Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design | Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, 2002

May 7th – September 15th, 2002

A featured exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design explored the inspiration for a myriad of designers – skin. The dermis of our own bodies, the exhibition hosted a collection of 128 objects, photographs, and videos that explore the translation of biological skin into parameters for design applications of depth, complexity, and perforation. “Skin is a real-time interactive installation that visualizes a dialogue between physical and digital senses of touch,” Skin.The exhibition focused on five subcategories of skin to redefine our understanding of surfaces:

Padding + Protection
Artificial Light + Artificial Life
Beauty, Horror, + Biotechnology
Intelligence + Touch
Vessels + Membranes

The installation was divided according to these themes, covering medicine, art, architecture, entertainment, recreation, clothing, and fashion, domestic life, and war. Many critics claim objects are only representations of a collection of works and could be interchangeable among the selected categories. However, these installations still remind us that designers are getting closer to the biological model of the human form.

Featured Designers and Architects
• Carla Murray & Peter Allen: TechnoLust - core 77 design competition 2000
• Chris Slutter:
• Greg Lynn Form: Skin, Fold, Blob Architecture, Embryonic House (fluid architecture)
• Jurgen Bay: Kokon/Covered series
• Marcel Wanders: Sneeze, Egg, Sponge Vase
• Matthieu Manche - Fresh series of garments

In 2006, a follow-up exhibition focused on projects since the 2002 showing. The sequel installation, Second Skin, looks at surface technology that further expands our skin applications. “Reflecting the convergence of natural and artificial life, the exhibition will show how enhanced and simulated skins appear throughout the contemporary environment. Designers today continually manipulate the relationship between the inside and outside of objects, garments, and buildings, creating skins that both reveal and conceal, skins that have depth, complexity, and their own behaviors and identities,” Skin




Soundwave Swell Diffuser, 1999-2000. (Teppo Asikainen)



Liquid_Light: Drip_1, 1999. (Constantin Wortmann and Benjamin Hopf)



Second-Generation Face Robot, 2000. (Peter Menzel/Robo Sapiens, photographer)



Recyclable, Portable Skyscraper, 2001. (Todd Dalland, Geza Gergo, Isamu Kanda, and Tamer Onay)



II Sarto Immortale (The Immortal Tailor) 1995-97. (Alba D’Urbana)


External References

Lupton, Ellen. “Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design” Princton Architectural Press, New York (2002)

Smith, Roberta. “Design Review: A Wrap That’s Almost Human.” New York Times. (May 17, 2002).

SKIN A look inside the book

SKIN The Website

Space Informed by Parametric Constraints

Confined to a 650 square foot gallery space in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the exhibition will feature designers and fabricators featured from the MMFX (Manufacturing Material Effects) International Symposium.

Lena, Joe, and I worked on the parameters for creating a programming process to place potential projects. Derived from Voronoi Cells and NURBs geometry, the formula imitates the biometrics of cellular formation to create space and corresponding voids in a larger space.

Positive space is created through exhibition display requirements that push and pull on the voids created through human constrains, circulation, and lighting parameters.

One issue we encounter were the constraints for constructing a hierarchical order of projects:
- Prestige
- First Come
- Cost and Installation Time

Our parameters for the gallery space are based on the principal of "packing"
"("packing " is a powerful organizational method in which an element's position in regard to its neighbors is determined by certain rules - not too close, no overlaping, etc... "packing" encourages a sense of democracy where one element's inclusion implies either an understanding of every other element or possibly a readjustment of the entire population. whether it is studied as self-organized structuring as cells or as a behavioral trope in crowds, "packing" can be observed as a collective and emergent sense of space - close, but not too close.)"

-Tooling

Sample of one object affecting space

Designer Case Studies

M-City ConePLEX Installation (ReD Architects)

Recipe for M-City

Define exhibit space – map entrances and observe circulation – record circulation patterns and identify nodes and communication stops – drop circle from ceiling parallel to ground surface at nodes – offset circle to specific diameter and drop the circle to an additional level – repeat last step and tilt circle in direction of node – drape fabric around structure to create new display areas.

Aegis Hyposurface (Mark Goulthorpe)

Recipe for Aegis

Derive surface from set of personal constraints – Formulate horizontal and vertical frame from structural mount - prescribe script to facet surface into smallest triangular pixels – mount pneumatic electronics to respond to external stimuli – prescribe stimuli for interaction.