Assignment
Please TYPE your answers to these questions (usesmaller font similar in size to what you are reading, which is 9 point Helvetica),to hand in on Wednesday in Discussion Section. A few of the questions ask for your opinion or deeper thought, but none should require more than a short paragraph; most need a phrase or short sentence.
The point is to not only be sure you do the reading, but to engage you with the reading's version of key ideas and information we are discussing in lecture, namely, developments in aesthetics, ideas/attitudes, and technology, and their impact on designduring the rise of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the Americas.
1. At the beginning of the reading (Textbook Chapter 17), the author cites three developments in European society at the middle of the eighteenth century that impacted the consumption of design products.
a) What are these threechanges in the circumstances of these societies;and,
b) what do you think is the larger significance of this development that leads the author to introduce the entire chapter with this specific information?
2.
a) What very specific reason - besides the prominence of archeological explorations and publications - does the author give (early in the chapter) for many designers turning to Neoclassicism?
b) Why/how do you think (Neo)classicism might provide this for designers or consumers?
3.
a) By the early nineteenth century (1800 or so), what societal attitudes or tastes are combining in design; and,
b) What is the style term (used in class) the author uses to describe the result(a stylistic approach strongly established by this time)?
4.
a) What are the 2 specific technological innovations influencing design the author calls "transformative inventions"?
b) What is the geographical or nation-related shift of importance that goes with these innovations?
5. In the section on France, a date is given for the beginning of Neoclassicism;
a)what is that date, and,
b) does the start of Neoclassicism mean the end of the Rococo?
6. The chapter addresses the Bedroom for Josephine(Fig. 17.6) as an example of a certain style, a style mainly "heroic" and imperial, but which supposedly can express "peaceful associations".
a) What is this style, and
b) what do youthink is, or is not, "peaceful" about this room? Be specific in citing features and characteristics.
7. a) What are two key natural resources that are cited as part of why Britain led the way in industrialization?
b) How did these two assets support industrial production?
8. Also in the "Britain" section, we see that the artist William Hogarth finds the essence of beauty in a specific formal (or morphological) trait.
a) What does "serpentine" mean?
b) What trait of design form that we discussed in class is he referring to?
c) What style is partly based on this trait of beauty?
9. a) By what date did the wealthy of Central Europe accept Neoclassicism?
b) What general reason - besides a response to changing fashions elsewhere in Europe - is given for turning to this style in Central Europe?
10. At the end of the Central Europe section, the author says "iron came to represent patriotism":
a) Why do you think this material would be connected to this attitude or feeling; and,
b) what is the best evidence you can find in the reading to support your answer?
11.a) What is the difference between the Beidermeierand Empire styles? What are the links?
b) Could the Beidermeier be considered in any way related to or pointing the way toward Modernism? [There must be; otherwise, what would be the point of asking us this question, right?]
12. At the end of the chapter, the use of the Klismos chair form is discussed. The author connects this chair form to a style that "in Scandinavia, as in Napoleonic France, ... had become more than a style."
a) What is this style, (it's an alternate name for the style, really), and
b) what did it represent that made it more than a style?