Different Roads : Automobiles for the Next Century : the Museum of Modern Art, New York, July 22-September 21, 1999 [Christopher Mount]

Different roads : automobiles for the next century : the Museum of Modern Art, New York, July 22-September 21, 1999 [Christopher Mount] Date 1999 Publisher The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/194 The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists. MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art Different Roads Automobilesfor the Next Century The Museum of Modern Art, New York July 22-September 21, 1999 Archj ve Introduction 0 h MA USEUM OF IKS' LIBRARY When the automobile was first con the 21st Century, says "The machine the rethinking that is beginning to take ceived in the late nineteenth century it itself may need a . holistic renewal, a place in automotive design. This is not was imagined as a leisure vehicle for wholesale overhaul in order to remain to suggest that these are the only sorts the affluent. Unthinkable to these early the central component of our modern of cars, nor that they are appropriate inventors would have been the mass society's transportation system." The or everyone or every situation. Instead, proliferation of the automobile and its radical new developments being intro these cars represent an important and immense influence on modern society duced by many of the major automo growing aspect of the market that and its economy. The role of the pri tive manufacturers support this claim. caters to a consumer who is more atten vate car began to change in the 1920s These innovations are fundamental, tive to thrift, and thus more attracted with Henry Ford's lucrative concept of from revolutionary types of power to the improved economy of these cars. the inexpensive auto for the "multi plants to new materials, innovative Unquestionably, many of the innova tudes," the Model T. Since then, in structures, and even new classes of tions first tested in the low-end market industrialized nations, the auto has autos. Interestingly, a significant por will filter up into the production of other increasingly become a fundamental tion of this change is occurring at the sorts of cars, as well as trucks and even part of everyday life, a thing more util entry-level market. The intention of public transportation. itarian and borne out of necessity than this exhibition is to survey this current for leisure. In recent years the use of generation of automobiles and outline The auto industry has been showing the automobile has grown most expo different paths to the future. These are fantastical prototypes of futuristic cars nentially in developing nations, where cars intended for the average person since the fifties, but in reality the auto the private car is also quickly becoming and will satisfy the predicted need for mobile has actually changed very little a primary form of transportation and simple, affordable transportation in since then. Science fiction prepared us an integral aspect of their economies. the near future. In short, these auto for flying-saucerlike cars in the next mobiles are ultimately more intelligent, millennium; however, as we approach Many have predicted that the automo efficient, user-friendly, and better the year 2000, these new vehicles are bile is ripe for a reinvention and that in suited to the tasks for which they wilt far more sober than we might have the early part of the twenty-first cen be most frequently used. expected. The private car of the next tury we will see changes both in the century will have to confront real glob kinds of cars we use and how we use By focusing on the small, efficient, and al issues, such as overcrowding, pollu them. Automotive engineer Robert affordable private car, this exhibition tion, and finite reserves of fuel with an Riley, in his book Alternative Cars in illustrates the scope and direction of uneven worldwide distribution, that some believe have already reached a next century. Further, we face the fact Traditionally the small car has never crisis point. Internationally we face a that the petroleum reserves may at been popular in the United States, with drastic intensification of all of these some point dry up. However, because perhaps the short exception of the peri issues if the proliferation of the auto in of the basic lack of knowledge about od soon after the oil embargo of the developing nations takes place as possible reserves and our ability to mid-seventies. This is primarily because predicted in the early part of the next recover them, this remains a most con gasoline prices have remained extreme century. The most dramatic forecasts troversial subject. Despite this debate, ly low in America, even recently selling suggest that in 2010 India will have the political turmoil and instability cre for less than the price of bottled water thirty-six times more cars then it does ated by an uneven distribution of oil in some areas. Compared with most now and China may have as many as reserves recommend that conserva other industrialized nations, where ninety-one times its present rate. tion is a worthwhile endeavor. gasoline sells from $4 to $6 a gallon, These kinds of increases could wreak there is very little incentive for austerity havoc on the earth's ecosystem. Conservation and sacrifice, however, in the U.S. Not surprisingly, petroleum don't sell cars on their own. Automo imports have actually risen to 10 million Globally, overcrowding already exists biles that appear hair shirt or under barrels a day, nearly double the level in many urban areas-conspicuous in powered like the previous generation twenty years ago. At the same time, the the "go slows" of Lagos, midtown traf of econoboxes don't inspire the kind of average fuel efficiency for all automo fic in New York City, or the rush-hour yearnings that prompt consumers to biles in the U.S. has also decreased in crunch in Los Angeles. Cities like Sao buy, particularly in good economic recent years. Paulo, Caracas, and Bogota have times. The auto industry has respond- already begun to regulate what day of ed-in the U.S.,but particularly in Asian But all this may be about to change, as the week a given car can be driven. In and European markets-by manufac it runs contradictory to cultural and some instances the large number of turing an entry-level segment of cars societal realities that may encourage cars literally on the road puts intolera that is more appealing, better looking, the use of smaller cars. It is inconceiv ble strain on the infrastructure of and safer than in the past. Instead of able that gasoline prices will remain as urban centers that were planned too promoting their economy, the automo low as they are forever. Overcrowding long ago to assimilate the growing tive manufacturers have stressed in many American cities is a serious numbers. A direct consequence of this these cars' quality, comfort, and power problem, and the American family is congestion is, of course, pollution and to meet any highway situation. Manu statistically getting smaller. In the last smog, which have already reached facturers have also realized that good few decades it has become common for critical points in places like Los design doesn't necessarily cost more, both adult members of the household Angeles, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. and these cars are a testament to this. to work, a fact that has transformed Automotive emissions also significant Frequently these vehicles are marketed the dynamic of commuting to work and ly contribute to the greenhouse effect to younger consumers who may be automotive use. Recent statistics show that many say is stimulating global naturally more adventuresome and will that on average most automobiles warming and will lead to catastrophic accept new technologies and types of worldwide have only a 1.6 to 1.8 aver environmental circumstances in the styling more readily. age passenger-occupancy rate. And because the distance of that com SUVs. Other regulatory attempts mute is becoming longer, often from include the founding of the Partnership one suburb to another, the ordinary for a New Generation of Vehicles car is using more gasoline on a daily (PNGV) in 1993, an automotive think basis. These facts suggest that there tank supported by the three major should be a market in the U.S., as American manufacturers: Ford,General there already is in Europe, for second Motors, and DaimlerChrysler. cars used primarily for travel to and from work (for example, Daimler- Although governmental legislation Chrysler's Smart Car). has been essential to encouraging research and development, another New developments in automotive perhaps more explicit evolution has design have also come from outside come from within the automotive the ordinary consumer-industry rela industry. The growing globalization of tionship. Governments have begun to manufacturing has resulted in larger encourage better technologies and worldwide markets. And with the more efficient cars through legisla recent merger frenzy, specialized car Interior view of the tion. Western European nations and markets are declining. Instead, the pri Fiat Multipla Asian countries have long imposed var vate car is becoming more universal, ious types of restrictions that include and the money savings afforded by imposing higher taxes on gasoline than the use of shared platforms encour in the United States, charging pur age the manufactures to market the chase and income taxes proportional same types of autos internationally. to the size of the automobile, and Consumers in Asia and Europe have even requiring proof of a parking already embraced smaller, more prac space before allowing the purchase of tical vehicles, which in turn motivates a car, as in Tokyo.

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