A Critique of: The New Cooper

CRITIQUE Hewitt Experience Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City

Patrick Snee

A critique is a writer’s It’s hard to explain the Cooper Hewitt without talking about the mansion. professional and The Smithsonian Design Museum, as it is also known, takes up residence in personal assessment of the former home of Andrew Carnegie, facing Central Park on Manhattan’s an exhibition, formed Fifth Avenue. I first visited as a teenager in the early 1980s, and while the without consulting its exhibition details escape me, I maintain a distinct memory of the dark-wood creators, and shaped by moulding and elaborate glass-walled conservatory. his or her expertise and Decades and dozens of visits later, I became more aware of the limitations experience. Its audience of the space. While exhibiting contemporary design in a century-old is the profession. residence can produce moments of serendipity, the Cooper Hewitt always Each issue of the journal lacked for floor space, and the weight of its environment could sometimes features one to three overwhelm the ideas and objects on display. The museum recently underwent critiques of a current or a multi-year renovation, not only to restore and expand the space, but to recent exhibition. reimagine ways to tell the story of design using its collection, its history, and

new technology (fig. 1). SNEE PATRICK BY PHOTOS ALL

88 Spring 2016 fig. 1. The newly- renovated Cooper Hewitt juxtaposes old and new.

fig. 2. The third-floor gallery’s open layout.

89 fig. 3.The former Carnegie family library.

The Galleries the museum tremendous flexibility; the organized by theme: line, form, texture, large-scale models and prototypes in the pattern, and color (fig. 4). But crammed Entering the museum through its imposing Heatherwick exhibition simply would not into a single room, it feels more front door flanked by bold, modern have fit into any of the pre-renovation spaces. obligatory than important, which is a graphics, it’s apparent that things have Walking down to the second floor, shame, because it’s the only one of these been polished up. The entry hall has been the same footprint of space is now split permanent exhibitions that hints at the reconfigured with digital signage and a into six distinct permanent exhibition process and meaning of design. sleek new admissions desk (designed galleries, roughly defined by the by Diller Scofidio + Renfro). In addition mansion’s original floorplan and its The “New Experience” to selling tickets, the admissions staff elaborate woodwork. It’s exciting to must distribute and explain the “Pen,” a see the restored Carnegie family library The Cooper Hewitt has introduced an new tool for digital interpretation (more (fig. 3) and the juxtapositions of old and ambitious digital strategy to expand the on this later). On my most recent visit, new, but the overall effect of the space presence of its collection throughout the the team seemed to have mastered the is cramped and confusing. Wayfinding museum and beyond. Central to this is a logistics of the Pen. The downside: a large is minimal, perhaps in deference to the series of digital interactive tables placed rolling cart of pens seems permanently integrity of the historic space; I didn’t throughout the museum (fig. ),5 which parked behind the desk, and the membership realize I was in the Recent Acquisitions present visitors with a variety of design- staff was relocated to an inexpensive gallery until I was on my way out. centric activities. These integrate with folding table in the middle of the hall. One of the strongest of the second the museum’s digitized collection The process works well, but it’s a floor galleries, Making Design, presents (representing 92 percent of its hiccup in what is otherwise a beautifully groupings from the permanent collection holdings), which has been immaculately designed entry experience. photographed and annotated. The staff recommends that visitors To top it all off, there’s “The Pen.” start at the top of the museum and work The Cooper Hewitt has This is a custom, handheld interactive their way down. The third floor, previously device assigned to each visitor. On inaccessible to the public, is now a huge, introduced an ambitious the interactive tables it functions as a open space that allows the bulk of the digital strategy to expand stylus, and throughout the galleries, it museum’s footprint to support a single allows visitors to “save” any object they temporary exhibition; when I visited, the presence of its collection see to an online account using NFC it was Provocations: The Architecture and throughout the museum technology (which enables digital devices Design of Heatherwick Studio (fig. 2). to communicate when placed in close Stripped of period detail, some may and beyond. proximity). On my most recent visit, staff decry the gallery as generic, but it gives at the large interactive tabletop near the

90 Spring 2016 fig. 4.The Making Design gallery.

entrance provided guidance and technical I stumbled upon the work of Lois Ehlert, and literally) to an aesthetic gesture. support. Visitors got the hang of the Pen a Caldecott Medal-winning children’s This experience could be all the more pretty quickly—especially children, who book illustrator with whom I was compelling with some simple design didn’t hesitate to experiment with the unfamiliar, when a sliver of a colorful constraints, or with computer-aided devices—though some found it easier to image caught my eye. simulation to show how well the visitor’s simply use their fingers. Later, when visiting the museum’s creation would work in real-world The tables are easy to use and navigate, website to retrieve my saved images, I conditions. Then again, that may be too and people seemed to truly enjoy the learned that the entire digital collection deep an experience for a multi-function process of discovering content. A is searchable online, with robust cross- digital interactive, or even for a single stream of images from the collection referencing and annotation. While part museum visit. floats across the tabletop, incorporating of me wishes I had access to all this objects from adjacent galleries whenever information during my visit, I appreciate possible. Visitors can “grab” an image the strategy of keeping museum guests and drag it to a virtual workstation at the focused on the collection objects rather edge of the screen. Here they can read than their phones. more about the object, zoom in to view One of the most popular tabletop detail, and explore related objects. The activities invites visitors to try their beautifully designed interface presents hand at designing an object (fig. ).6 After “tags” for each object (e.g. “colorful,” selecting the object type (building, hat, “pattern,” “textile,” “1950s”); visitors can lamp, etc.), the visitor draws on a grid tap each tag to bring up more objects that with the Pen or a finger; as they draw, share the attribute. their lines are transformed into a 3D On my first visit, I found this rendering in a separate view. There was frustrating—I wanted more. The Cooper an immediacy to the activity that kept Hewitt had put a massive effort into visitors engaged, and I watched some digitizing its collection, and I couldn’t do visitors spend several minutes refining a proper search or even cross-reference their creations. multiple tags, to browse, for example, As a designer, however, the experience textiles from the 1950s. Then, I lightened disappointed me. Designing any up, and found that the simplicity of the object involves questions of function, system was leading me to discover objects engineering, and craftsmanship, none I would never have found otherwise. On of which are represented here. Instead, my last visit, completely by happenstance, the process is reduced (figuratively fig. 5. A digital interactive table.

Spring 2016 91 fig. 6. A visitor creates a design using the Pen.

Along these lines, the Process Lab And it’s a reasonable question. the exhibition includes a display case gallery (recently displaced to make way Can a design object just be beautiful, filled with prototypes of the Pen for a temporary Pixar exhibition) without any functionality or message (fig. ).7 It’s a rare instance where the incorporated some successful hands-on to communicate? The Cooper Hewitt’s design process of a collection object is design activities. It tasked visitors to create collection would say “YES!” At its core, demystified. Before the sleek, state-of- their own lamps using binder clips and it is decorative art, built around the the-art pen in our hands became real, an assortment of materials, and let them Hewitt sisters’ century-old collection there were a series of clunky, awkward, see how their choices affected not only of drawings, wallcoverings, and textiles, impractical attempts. I wanted to the lamp’s appearance but its dispersal presented in a mansion that was as much learn more. of light. It was a few tools away from a luxury object as a functional home. With its new environment and “New becoming the kind of maker space we Maybe the museum wants to maintain Experience,” the Cooper Hewitt has increasingly see in science centers. Which some of the mystique around design the collection, the space, and the digital raises an interesting question about how as an artistic, expressive endeavor. But platforms to talk about design in a the Cooper Hewitt defines design… conversations about contemporary design multitude of ways—as art, industry, inevitably involve research, context, engineering, and aesthetics. I look Is It Just Art? sustainability, and purpose. forward to watching it leverage its A small gallery in the basement devoted powerful history to spark interest and On a recent visit, I overheard a couple to the museum’s renovation addresses inquiry in the future of design. discussing an elaborate wall hanging by these questions directly, pointing Czech textile designer Luba Krejci. out the core challenges (technology, Patrick Snee is Principal and Creative One was trying to explain that the object communication, preservation, etc.) faced Director, Blue Telescope Studios, was produced through detailed lacework. by each of the architects and designers New York City. Her companion seemed stuck. “Is it just who contributed to the museum’s [email protected] art?” he asked. reimagining. Primarily graphic panels,

fig. 7. A display of Pen prototypes.

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