Topic: Culture

THE AESTHETIC OF MISERY: DESIGN AS AN EXPRESSION OF URBAN SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT, AN INTERPRETATION IN INTERIOR DESIGN Jamaludin1 , Anwar Subkiman2 1Interior Design FSRD Itenas, [email protected] 2Interior Design FSRD Itenas, [email protected]

Abstract

The topic of this paper is culture. The paper explains the experimental works called the Aesthetic of Misery, presented in Furniture Fair, April 2015. This new approach to design launched by Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi, two prominent designers in Milan. They present “social environment” based on the concept of misery. These experimental works investigate the concept of deprivation, re-establishing its value as a historical and cultural category of crucial relevance, generative of both misery and nobility. The exhibition presented sixteen projects developed by the students of Interior Design Master Program of Politecnico di Milano under supervision of Francesca Balena Arista and Marco de Santi.

Misery can be found as an expression in arts such as painting, cinema dan literature but seem something deliberately hidden in design particulary in interior design. The aesthetic of misery is the experimental works to expose or present the misery in design culture. This project seem as an appreciation to the way of how poor people survive in the matter of occupancy or dwelling.

Analitical descriptive method used to explain the background and aim of aesthetic of misery. Observation in contemporary of the the Interior Design and archtecture style used to find and to compare the similarity or concurrent with the concept of aesthetic of misery. This aim is to understood as the implementation or has a the same direction of the aesthetic of misery. What Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi called the Aesthetic of Misery is a part of real social environment that also exist in interior design and .

Keywords aesthetic; aesthetic of misery; Andrea Branzi, Micchele de Lucchi, Interior Design

1. Introduction

In the world of design, aesthetics are only seen or understood merely as everything beautiful. It is common that design normally dedicated to the art of beautifying objects and structures.[1] Although the design talks function problem, in the end designers always strive to produce beautiful works. It is clear that misery, as visual matter is not a part of the design. It is an object that must be removed or hidden for the sake of beauty.

In a broader context of art, such as painting, movie or literature, in addition to joyous things there are also impressions of misery. In literature for example, we can read novel and also made a film, Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata. The novel tells of the misery of a child growing up in Belitung who

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then struggled to face the problem of his life, and then he could reach his dream, study in UK and says be a successful person [2]. In movies, such as Slumdog Millionaire, misery becomes the first and the main setting of the story and the character struggles along the flow of the film until it reaches its destination. In movie or literature, misery or suffering is not merely about poverty but also other life issues such as conflicts in family, friends, love and so on. If the main character successfully solve the problem then it is a happy ending story.

Misery is often expressed in art, but not in design. However, paintings or photography in various themes including tribulations or misery are poperty of interior, hung in the walls of room. Like Jeihan's paintings with his trademark female figure with dark eyes, or “a pair of shoes” the works of Van Gogh. Some paintings mentioned as example, however, have reflects life with suffering or misery on it. The paintings was presented in the room with beautiful design and filled with beautiful furniture. Cinemas designed with beautiful interior design, but the film shows is not always about the happy story, but also misery such as about World War. As well as the art of photography that also displays the images that are often called “human interest” categories. However, misery, as visual object, is exist in the reality of life and becomes part of our daily life.

1.1 The Aesthetic of Misery Concept From those view, Micchele De Lucchi and Andrea Branzi launched the Aesthetic of misery. The latest work of Michele De Lucchi was Zero Pavilun in Milan World [3]. Andrea Branzi him self was a co-founder of Domus Academy, the first international graduate design school. They responsible for this experimental works of this new approach on aesthetic they call the aesthetic of misery. “Aesthetics of Misery” was born as a result of a experimental workshop by the first year of Masters interior design students at the Politecnico di Milano. The workshop overseen by Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi, during which students were asked to take on the theme of misery, almost always excluded from aesthetics design.[3] The works presented in Milan’s 2015 Salone del Mobile, consists of sixteen ‘social scenario’ maquettes were built based on the concept of “misery that originates from poverty”, under the discerning guidance of curators Andrea Branzi and Michele de Lucchi.[1]

According to Michele De Lucchi, design is not only a practical discipline. It's a discipline that touches all the questions we have on our minds today.[4] De Lucchi explained that the aesthetic of misery is telling about hardship. Hardship tell you something more than simply the lack of something. Because hardship isn’t a lack of something. Hardship is knowing how to respond to your needs, certainly a low one but a very particular one in your existence.[5] For De Lucchi, misery is not a disease but a condition that also belongs to reality. Also he mentioned that misery is not to be meant in a negative sense, it’s more the simplicity of living with less in a world that likes to have more.[5]

The works shows the slums, refugee camps, favelas, abandoned theaters and bombed-out shelters were some of the realistic spaces crafted by the students, filled with minute and powerful details which punctuated the deprivation and poverty of each scale model. A truly compelling subject, a contrast from the beauty and lavishness demanded by today’s design culture. Andrea Branzi argued that these experimental works investigate the concept of deprivation, re-establishing its value as a historical and cultural category or crucial relevance, generative of both misery and nobility. The models convey decadence, uncertainty and decrepitude through an extreme, sometimes brutal and digged from urban social realism. And everything is covered by a merciless veil of dirt: mud, dust and soot.[6]. As a tribute to those who struggle in their lives to be upright as human beings, in their own way, with the aesthetics they feel, they create works for their shelter.

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A session in opening ceremony of Cumulus Conference in Design Museum Milan, June 2015, there was a talk show with Michelle de Lucchi, about what he has created that is the aesthetic of misery. He argued as mention in the introduction, that the misery exist in art such as movie, painting and literature, but in interior design, misery seem something that should be avoided or eliminated. His idea is to bring the art misery into design field. As a reality in life, so it also can be exist in interior design.

Figure 1. Two of 16 macquettes that show the concept of Aesthetic of misery.[5]

2. Method and Material

Observation and comparative study on this paper used to find in interior design field that consists of or can be read as similar or concurent with the aesthetic of misery. First I choose industrial style in interior design, the second is in architecture espessially the works of Frank Gehry.

2.1 Industrial Style A style that is popular in contemporary interior design in present day is industrial style. In short, industrial style is interior design which reffering to old factory or abandoned barn. An old factory that turned into a new interior function such as living room, bedrooms, cafes and so on. And what happen inside the factory is labor who works hard to produce goods to fulfill people needs. The concept of interior design can refer to a various concepts that creates various atmosphere. In industrial style, there we can also find the people who struggle as labor to earn living. It can be seen as part of labor misery as a destiny of human life.

Misery, in modernism design of view, can be defined simply as broken formal forms. In urban sociological perspective, misery born from the inability of the urban social system that makes the social order of the urban more fair. There is an element of omission to let people fight without urban infrastructure support. People without financial ability come to citis and left to survive in their own way. They build shelter or any kind effort to survive.

In industrial style, the obsolote materials or used materials placed in the certain composition and created the interior with memory of old factory. Exposed brick showing the old age wall, the old pipes, the used wires, used old and rough plank, all the old and used materials telling the users about the past. About the labor life and fate. Besides the impression of an old abandoned factory or barn, we also can find or feel the misery of labor inside.

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Figure 2. two samples of industrial looks style. The exposed brickof the wall, the scrap metals

2.2 Deconstructivist Style In Post-modern architecture, there are the works of Frank Gehry, the leading architect of the Deconstructivist style. He created a new approach of post-structuralist aesthetic that challenges accepted design paradigms of architecture while breaking with the modernist ideal of form following function.[7] The designs he made expressed the element of misery that is the ruin looks. When he and Philip Johnson, the prominent architect of Modernism and Post Modernism, come to Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain, Gehry mentioned that “architecture is not only words, but also tears” [8]. Gehry used tear expressed his works that tell the human fate, while De Lucchi use the straight word that is misery. Both refer to fact of human life journey and history human made.

Figure 3. Guggenheim musem Bilbao (pinterest.com)

3. Result

The atmosphere on an interior created mostly by the usage and composition of materials. If painter use colors for composition of a painting, interior designer used materials, including the character and the colors of a room. Our perception inside a room arise by collecting all visual objects in mind. Those created the meaning interpreted by the users called impression. Generally speaking, the aesthetic of misery can also exists in interior design but not in straight meaning. It is there sticks in the material that used in interior. One we can understand from the concept of Aesthetic of misery that is the use of old and used materials and broken form. This broken forms can be interpreted as an evident of the history people life there.

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Painting, movie and literature are media we can enjoy by watching and reading. The media area pictures, film, sound and in literature are words that filmed in our imagination. There are no space experience. Movie presents the story in form of film that is motion picture. All without gave the audience an experience of being there. Although the movie story touched the audience heart, all in the form of impression, memories and sensitivity feeling of audience, all pleasured in two dimension. In other words, we enjoy art in different space with the story told in the movie, literature or painting. The absent of “sense of space” of art is the main difference with interior design.

4. Discussion

From description on two comparative examples above we can find that the aesthetic concepts of misery is exist in interior design although not in straight or intentially made so. The impression of the users in the way they translate the meaning of atmosphere reflected by old or used and obsolute material that can lead to interprete as misery. Scrap metal or rough wood in turn which tells the atmosphere of old factory, also can lead to the condition of suffering in the sense of time. That the material was new and then obsolete over time. The whole visual object, as Gehry mentioned, are tears. The material placed in the interior can be seen as painting, it tell the way it looks. The interpretation as an element of the memory. It’s not hard to present the misery visual object in interior design. If it compare with what has been don in Indonesia, we can look back at least to Yogyakarta where there was an effort by Romo Mangun to revitalisation a slum housing near Code River in Yogyakarta.

5. Conclusion

Interior design is not merely talks about the function of a place but also a matter of atmosphere that could be interpreted with various meaning depends on impression of the users or the guests who come or use to the room. The source of impression of room user is their background including their experience in feeling the interior before, also the amount of their life experience can significantly give an influence to the impression. Say we enter airport terminal and get experience from the main entrance until the gate to the airplane. There we probably found misery of how hard the imigration system works.

What Michelle De Lucchi argued that misery is absent in interior design, is not really true. There are evident that misery exist in interior design in form of usage of material that reffering to an old grim abandoned building, leaving a sorrow or misery as a part of the past. However, aesthetic of misery is a new approach into appreaciation to whom struggle for live. And the character of misery in other form and even in straight persistence reprented by old and used materials, exist in interior design.

References

[1] Barba-Court Kala. Students Explore Poverty and Deprivatioan in ‘Aesthetic of Misery”, 2015 (cited 16 July 2016). Available from https://plainmagazine.com/italian- design-students-explore-poverty-deprivation-aesthetics-misery/

[2] Hirata Andrea. Laskar Pelangi. Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka; 2005.

[3] Lusiardi, Federica. Milan Expo 2015, Paviliun Zero. 2015 (cited 15 july 2016). Available from https://www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/milan-expo-2015-pavilion-zero-michele-de-lucchi/

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[4] Stratford, Oli. Aesthetic of misery. 2015 (cited 15 July 2016)/ Available from https://www.disegnodaily.com/article/aesthetics-of-misery

[5] Engelen John., Aesthetic of Misery @Salone Milan 2015. 2015 (cited 15 july 2016). Available from https://www.dedeceblog.com/2015/05/12/aesthetics-of-misery-salone-milan-2015/;

[6] Azure editor. What are the Aesthetic of misery. 2015 (cited 15 July 2016). Available from http://www.azuremagazine.com/article/what-are-the-aesthetics-of-misery/, retrived 15 July 2016

[7] Biography editor. Frank Gehry. 2016. (cited 15 Agustus 2017) Available from https://www.biography.com/people/frank-gehry-9308278

[8] Tyrnauer, Matt. Architecture of the Age of Gehry. 2010 (cited 15 August 2017). Available form https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/08/architecture-survey- 201008?currentPage=all

[9] Abitare editor. The Aesthetic of Misery. Available from http://www.abitare.it/en/design- en/milan-design-week/2015/04/08/aesthetics-of-misery-2/?refresh_ce-cp,

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