The New Creativity: Man and Machines
June 11–August 16, 2015
Opening: Wednesday, June 10, 7–9pm
Curatorial walk-through with Sylvia Lavin:
Wednesday, June 10, 6:30pm
Dance performances choreographed
by Victoria Marks: Fridays, 4–6pm
MAK Center for Art and Architecture
Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Curated by Sylvia Lavin with the UCLA Curatorial Project
From the first house R.M. Schindler designed using a drafting machine to contemporary architects who design digital drawing devices instead of houses, The New Creativity: Man and Machines examines creative practices in relation to the social and technical complexes that support and constrain them. While all forms of art making have been radically transformed by the advent of digital technologies, spaces of creative production are the most telling symptoms of how these transformations reflect deeper changes in the understanding of creativity itself. During the 20th century, for example, domestic spaces have supported ideas of art as the personal expression of talented individuals, while office organizations have reflected conceptions of creativity as information produced by systems rather than people. Some architects, like Charles Eames, celebrated the democratization of creativity, while others, like Paul Rudolph, hid his use of the Xerox machine to generate his famously detailed drawings behind overlays of delicate tracing paper. Focusing on the house, the office, the studio, and the shop, The New Creativity brings together a rich array of designs, documents, and devices that visitors will not only be able to view but that they will be able to use and engage as means of testing their own productive inclinations. This experiment in contemporary creativity will take place within the landmark Schindler House, which is perhaps the first building in Los Angeles to constitute an experiment in creative space itself.
Architects and artists in the exhibition include R.M. Schindler, Paul Rudolph, George Nelson, Robert Propst, Bruce Nauman, Erin Besler, Greg Lynn, Craig Hodgetts, Peter Vikar, and Refik Anadol.
The New Creativity: Man and Machines is funded in part by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design.
About the MAK Center
Unique in its role as a constellation of historic architectural sites and contemporary exhibition spaces, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, at the Schindler House develops local, national, and international projects in art, architecture, and their intersections and tangents. It seeks out and supports projects that take risks and test disciplinary boundaries. The MAK Center acts as a cultural laboratory, encouraging the development of ideas in art and architecture by engaging the center’s places, spaces, and histories. Its programming includes exhibitions, lectures, symposia, discussions, performances, music series, publication projects, salons, architecture tours, and new work commissions. It collaborates frequently with guest curators, artists and architects.
For more information, visit makcenter.org
*Image above: Robert Propst, Time Lapse Study Sheet for Action Office System, HMRC-1, Body Location Pattern. From the collections of The Henry Ford (2010.83.649, Robert Propst Papers).
