured on its SALT food blog. Stay tuned for more innovative events from 40K Curatorial Space.
Photos courtesy of Melissa Rivard and Andrew Janjigian