Around the same time of Sola cube’s inception, my radar received a strong signal: the “MACHINE ART” exhibition, originally held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1934.
This exhibition showcased parts and products, such as bearings and propellers, originally designed for utilitarian purposes during the era of mass production in the United States yet sought to uncover their intrinsic beauty. While contemporary product design exhibitions are commonplace, in New York during that time, such displays sparked a great deal of controversy. Some people were even wondering “which part of this is an art?!”
I like MACHINE ART. Whenever I visit The Museum of Modern Art in New York, I go to see the archives of the MACHINE ART first. As I really like it, I have already visited there three times. Every time I visit there, I get excited and fascinated with the beauty of the Art.
Reflecting on my experiences, I often realize a profound parallel between the industrial parts and natural forms. These artifacts share a common wellspring of inspiration. This essence can be encapsulated in a simple phrase: “functional beauty.” I firmly believe that the most rational pursuit of beauty lies in the harmonization of form and function.
Consider propellers designed for optimal wind generation or bearings engineered to ensure seamless machine rotation—each embodies a functional elegance tailored to its purpose. The same can be said of plant formations as well.
Plants, unlike animals, are rooted beings, relying on dispersal tactics to proliferate. Their evolutionary journey, shaped by over 3.8 billion years of existence, epitomizes the marriage of form and function.
Let’s think about dandelions as an example.
When it comes to the species known as the common dandelion, it attaches about 150-200 parachute-like seeds to a radiating tuft of puff. It’s precisely because they’re attached in a 360-degree radial pattern that they can be affixed in such a small, limited space without interfering with each other’s parachutes.
The best time for the puff to fly is when the sun rises and the ground is heated, creating an updraft. In the morning or at night when it is still cold, or on rainy days, the cotton wool will not fly far. That is why they fold up their parachutes as shown in the photo.
Amazingly they are truly well-designed and well-functional, aren’t they? Even just the dandelion puffball alone is full of “functional beauty” and we have still a lot to talk about it.
When I look at such beautiful and functional forms, I truly get attracted to plants, which are the result of the endless 3.8 billion years that have passed since the beginning of life.
My interest in the “functional beauty” of plants led me to the “Nature Art Exhibition” in 2013. In the upcoming “The journey of Sola cube (04),” I would like to write about the “Nature Art Exhibition”.
Writen by Koichi Yoshimura
