Design and the Elastic Mind

I had the opportunity yesterday to visit The Museum of Modern Art. It made me realize the tremendous value museums provide as a way of making sense of the world. Walking between exhibits, moving image artifacts, a touch of history (dueling media of typewriter and 35 mm film), Picasso, van Gogh, and others. The tour of ideas, concepts, and emotions communicated through art culminated in the sixth floor exhibit: Design and the Elastic Mind. The exploration of how technology impacts who we are as human beings was eye opening. As stated in the exhibit: “Designers give life and voice to objects, and along the way they manifest our visions and aspirations for the future, even those we do not yet know we have.” I encountered some familiar tools like data visualizations and Twittervision…and some provocative (frightening?) consideration of our ability to engineer ourselves at a genetic level.