![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
millionreasonsYesterday to the Design Museum for their Cycle Revolution exhibition (a Christmas present from me - David). The first part of the exhibition was about professional races and featured Sir Wiggo's bike, Mark Cavendish's world championship jersey, Eddy Mercx's bike, Chris Hoy's helmet. Fetishised items. I was more interested in the history of the bicycle; there was no penny farthing, but an early safety bicycle, a 1960s Chopper, olde cargo bikes, the first Fixie (a repurposed steel frame cycle) and future bikes: ones with rubber chains, wooden frames, weirdly shaped foldable contraptions.
I watched the video of a day in the life of the Brompton factory in Chiswick, trying to spot Tanya's ex-boyfriend who works there, but it must have been his day off. It struck me how Arthur Seaton, at his lathe, having a good life if he dunt weaken, would not have recognised the Brompton works. Not the actual creation of bicycles, which is probably much the same, but the idea that it's gone from being a working class job which you forgot about in a haze of drinking and promiscuity, to a high status, creative, artisan (middle class) way of making a living.
We went to the top floor which was celebrating design in 2015; the winner had already been chosen, but you could still vote for your fave. Most people had chosen a campaign to clean up the sea: it felt like they were voting with their hearts rather than their aesthetic sense (then again, the votes hadn't been updated since 15th January). My choice was a lamp that dimmed automatically - I am a practical person.
The exhibition also featured Windows phones which, by tapping them against a point, you could use to get further information on an exhibit. Unfortunately, Windows phones are not very well designed and half of the phones weren't working because the docking stations weren't charging them. There was also a very loud child running around shouting; "Momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma", which started to grate. Correct me if I'm ill-informed, but the average four year old is less interested in cutting edge design than, I dunno, ice-cream. We need to find a way to design children out of museums: take them to see the dinosaurs, parents.
(Photos by David, apart from the one of the lamp).
I watched the video of a day in the life of the Brompton factory in Chiswick, trying to spot Tanya's ex-boyfriend who works there, but it must have been his day off. It struck me how Arthur Seaton, at his lathe, having a good life if he dunt weaken, would not have recognised the Brompton works. Not the actual creation of bicycles, which is probably much the same, but the idea that it's gone from being a working class job which you forgot about in a haze of drinking and promiscuity, to a high status, creative, artisan (middle class) way of making a living.
We went to the top floor which was celebrating design in 2015; the winner had already been chosen, but you could still vote for your fave. Most people had chosen a campaign to clean up the sea: it felt like they were voting with their hearts rather than their aesthetic sense (then again, the votes hadn't been updated since 15th January). My choice was a lamp that dimmed automatically - I am a practical person.
The exhibition also featured Windows phones which, by tapping them against a point, you could use to get further information on an exhibit. Unfortunately, Windows phones are not very well designed and half of the phones weren't working because the docking stations weren't charging them. There was also a very loud child running around shouting; "Momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, momma", which started to grate. Correct me if I'm ill-informed, but the average four year old is less interested in cutting edge design than, I dunno, ice-cream. We need to find a way to design children out of museums: take them to see the dinosaurs, parents.
(Photos by David, apart from the one of the lamp).
