On a scorching Wednesday afternoon this summer, we headed uptown to check out “Art of Noise,” at the Cooper Hewitt. For many of us, being music lovers ourselves, it felt exciting to step into a world of creativity adjacent to our own.
“11 sparkling lemonades, please.” We sat in the grass in a reprieve from the heat. The lawn felt like almost an entirely different city than the one we left behind, a few stops down the 6 train.
The exhibit guided us through a physical and graphic representation of the audio experiences that have shaped so many of us. As we walked through, sharing memories of My First Sony, or the songs we used to keep on our old iPods, it was clear that regardless of the songs we were playing, the design of these objects so strongly shaped each of our experiences with the music we all love. There is a visceral association with these objects. They are the providers of an experience, many of them accompanying us in our day to day lives over a number of years. The same goes for the album artwork that we stopped to admire, a graphic representation of the sounds we’ve grown so fond of.
“3 orders of fries, and 3 bottles of orange wine, please.” Our visit inspired further conversation about physical media, vinyl collections, DJing in New York City (which our group could cover across generations), and designing last-minute band-posters back in art school. The power of design was not lost on any of us that afternoon, despite having left the studio.
