Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch

February 26, 2012-June 17, 2012

Art, Design, and Architecture Museum

University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Carefree California explores the phenomenal rise of the ranch house, casual living, and the western mystique, as promoted by Cliff May, the designer of thousands of modern California ranch houses. The exhibition will concentrate on the modernization of the ranch tradition and its transition from a low-slung luxury recollection of historic adobe, brick, tile, and stucco, to the modest wood and glass tract house of the forties, to the near-minimal system-built ranches May designed and sold in the late 1950s. Through drawings, models, sales pamphlets, photographs, site plans, publications, film and television clips and stills, building toys, and popular magazines, the exhibition will address the opening up of the plan, the emphasis on patio and glass corridor to suggest additional space, and the integration of house and garden. Works from other key architects and designers of the period will also be featured.

Carefree California is part of Pacific Standard Time, a collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together for six months beginning in October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene and how it became a major new force in the art world. Pacific Standard Time is sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Information:

http://www.uam.ucsb.edu/index.html

High Point Market Week

The World’s Home for Home Furnishings

The High Point Market is the largest furnishings industry trade show in the world, bringing more than 80,000 people to High Point every six months. Serious retail home furnishings buyers can be found in High Point twice a year because if you can’t find it in High Point…it probably doesn’t exist.

April 21st – 26th at High Point, North Carolina

http://www.highpointmarket.org/default.aspx

Wayne Hunt – Graphics for Places and Spaces

 

Thursday, March 1st, 7:00 – 9:30pm

WAYNE HUNT

PRESENTS:

Graphics For Places & Spaces

In The Duncan Anderson Design Department Gallery at California State University, Long Beach

Today’s environments are increasingly influenced and even transformed by graphic design. Come and see how one Los Angeles design firm helps make places accessible, understandable and welcome.

Wayne Hunt founded Hunt Design in 1977 and is a nationally recognized leader in Environmental Graphics and Wayfinding Signage design. He and the firm have planned, designed and implemented more than two hundred signage & graphics; and exhibit assignments in twenty U.S. states and in countries around the world. He is active in the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, serving as its past national president and selected as the organization’s sole 2004 Fellow. Mr. Hunt is the author of three books on signage and related graphics design and is an Adjunct Professor at Art Center College of Design. A frequent speaker and ambassador for environmental graphics, Hunt has presented at USC School of Architecture, Harvard University and many other universities around the country. “Helping people access, enjoy and understand complex places is both an art and a science. We’re really in the place-making business.”

Revenge of the Electric Car

Wednesday February 29th, 7PM

Downtown Independent Theatre

251 South Main Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012

 

In Revenge of the Electric Car, director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a single drop of foreign oil, this new generation of car is America’s future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever.

With almost every major car maker now jumping to produce new electric models, Revenge follows the race to be the first, the best, and to win the hearts and minds of the public around the world. It’s not just the next generation of green cars that’s on the line. It’s the future of the automobile itself.

Revenge of the Electric Car is narrated by Tim Robbins. The primary cast includes CEO and President of Renault and Nissan Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk, Former Vice Chairman of GM Bob Lutz and EV do-it-yourselfer Greg “Gadget” Abbott.

http://youtu.be/nH_vJRRMkvE

7pm – DOORS, FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS | 7:30-8:30 TALKS | 8:30 SCREENING | 10pm Q&A with Director, Chris Paine!

For tickets, please go to

 http://mindscreen.eventbrite.com/

Northern Stars – Twentieth Century Finnish Design

Now through April 22nd

Mingei International Museum

1439 El Prado – on the Plaza de Panama
San Diego CA 92101

 

Finnish design is rooted in a democratic approach that sees design as being for all, rather than a luxury for the few, with a focus on function, modernism and material. Organized by the Design Museum in Helsinki Finland, NORTHERN STARS present exemplary objects of Finnish design, including textiles, ceramics, glass and furniture. The show features the work of the most well-known names in Finnish design, including Alavar Aalto and Timo Sarpaneva, alongside international brands like Marimekko and Fiskars.

http://www.mingei.org/exhibitions/northern-stars

San Diego’s Craft Revolution

Now through April 15th

Mingei International Museum

1439 El Prado, San Diego CA 92101

 

This original exhibition documents a fascinating, inspiring and overlooked chapter of San Diego’s recent past: the important contribution of San Diego craftsmen from the postwar period beginning in the 1940s up through the 1970s. San Diego’s Craft Revolution – From Post-War Modern to California Design will explore the progression from sleek modernism to unconventional handmade objects of use such as furniture, doors, jewelry and ceramics. Over 60 artists will be featured in the show.

This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980.

http://www.mingei.org/craft-revolution

California Design, 1935 – 1965: “Living in a Modern Way”

LACMA

Resnick Pavilion

October 1, 2011–March 25, 2012

“This exhibition is the first major study of California midcentury modern design. With more than 300 objects—furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion and textiles, and industrial and graphic design—the exhibition examines the state’s role in shaping the material culture of the entire country. Organized into four thematic areas, the exhibition aims to elucidate the 1951 quote from émigré Greta Magnusson Grossman that California design “is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions…It has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way.”

http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/californiadesign

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination

Imagine a world with humanoid robots translating languages, landspeeders whizzing down the highway, and X-wing Starfighters protecting the skies. Could these technologies, limited only to the fantasy worlds of Star Wars™, actually become a reality?

Find out as Discovery Science Center hosts an out-of-this-world exhibit, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, presented by Bose Corporation.

• Build and test your own speeders and robots
• See real artifacts from all six Star Wars films
• Explore the technology of droids and landspeeders
• And much more!

Discovery Science Center, Santa Ana CA

Now thru April 15, 2012

http://www.discoverycube.org/star-wars/

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Regional Conference

The 7th Annual California State University Long Beach HFES Student Chapter Conference will be held on March 3rd from 9AM – 3PM.

Free to all who are interested. Please register by February 29th.

The CSULB HFES Regional Conference is a local forum for the exchange of ideas in all areas of human factors as well as an opportunity to meet students in the MS Human Factors Psychology Program at Cal State Long Beach and surrounding schools.

Invited speakers address a wide range of human factors issues of interest to practitioners, researchers, and students and in the field of human factors. This years speakers will include:

Mark Conger, Project Management Professional, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems

“Enhancing Multi-tasking Ability Through Action Video Games”  and  “How to make money from games – Mark Conger’s career”

As college graduates begin the transition into the workforce many will choose occupations that require a high degree of multi-tasking. Mark will present on a foundational study conducted to assess how video games can be leveraged as a training tool to improve operator performance. Mark will also talk briefly about his career and how he managed to incorporate video games into Northrop Grumman projects.

Jason Yow, Playtest & Game Analysis Manager, Disney Interactive Media

“Video Games and Human Factors: Things that go great together”

Games User Research (GUR) involves analyzing pre-beta versions of games in order to determine whether users are able to understand the game’s controls, objectives, and HUD. Jason will discuss the process his team has created and some of the challenges they have faced in adapting to Disney.

Mark Pestana, NASA Research Pilot, NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.

“Flying NASA Unmanned Aircraft: A Pilot’s Perspective”

Mark will discuss his experiences piloting UASs with NASA, covering topics such as human-machine interface issues, how UASs are redefining the roles of pilot and ATC, and potential difficulties with bringing UASs into the National Airspace.

Register by Wednesday February 29th!

http://csulbstudentlife.orgsync.com/org/hfes/studentconference

Common Ground

Ceramics in Southern California 1945 – 1975

Thru March 31, 2012

American Museum of Ceramic Art

399 North Garey Ave, Pomona

Because of the huge number of Los Angeles area ceramic artists that might have been included in Common Ground, selection was guided by an arbitrary decision to choose those who had a direct connection to artist, art administrator, and designer Millard Sheets (1907-1989). His dynamic personality, inspirational teaching, and business savvy brought recognition to a large group of artists and craftsmen, including many ceramists. Locally, Sheets’s influences filtered through Scripps College, the Los Angeles Art Institute (Otis), the Los Angeles County Fair, Padua Hills Art Colony, Interpace Ceramics Corporation (formerly Gladding, McBean & Company), and his own design studio. Although not the prime focus of the project, Sheets is the common denominator – “the glue” – among the cast of characters.

http://www.ceramicmuseum.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions

International Home + Housewares Show

The opportunity to see consumer lifestyle and product trends for all areas of the home, both inside and out.

March 10th – 13th

McCormick Place

2301 S. Lake Shore Drive

Chicago, Illinois 60616 

 

http://www.housewares.org/

New Narratives for Living in a Modern Way

Symposium at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

February 24th and 25th

This two-day symposium features internationally renowned scholars who examine the Living in a Modern Way exhibition’s themes by presenting detailed case studies and new narratives. The event also includes a session co-sponsored by the College Art Association that explores the interconnected networks of architecture and design in mid-century Los Angeles, with designers Gere Kavanaugh and Lou Danziger (whose work is included in the exhibition) and architect Ray Kappe. An evening keynote panel with artists Jim Isermann, Jorge Pardo, and Pae White considers the impact and legacy of modern California design on contemporary practice.

Presenters include Glenn Adamson, Victoria & Albert Museum; Donald Albrecht, Museum of the City of New York; Monica Penick, University of Wisconsin-Madison; architect Pierluigi Serraino; Andrew Shanken, UC Berkeley; Elizabeth St. George, Bard Graduate Center; Staci Steinberger, LACMA; Nina Stritzler-Levine, Bard Graduate Center; Marc Treib, UC Berkeley; Ruth Weisberg, USC; Christopher Wilk, Victoria & Albert Museum; Wim de Wit, Getty Research Institute.

http://www.lacma.org/event/california-design-symposium-0