Memphis Group!

I am going to talk about a movement that was and still is very popular. The Memphis movement affected a lot of product designs, e.g furniture.

The Memphis Group was an Italian design and architecture group founded in Milan by Ettore Sottsass  in 1981 which designed Post-modern furniture, fabrics, ceramics, glass and metal objects from 1981 to 1987. Memphis was a reaction against the slick, black gloomy design of the 1970’s. In contrast the Memphis Group offered bright, colourful, shocking pieces. The colours they used contrasted the dark blacks and browns of European furniture. 

They got inspiration from such movements as Art Deco and Pop Art, styles such as the 1950’s Kitsch and futuristic themes. Their concepts were in stark contrast to so called ‘Good Design’. Their main aim was to modernize the Radical Design movement. The group intended to develop a new creative approach to design.

Many of the designs implied to earlier or exotic styles and were based on asymmetrical shapes. 

I think the Memphis group was one of the first movements to open our eyes to new ways. They created something new and colourful out of simple and boring furniture. They made simple things look fun!

 

The Arts and Crafts Movement.

I am going to talk about different art movements.

Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau is a style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts,that was popular between 1890 and 1910. A reaction to the art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers.  Leading artist: Alphonse Mucha.

Modernism.

Modernism refers to the movement in Western arts that gathered pace from around 1850,it’s characterised by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past; emphasising instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society. Founder: Charles Rennie.

Bauhaus.
Founder: Walter Gropius. 
Bauhaus was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught.

Art Deco.

Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. Founder: Clarice Cliff.

De Stijl.

De Stijl, Dutch for “The Style”, also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. The De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. Founder: Piet Mondrian.

Its interesting to see al the art movements, and how they influenced our world today.

 

 

Evolution of Guns.

In this assignment we are going to see the evolution of guns throughout 14th all the way to the 20th century.

It was in 1364 that people first recorded the use of a firearm, called
“hand cannons,” were the first step in the creation of guns. It wasn’t until the matchlock
gun arrived in the 1400s that guns began to change.

In 1498, the gun experienced its first major evolution with the discovery of rifling. Just a few years later in 1509, the creation of the wheel lock made for an even more interesting and advanced weapon.  The next major improvement in gun technologies came in 1640, when the first true
flintlock emerged. The development was so great, in fact, that it lasted for two centuries without any major changes.
The flintlock’s technology finally peaked around 1825 when the percussion-detonating principle was in general use.
At the end of the 19th century that gun technologies hugely expanded.
In 1840, the pin fire cartridge was introduced. In 1887, the first repeating shotguns were released by Winchester company and, in 1903, Winchester created the first automatic rifle.