Word: utilitarianism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Besides decorating utilitarian objects of all kinds with the characteristic Maori spiral, the master sculptors devoted themselves to carving monumental male figures that represented their ancestors. These wooden sculptures, often colored in red ocher, topped the gables and lintels of Maori houses. Others served as posts in palisades or as rods holding up the ridge-poles of roofs. The most impressive figures straddled the narrow gateways leading to storage houses or fortified villages...
...people, for example, admit guardedly that there has been a sales plunge in their basic jeans model. But as much money as they pulled down for a few seasons, designer jeans were always a joke, just a fussy vamp-usually snug around the butt and thighs-on a basic, utilitarian garment. The only different thing was the logo...
...pump or trucks do directly. The argument may sound good, but it doesn't hold water No bicycle ever eroded a road shoulder or made a pothole like an overweighted truck. Bicycling is a cheap clean alternative to driving and should be encouraged if for none other than utilitarian reasons. When possible, cities should build bike paths like those along the Charles River. But in cramped cities where the roads cannot be widened to accommodate the bicyclists, the drivers and unfortunately the police must make a stronger commitment to keep the roads sane...
...Sottsass, 66, such contradictions are nothing new. Following his Turin university days, the Austrian-born designer witnessed the transition of Italian architecture from fascist monument to utilitarian modern. He became an acclaimed leader of the spare and sensuous new style in the 1960s, creating innovative and clean-lined office furniture and machinery for Olivetti, a task he still performs. But influenced by the Pop painting of Roy Lichtenstein, rock music and Indian mysticism, he surprised colleagues with Olivetti's plastic Valentine portable typewriter. He later did a table and stools called Mickey Mouse, and designed a disco outside Beirut...
White's own attitude may be glimpsed in an editorial he wrote on a Cornell dean's defense of education. The dean had completely rejected an utilitarian understanding of education. White wrote, "It takes a genius to ignore the material side of education and still leave his mark. And universities aim to develop men and not geniuses. "It is characteristic of White that he wished to be thought of as a man and not as a genius...