Art and Home Depot

Today my wife, son and I took a trip over to the Denver Arts District and were browsing some of the galleries when we came across something pretty interesting at Nine10Arts.  On the sidewalk outside was a sandwich board that read "Come in and see how easy it is to be Green!" (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the gist).  Essentially they were calling attention to the green architecture of the building itself but in a very compelling way.  Artwork from each of the dozen or so studios located in the building spilled out into the common areas (hallways, stairwells, coffee bar, etc.) and mixed in were installations demonstrating the environmentally-friendly construction techniques and materials. The method of framing, the material used as trim (a substance called wheatboard) and the reclamation of typically unutilized space (a rooftop garden among other things) presented in the same context as the artists' works got me thinking about the changing ideas about form and function in user-centered application design.

The distinction between design and development is being obliterated -- or at least extremely blurred -- both in workflow methodologies (the abandonment of waterfall or silo models for spiral or iterative) and production technologies (Microsoft's Silverlight and Adobe's forthcoming Thermo are perfect examples of technologies that determine the way in which designers and developers will interact.  That they approach this interaction from opposite ends of the spectrum is a topic for a future post).  The bromide, "Form follows function" is less and less accurate as our work with and perception of each cast them as inextricably bound.  The way in which the purely functional elements of this gallery (support structures, building materials, etc.) were worked in with the exhibits demonstrated this very nicely.  At one point I was looking at a cross-section of the ceiling braces that was extending out into the space of an open stairwell and thought it was one of the artists' pieces.  Granted this chopped out section of ceiling was removed from its typical context and it had a placard on the wall next to it that explained its green construction but looked very much like a title placard next to any sculpture you might find in a gallery...but now I'm just trying to defend myself .  "Yes, that wall outlet has a certain je ne sais quoi.  It speaks to the isolation of the human condition.  And have you seen the exhaust fan?!"