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dcwilson
(@dcwilson)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 2358
06/08/2007 12:24 am  

I am interested in the evolution of morphology of all things--not just in design. I suppose it roots back to all those morphing images of humans evolving into our present forms. Here is a series of photos exemplifying a morph sequence of a familiar arm chair type. Those with a slim band connection, be patient there are

1935 Henningsen

1951 Wegner

1951 Featherston

1952 Albini

The most interesting one to me is the jump from Henningsen in 1935 to Wegner in 1951, because they represent different generations of the same design culture. In short, Wegner was likely aware of the Henningsen chair when he sat down to do his chair. These two in particular allow us to observe how the designer's mind breaks through to forms incrementally, based on prior breakthroughs.


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dcwilson
(@dcwilson)
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06/08/2007 12:36 am  

Comment...
Notice how Henningsen makes a mdoernist breakthrough in the upper part of the chair, but cannot free his sensibility from the traditional leg forms of past times, or perhaps he is making the allusion that modernism rests on the Victorian.
Then notice how the designers who follow him basically accept the upper part of the chair as an acceptable architype to work from, varying it a bit, but then concentrate the bulks of their imaginations on how to get past those old fashioned legs. They try all manner of solutions. Featherston seems far and away the most progressive morphologically, forecasting a kind of break, or speciation as evolutionary biologists might say, in the evolution of this chair type.


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
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Posts: 636
06/08/2007 3:43 am  

Good to see you mentioning...
Good to see you mentioning Featherston, I got three of his chairs (not as good as this one) from the garbage tip on the weekend.
I think the other three are all fundamentally the same, although perhaps the first one used iron rod for the backrest? Looks like it which would be a Victorian solution.
Are you still working on your chair design?


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James Collins
(@james-collins)
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Posts: 547
06/08/2007 3:57 am  

Darwin
Design is a lot like Darwinian evolution, long stretches of small, incremental changes, punctuated by sudden, unpredicatble leaps forward.


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 636
06/08/2007 4:42 am  

periods of stiumulus are...
periods of stiumulus are interesting then, world war 2, 70's oil crisis, great depression.
I think we should be smack bang in the middle of one right now, we are all going to be so vilified in 70 years time.


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dcwilson
(@dcwilson)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 2358
06/08/2007 9:15 am  

Yes, I am still working on it...
In fact I'm going up to a small town in the Pacific NW to visit inlaws soon and plan to talk to a metal fabricator there about possibly doing some welding. He's cheap and does furniture occassionally and thinks I'm only mildly crazy. 🙂


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 636
06/08/2007 9:27 am  

yes I know what you mean,...
yes I know what you mean, its diffuclt to find a sympathetic tradesman.


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LRF
 LRF
(@lrf)
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Posts: 2967
06/08/2007 10:17 am  

1952 Albini chair is as co...
1952 Albini chair is as cool as you can get,
Wagner s Papa is a classic and my company has redone several,
the only thing i don't like is it transients to the Queen Ann look and for the life of me I can not figure what a modern thinker like Hans Wager was thinking,? being a danish designer
he was the cusp of modern design, I have always wondered why he digressed back to The Queen Ann Chair for a mentor to the popa bear chair,
I have studied Wagner love his stuff end of story ...... I have had his Chinese pull up chairs . to me they have always felt like he took that idea from the 12 century Chinese , I guess they all had to start some where , and to start with these two important periods of design I guess is as good as any
That is why it has always been hard for me to stand up and cheer for Wagner I think as a supreme Allied commander of Design he took to many liberties from the past and called them his own design ( my o pion )


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
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Posts: 636
06/08/2007 10:23 am  

I thinks thats just the...
I thinks thats just the nature of most Danish work, evo rather than revo - lutionary.


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dcwilson
(@dcwilson)
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Posts: 2358
07/08/2007 10:15 am  

I came to the conclusion studying literature...
that all artists build from other artists' concepts and for the most part start by copying something they think is great and do it so relentlessly and repetitively that their personal style emerges inexorably inspite of themselves. All great artists in all fields say essentially the same thing. It is the hard work of doing it again and again until it gets worth noticing and then again and again for a living that forges something recognizable as great individual style. The artist knows what he wants to carry forward from the past. The artist knows where he wants to go. But the artist can't know the effect of repetition and suffering to get it right will have on his abilities and on exposing his inabilities. It is this process of working endlessly that yields a Wegner. All you have to do is devote yourself to doing anything for a couple of years--not thinking about it, but actually doing it, whether for pay or not, just getting up and doing it every day for a couple of years and one cannot help but be surprised at what one's work turns into. It is almost like your work transforms into something by another person. Why? Because that is exactly what happens: you change by working. Working is the most dynamically altering activity there is for a human being. Do shit work for a couple of years and you become more shitty. Do your best for a couple of work and your work becomes better. Your work becomes the sum total of learning of your struggles. You become your work...whatever you do. You do jack off work and you become a jack off and vice versa. It is one of the biggest mystical experiences of human existence. Everyone has it. And almost no one even mentions it. It is taken for granted. Don't.


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builder (AUS)
(@builder-aus)
Prominent Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 173
09/08/2007 12:16 pm  

HP....;.
i ve been loking for featherston chair for a long time. Would you sell any to me? Please, i m begging you..


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 636
09/08/2007 12:34 pm  

I could but they're just the...
I could but they're just the "scape" dining chairs, nothing special. They're on ebay often enough and are quite cheap. I think there are some on there now.


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 15 years ago
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09/08/2007 12:46 pm  

260145660687 ebay#
There...
260145660687 ebay#
There are these too, quite under-rated I think and not going to decrease in value I'm sure.


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dcwilson
(@dcwilson)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 2358
09/08/2007 3:46 pm  

Those four Featherstons on Ebay are...
wonderful looking even with the nicks and corrosion! But the shipping would choke a horse. Its amazing to me that we can float all the Chinese made junk and Middle East oil all the way around the world for almost nothing, but to throw four minimalist chairs in an air space on an already nearly full container probably carrying all manner of contraban costs a $1000 AUS!


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HP
 HP
(@hp)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 636
09/08/2007 4:03 pm  

I just had another look, I'm...
I just had another look, I'm not too sure about them anymore, I got the "scape" ones which I prefer.
I noticed the other day just how much the Featherston pic you posted looks like a Carlo Mollino piece, its not really "organic" but quite contrived and theatrical.


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