Why Beauty Matters- Stephan Sagmeister
Why beauty matters was a thought provoking talk about the potential of aesthetics and the constructs of ornament in relation to beauty. Stephan Sagmeister was a hilarious key note, with the masses of people turning out to see him speak at the Adobe stage on the final day of D&AD festival. Sagmeister's talk centred around the modernist philosophy, discussing 'the original modernist' Max Bill and started the talk discussing Adolf Loos, an Austrian architect; he grew up in a time where architects 'stole everything from history', adapting elements of ornament into their own designs in the form of decorative window bays or elaborate interior embellishment. Loo's believed that everything should be simpler, and that the use of ornament had a time stamp which expired quickly, meaning more design goes to waste.
Sagmeister also discussed how the original modernists had awful plans when it comes to housing (referencing the Paris housing restructure in the early 20th century). They were all built with form in mind, but no-one wanted to live in them as they were so devoid of character and beauty. The best quality which has come from this is the concept of an 'international style'. The discussion of an international style is up for debate in lots of modernist literature and Sagmeister mentioned how the fine arts later stemmed to a rejection of aesthetic all together. Marchell Duchamp's toilet was classified as one of the most important pieces of 20th century art, due to its comment and message about anti-aesthetic. Sagmeister discusses how this lead to art movements exploring this idea, two of main discussion being American Abstract and Pop Art. Sagmeister mentioned how Pop Art was the art movement giving art back to the people, using common household objects and making them beautiful. Pop Art, Andy Warhol in particular was perpetuating beauty in anything, and Sagmeister mentioned the irony that Brillo was actually designed by an abstract American painter, the exact thing Warhol was trying to get away from by creating the appropriations of well known brands in the first place.
The concept of beauty also has the possibility to change human behaviour- Sagmeister discussed Penn St Station and Grand Central as two polar opposites in artchitecture when using ornament to create any beauty. He discussed how the outstanding beauty and sacrifice which went into the creation of such a building, makes people question their behaviour, what they say and even how they dress, suggesting that placing someone in a beautiful surrounding has the possibility to influence the world, and we need to take this power seriously.
Sagmeister ended by quoting the Exodus chapter in the bible, saying how God was definitely not a modernist. When asking Moses to create him a lamp, he asked for one solid base, with 6 smaller arms coming off the stem in a very perticular manor. This later turned out to be a Menorah (commonly known as a jewish lamp), which is definitely NOT modernist in form follows function and removing ornament to create form. In preparation for a new film/project about beauty, Sagmeister got us to do a sing a long from a new song about beauty, saying how we need to keep aesthetic/formal qualities and not encourage dull design. The talk was really inspiring and I managed to speak to lots of people all sharing the inspiration from Sagmeister.
Sagmeister's public speaking and ability to work a crowd is something I admire, as i understand how hard it is to do that from the PPP presentations. From the talk I learnt the value that aesthetics can bring, as well as beauty being classified historically as one of the fundamentals (or obstructions) to design. I found Sagmeister's references fascinating and I would love to take that forward and represent it somehow in the Creative Report.
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