Thursday, June 6, 2013

SwissNex, Northeastern Media, Arts, Design Expression

SwissNex Boston with Northeastern University's Department of Media, Arts and Design presented Swiss Style Reboot, a media arts communication project installation. The exhibition will be on display from June 1 to July 17, 2013. It was curated by SwissInfographics, "a platform dedicated to exploring new visual representations of information."


http://www.northeastern.edu/camd/artdesign/events/swiss-style-reboot/



A symposium will be held on
Thursday June 20, 2013
11AM-5PM, 6PM-9PM
Gallery 360 and West Village F Room 20
Northeastern University
northeastern.edu/camd/artdesign  



The opening reception was held on June 4, 2013 at the Gallery 360 in the Curry Student Center at Northeastern. Some of the displays exhibited information set in graphs on printed signs. Others were on computer displays. Bound books were available for inspection. One printed graph showed the top ten causes of death with age range specifics. One computer display was limited to the number of drone attacks, with screens showing the number deaths and how many Americans were killed.



Items on display included, poster art developed by Otto Baumgartner in 1923 to Carlo Vivarelli in 1940. Also posters from Ernst Kelelr, 1926 and 1931; Alfred Williman 1932; Pierre Gauchat 1935; Jan Tschichold 1938. Modern posters includes some designed by John Grimwade, 1996, The Transatlantic Superhighway; Nigel Holmes 2004, Top Ten Causes of Death in the US, by Age; Francesco Franchi 2008,  "piu veloce dell'aereo" (faster aircraft); and Nigel Holmes 2008, "It's The Economy Stupid."



Swiss Railways Station Clock, designed by Swiss electrical engineer and industrial designer, Hans Hilfiker in 1944. "The red second hand was was added a few years later. It quickly became a reference for train station clocks around the world and was copied by Apple in 2012. The red second hand takes its form from the disc waved by the dispatcher to signal a train's departure. It is not only aesthetic but also has a function; it shows the precision guaranteed by the clock - a mark of honesty. There is a trick: the second hand rotates a little faster than normal so that it can stop at 0 seconds and wait for an external signal before starting again. This impulse is used to coordinate all the clocks in the train station. The brief break also gives a better chance of leaving "exactly" on time."



Other forms of information design and data visualization includes Max Bill, 1947, for the Allianz (Association of Modern Swiss Artists); Max Huber 1948, "Gran Premio dell'Autodromo" (Autodrome Grand Prix); Ernst Keller, 1950s, "pictograph for the seed shop Emil Mauser at Rathausbrucke in Zurich;" Warja Honeggar-Lavater, Swissair's 1952 annual report; Josef Muller-Brockman 1953, "road safety poster 'Mind that Child' designed for the Swiss Automobile Club;" Emil Ruder, 1954 Exhibition of "die gute Form" (Good Design) in Zurich; Carlo Vivarelli, 1955, booklet cover for Feller electrical equipment switch, "which became an icon of Swiss industrial design."



Modern expression includes Francesco Franchi 2009, a column published in Milan-based magazine IL-Intelligence in Lifestyle. "The goal was to produce maps that allow the relationships among the elements of a literary narrative to be visualized, and specifically to make complex relationships more understandable." Mollie Bates and Elaine Bradley, 2010, World of Rivers Map published by National Geographic. Kai Krause 2010, "The True Size of Africa," published online.



Also on display was Kurt Wirth's 1956 Swissair advertising brochure.Willi Eidenbenz's 1958 product poster (beer). Karl Gerstner's 1958 Geigy Heute (Geigy Today), "a 320-page book produced for the 200th anniversary of the pharmaceutical company Geigy, now Novartis. It represents one of the first extensive uses of Swiss graphic design to guide a reader through a huge mass of information."



Max Schmid's 1959 poster of Novartis's package design for medicines. Fridolin Muller, 1960s advertising card for dermatological medicine uses an effect to represent itching. Gerstner, Gredinger and Kutter brochure, 1960s,  designed for Holzapfel furniture, and a unique photographic technique of using different perspectives of the furniture pieces.



Included is the poster by Martin Krzywinski, 2010, The Deadly Genome, for the National Science Foundation Visualization in Canada.  Two infographics published in the Brazilian scientific magazine Superinteressante. One in 2010 shows how plastic surgery is accomplished. The other in 2011 "explains the surgical procedure for sex change using photographs of fruit."  A LargeNetwork 2011 production of a poster for best results in Track and Field competitions, published in the Swiss science magazine, Reflex.



Catalogtree is a poster showing 3 million donations to the campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney between April 4, 2011 and September 9, 2012. Alessandro Giberti's 2012 infographic shows the U.S. military presence in Africa. Two Largenetwork infographics from 2012 show "the design history of chairs," and "causes of Swiss deaths."



Siegfried Odermatt, 1960-1961, ads for insurance company "combines a word and an image to evoke hazards." Keith Potts 1962-1963, chart for identification of medicine tablets for UK branch of Geigy. Roland Aeschlimann's, 1963, ads for rheumatism drugs "was suited for countries of very different cultures." Armin Hofman's 1963 "poster suggests the Swiss legend of William Tell sending an arrow through an apple placed on his son's head." 



Rene Martinaeel's three brochures: two, 1963 and 1965, "for washroom-hygiene company" products; one 1964 brochure for electrical products displayed on the cover. Peter Megert's 1965 poster for "Light and Movement"  uses typography creating a feeling of movement by "shifting the text horizontally."



Markus Low's 1967 displayed the serious image of Swiss Railways signage system for a U.S. agrochemical company. Carol Moore's 1971, elegant and simple diagram, exhibiting its own beauty. Mervyn Kurlansky/Pentagram, 1972, is from a book about the psychiatric drug Nobrium. Massimo Vignelli's 1972 map of the New York City subway system.



Jean Widner, 1972-2002, conceived "pictograms for France's official signage system." Josef Muller-Brockmann's 1981 "ultra-functional signage of the Swiss Federal Railways." An infographic published in Brazil's Superinteressante magazine, showing "the illegal commerce of animals and plants in the Amazon." Cybu Richli and Fabienne Buri (C2F) map of the world for Wired Magazine.



Nicholas Felton "designed Facebook's Timeline." He documents everything he does from sleeping to taking photographs. LargeNetwork's infographic showing how energy companies search for new wells of fuel minerals.



These images were captured at the opening reception.


Mervyn Kurlansky/Pentagram, 1972, is from a book about the psychiatric drug Nobrium.


Josef Muller-Brockman 1953, "road safety poster 'Mind that Child' designed for the Swiss Automobile Club


Alessandro Giberti's 2012 infographic shows the U.S. military presence in Africa.


Cybu Richli and Fabienne Buri (C2F) map of the world (in red) for Wired Magazine.


Roland Aeschlimann's, 1963, ads (red hand to right of woman) for rheumatism drugs "was suited for countries of very different cultures."


Also on display was Kurt Wirth's 1956 Swissair advertising brochure.


John Grimwade, 1996, The Transatlantic Superhighway;


Peter Megert's 1965 poster for "Light and Movement"  uses typography creating a feeling of movement by "shifting the text horizontally."


Pierre Gauchat, 1935, Traffic Distribution Creates Order


Ernest Keller, 1931 created for exhibitions of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius


Armin Hofman's 1963 "poster suggests the Swiss legend of William Tell sending an arrow through an apple placed on his son's head." 


Nigel Holmes 2008, (bottom) "It's The Economy Stupid."
A LargeNetwork 2011 production of a poster (top right) for best results in Track and Field competitions, published in the Swiss science magazine, Reflex. 


Nicholas Feltron's programming creation


Dr. Xavier Costa (right), Dean, Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design Speaks to gallery
Zeina Aoun, (left)
Nathan Felde (center), Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department, Northeastern University 



Dr. Xavier Costa (left), Dean, Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design
Joseph E. Aoun (right), Northeastern University President


Swiss Consul Dr. Felix Moesner (left), Director SwissNex Boston 
Stephen Director (right), Provost, Northeastern University;
Bruce Ployer (in the middle behind them), Northeastern University Campus Curator


Swiss Consul Dr. Felix Moesner (left partially obscured), Director SwissNex Boston; 
Stephen Director (right), Provost, Northeastern University;
Bruce Ployer (in the middle behind them), Northeastern University Campus Curator


Benjamin Bollman (left), Curator
Zeina Aoun, (second from left)
Nathan Felde (second from right), Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department
Dr. Xavier Costa (right with microphone), Dean, Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design


Paparazzi


Benjamin Bollman (left), Curator
Zeina Aoun, (center partially obscured)
Nathan Felde (right), Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department


Joseph E. Aoun (right), Northeastern University President Speaks to Gallery
Dr. Xavier Costa (left), Dean, Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design


Benjamin Bollman (left), Curator
Zeina Aoun (center)
Dr. Xavier Costa (right), Dean, Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design


Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern University President Speaks to Gallery;
Swiss Consul Dr. Felix Moesner, Director SwissNex Boston (right) 


Joseph E. Aoun (left), Northeastern University President Speaks to Gallery
Swiss Consul Dr. Felix Moesner (center), Director SwissNex Boston 
Nathan Felde (right), Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department


Stephen Director, Provost, Northeastern University, (right with arms folded);
Nathan Felde, Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department (left)


Benjamin Bollman (with microphone), Curator
Joseph E. Aoun (right), Northeastern University President


Dr. Felix Moesner (left), Swiss Consul, Director, SwissNex Boston;
Nathan Felde (right), Chair, Arts, Media and Design Department, Northeastern University 
Bruce Ployer (in the middle behind them), Northeastern University Campus Curator 


Andreas Rufer (right, holding microphone), Deputy Swiss Consul, Project Leader, Art and Culture
Benjamin Bollman (left), Curator


Swiss Railways Station Clock, designed by Swiss electrical engineer and industrial designer, Hans Hilfiker in 1944


Swiss Railways Station Clock. 


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