Paola Antonelli is on a mission to introduce -- and explain -- design to the world. With her shows at New York's Museum of Modern Art, she celebrates design's presence in every part of life.
Why you should listen to her:
Since she stepped back from practicing architecture in order to focus on writing about design, teaching and curating gallery exhibitions, Italian native Paola Antonelli has become a force to be reckoned with in the design world. Working at the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1994, she now heads up the gallery's Architecture and Design department and has worked on shows such as "Humble Masterpieces," which celebrated traditionally unheralded design icons such as the paperclip; "Safe," considering issues of protection, and "Workspheres," a look at contemporary workplace design.
Ever mindful that the majority of visitors to MOMA are attracted by artists such as Picasso and Matisse, Antonelli works to ensure that if they do stumble across a design-related show, they'll be both entertained and enlightened. Her latest book is Exit to Tomorrow: World's Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005.
"Paola Antonelli’s goal is to insistently promote design’s understanding, until its positive influence on the world is fully acknowledged."World Technology Network
Quotes by Paola Antonelli
-
“As we become more and more wireless and impalpable, designers, instead, want us to be hands-on.”
-
“Designers need to be mavericks, because the best way to design a successful object is to pretend that either it never existed or that people will be able to have a new behavior with it.”
-
“Heaven is satisfied curiosity.”
-
“Small objects, like the Walkman first and then the iPod, create bubbles of space around us that enable us to have a metaphysical space that is much bigger than our physical space.”
-
“The idea of being able to build things bottom up, atom by atom, has made [scientists] all into tinkerers. And all of a sudden scientists are seeking designers, just like designers are seeking scientists.”
