Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial: It Makes You Think
This 2019 triennial of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York is ambitious, impressive and, above all, thought-provoking. The overriding question it raises: What is design? This is not your grandparents’ design exhibition of furniture, fabrics, posters, glassware, etc. It seems little concerned with what “design firms” typically do. Much of the design here is the design of research programs and experiments, design not necessarily done for a known market, design at scales from microscopic to regional. Which is not to say people engaged in design won’t learn from visiting it – while enjoying some inspiring sensory experiences. The projects exhibited are from several countries, and few are more than two or three years old – many of them “ongoing”. It is also notable, reading the triennial’s display labels and catalogue, how often the pronoun “she” occurs. Many of the exhibits resemble, until one examines their concise identifying …
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