Talk to Me

Every morning, after the alarm beeps, after the cereal is poured, and after the unwanted emails are deleted from my phone, I venture to work at the Museum of Modern Art.

I love working there.

And one of the things I love so much about working at MoMA is coming to MoMA everyday. I take full advantage of my staff pass, often journeying into the museum galleries to see both the permanent and special exhibitions.

Today I saw the new exhibition "Talk to Me."

An actual metro card vending machine is featured in the exhibit.

The exhibition explores the relationships between objects and people, specifically pertaining to communication. The exhibition features objects as familiar as an ATM and as unfamiliar as an avatar. However, what makes this exhibition truly unique, and what I believe makes it so relevant, is that all the objects are familiar. Yes, they are unfamiliar in form, but they are identical in method. And I think that is the point. Every object that a layperson sees in "Talk to Me" is usable. The exhibition proves that designers and engineers alike are making conscious efforts to make products that are not just usable, but easily usable. This element of design, and MoMA's emphasis on this element makes this exhibition particularly universal. As I walked through the bright orange walls I could not help but notice the international diversity within the room. I heard the ends of foreign conversations and saw on the faces of the viewers evidence of their distinctive homelands. Despite the cultural differences within the room, despite any kind of language barriers, every single person that I saw was able to interact with the exhibit.

I love art because of its universality. But sometimes even I struggle to decipher the meaning behind a limp piece of string. It is rather refreshing to go to an exhibit where the art is intended to communicate something very specific to the viewer.

Technology is a new kind of art and, as always, MoMA is ahead of the curve.

Check out "Talk to Me" at MoMA this summer!

Dîner en Blanc

Dîner en Blanc in Paris

I just read about the Dîner en Blanc in the New York Times. Seems like the perfect spot for a flaneur like myself. I love the idea of dining in the heart of the city with fellow New Yorkers, soaking in the luminous lights of the big apple. Let's just hope the mandatory white dress code does not get too dirty in the friendly dirt that envelopes New York.

There is something uniquely distinctive about eating in public in New York. I think many "manners aficionados" would say that one should never "chow down" in public. But any kind of boundary about eating in public evaporates into the thick air of New York, which is already concentrated by the omnipresent smell of hot-dogs and peanuts.

The 79th Street Boat Basin

People appear to feel comfortable eating anywhere: In Lincoln Center, Central Park, and even on the stoops of unmarked townhouses. New York has become a kind of table, a communal one that is. Perhaps this communal table that is New York shows the kind of trust that we New Yorkers have in one another. We know, or at least we hope, that we are not being judged for what we eat, or how we eat it.

Dîner en Blanc will fit right in in our city.
I've already registered twice, have you registered yet? Here's where.