Beyond the NEW on the Agency of THINGS
Louise Schouwenberg & Hella Jongerius

Aurelie Hoegy’ Dancers collection, Offset Dancers Performance and her project
Border between Normality and Abnormality, MacGuffin lamp are presented.

‘Dancers is part of an exploration into performance of things. Designs enable, designs obstruct, designs frustrate, design please, designs can be moved around, designs adapt to humans. The relationship between an object and the human body is an important ingredient of almost all design. Aurelie Hoegy’s Dancers project was created in close collaboration with professional dancers, resulting in a range of chairs that seem to be intertwined with bodies in a passionate dance.’

Art installations often use functional objects to contextualize or make a statement about human interactions with the world. In such installations one can detect much truth about the agency of things, which can then be used within the design process.‘Beyond the New. On the Agency of Things’ by Louise Schouwenberg and Hella Jongerius is about objects and things and the intriguing relationship between the two. Containing examples from both art and design, it offers investigative insights on a philosophical level about the manifold meanings of design within the various contexts in which designers operate.
Hypothetical conversations with designers from the past, such as for example Walter Gropius, Anni Albers and Johannes Itten, enable analysing original ideals in design, and how things have changed ever since. These fictional conversations also give insights into Jongerius’ personal experience with and thoughts on colour research, the field Johannes Itten was an expert in, and textile research, in which Anni Albers excelled.

Commissioned by Die Neue Sammlung, Design Museum
Production: Walther König