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Ventura Lambrate is located on the outskirts of the city; in fact, the nearest metro station, "Lambrate", is a 15-minute walk away. Anyone traveling out here will need to take plenty of time with them, time that one generally doesn't have during Milan Design Week. Yet it is definitely worth it. Almost as soon as you enter Via Ventura, the eponymous central axis of the design district, you are warmly greeted and the exhibiting designers invite you for a coffee at the Luna Café. On the steps up to the café there is a poster by the Milan-based studio "Mammafotogramma" and a graphic designer and a carpenter have spent a fortnight building mobile wooden structures that can be suspended from a building façade, but also serve as a handrail and bench, squeaking and creaking and stirring up sawdust.

Following a successful start last year, more than 60,000 visitors attended the second edition of Ventura Lambrate. In comparison: around 320,000 attended the furniture fair. At the former, 48 exhibitors and a total of 315 designers showcased their projects on an exhibition space measuring 9,000 square meters. In the form of Ventura Lambrate, the Dutch design intermediaries at "Organisation in Design" have established a venue that creates spaces for experimentation, for small labels, graduates and galleries - and all of it far away from the madding crowd of the commercial trade-fair structures and showrooms downtown.

In particular, a great deal of design was on display in a new hall in Via Massimiano, called Collective Location. Not only here, but also in another large hall on the periphery of the design circuit, several new trends were clearly discernible. For instance, evidently random elements and deficiencies are now simply accepted, becoming just as much a part of the product as clean seams and neatly pressed fabrics. Some designs deliberately set out to make certain observers could readily see how they were composed. For example, Dik Scheepers' porcelain series features traces of workmanship on the material and joins between the individual components; likewise, the paint dripping from Malin Bobeck's luminaire forms a pattern on the underlying carpet, and the vases and candleholders by Ondrej Cerveny were cast in bags and after drying show the folds. Or, in instances where the emphasis was less on showing traces of the design process, it was portrayed in stages. Florie Salnot, for example, required only a few centimeters to demonstrate the creative process of her delicate jewelry work "Plastic Gold"; for it, she needed only old plastic bottles she had collected, a few simple tools and hot sand.

Many works on display attested to an exploration of connections, such as those small, oft-neglected screws, wires and adhesives that hold an object together. Back in 2009, Jerszey Seymour presented his "Workshop Chair"; it boasted a backrest, legs and armrests connected by means of blobs of wax. Hardly surprisingly he was involved in the exhibition "Poetry Happens" at Lambrate. In this way, the comparatively small elements of a design become a crucial feature. It has been a long time since a detail was just a detail. Rosemary Anrude, for instance, has exaggerated the details in her design and portrayed them as oversized, colorful nuts into which things screw. And for his "Shrink collection", Nicola Zocca uses a heat shrink tube, like those normally used to protect electric cables in automobile and aircraft construction. Now it serves as a firm connecting element for chairs, shelving units and tables, eliminating the need for screws or nails. And Els Woldhek even makes small pieces of jewelry from joining elements. He winds copper wire, which seems completely divested of its function, around the bases and legs of shelving units by means of electroplating. To give another example, in his chair design Christof Schmidt breaks the wooden parts of the chair and then combines them again using rigid polyurethane foam. And Yoav Reches' design "Rope Stools" boasts more than just extraordinary binding elements for the individual components: his stools can also be folded up flat. The stool is assembled by threading a rope along grooves in the material, which thus forms and decorates the stable seat.

Moreover, many designers are continuing to explore how materials can be recycled or given a different lease of life. The design label Vij5 and Mieke Meijer have developed a "wood" from old newspapers. It is called "Newspaperwood" and can be cut, milled and sanded, i.e., treated like conventional wood. Werner Aisslinger presented his shell chair "Hemp", made from an environmentally-friendly material based on hemp and flax. Tobias Juretzek uses old clothes for his "Rememberme Chair" and Diederik Schneemann, for his "Flip Flop Story", turns old flip flops into vases, candleholders and other sizeable objects.

In short, Ventura Lambrate was jam-packed with ideas for lovers of experimental design. It highlighted young, fresh design - be it in spacious halls, run-down backyards or sleek, modern exposed concrete buildings. It was an entertaining promenade with plenty of opportunities to stop and take a break, whether for homemade apple cake, freshly cooked noodle soup or classic Italian coffee. Guests were made to feel completely comfortable. All these efforts certainly helped slow the pace for a while, before returning to the usual hectic that is Milan Design Week.

www.venturalambrate.com

Wooden structures by the Milan-based studio Mammafotogramma at the entrance of the Luna Café

Bubble Serie by Lindsey Adelman Studio

Architect's Table by 45 Kilo

Future Folklore project by Pia Wuestenberg

Pac-Man-Monster by Miss Cross Stitch in Via Ventura

Plastic Gold by Florie Salnot

Terra-cotta by Talia Mukmel

Hemp Chair by Werner Aisslinger in the exhibition „Poetry Happens"

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Sawdust, noodle bars and flip flops | STYLEPARK

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Ventura Lambrate is located on the outskirts of the city; in fact, the nearest metro station, "Lambrate", is a 15-minute walk away. Anyone traveling out here will need to take plenty of time with them, time that one generally doesn't have during Milan Design Week. Yet it is definitely worth it.

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Each day our editors will roundup our favorite sights and projects from Salone Milan Design Week. Today we look at highlights from Ventura Lambrate and via Clerici.

To address the issue of food waste, artist and designer Atelier Monte created these seemingly average vases using expired meat from supermarkets. In order to create these vases, the pieces of meat were decellularized in a lab, which makes the meat lose all cellular content and causes it to maintain a similar aesthetic consistency to marble.
Pavilion 3, Ventura Lambrate

The Dubai-based multidisciplinary designers of Tinkah reconsiders the traditional Emirati-way of gathering large families on a woven mat and sharing a meal together. "Constructed Feast" remains, "faithful to our traditions yet also appropriate to our contemporary lifestyle and needs.
Pavilion 17, Ventura Lambrate

These vases by Talia Mukmel at the Form & Seek Collective show in Lambrate were a standout. Mukmel wanted to make a form that felt culturally referential yet incorporated both traditional and technological components. By photo etching into metal, she created a basic form for the vase, which she then pressed a sand-flour material mixture inside to create the textured surface.
Pavilion 4, Ventura Lambrate

Lensvelt's Boring collection of everyday office furniture was shown with an unexpected twist-visitors were encouraged to crumple up a paper manifesto of sorts and throw it into the sea of paper balls and chaos that made up the scenography. The Boring c ollection's "discreet appearance allows it to be present in the modern office without distracting from the things that actually matter."
Pavilion 15, Ventura Lambrate

This beautiful gem of an exhibition shares all the bits and pieces, prototypes and material explorations that usually get left behind in the studio in lieu of showing off a final, more perfect work. Envisions brings together nine designers to showcase their exploratory works. Read more about The Emotive Power of Materials here.
Pavilion 16, Ventura Lambrate

This isolation office chair by Rae Bai-Han Kuo of the Lund University School of Industrial Design is the result of a course taught at the school under the supervision of Stefan Diez and Rolf Hay of HAY. The class of first year Master students all envisioned a new kind of office environment for the generation of young creatives.
Pavilion 14, Ventura Lambrate

A somewhat mind-bending chair by Hyun Dae Kang that at first glance looks like a delicate styrofoam form, but is actually made from copper pipe and corian.
Pavilion 10, Ventura Lambrate

Central Saint Martin's Hanan Alkouh's imagines a post-meat world by creating a seaweed-based food that "when fried tastes like bacon." The presentation included a number of sausages, a "roast" formed and encapsulated in a silicone mold and a full vegan butchery to boot.
Central Saint Martin's Material Futures in Pavilion 14, Ventura Lambrate.

Design Academy Eindhoven's exhibition of projects that engage in tactile forms and ideas was a nice poetic end on the long journey through Lambrate. Visitors were greeted by Seung Bin Yang and Carlo Lorenzetti's thoughtful projects around the rituals of hand-washing. The designers offered visitors an opportunity to wash their hands in a basin using Yang's flaked soap while Lorenzetti poured water from his Disruptive Fundamentals ceramics. Visitors were encouraged to dry their hands by gripping a warming stone inside a ceramic warmer. Tamara Orjola's Forest Wool transformed waste into a material with similar qualities to wool. The bleeting of the sheep in the Man and Communication course Petting Zoo called visitors over to pet the animals. Digital monitors allowed people to monitor their own sense of wellness while dimnishing the gap between people and animals.
Pavilion 20, Ventura Lambrate

Nicholas Nybro's raffia and cotton designs find inspiration in fairy tales and his own favorite stories by Hans Christian Andersen. At the swirling, multi-level installation for the Dutch designers of Mindcraft, Nybro's fantastical fashions were a true standout.
Mindcraft, via Clerici 10.

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Meat Lamps, Bulging Ceramics and Office Furniture from the Future - Core77

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Each day our editors will roundup our favorite sights and projects from Salone Milan Design Week. Today we look at highlights from Ventura Lambrate and via Clerici. The Meat ProjectTo address the issue of food waste, artist and designer Atelier Monte created these seemingly average vases using expired meat from

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Watch how this bulging glass lamp is made

Italian lighting manufactuer Pallucco, have shared a video showing how their hand-blown glass 'Egg' lamp, designed by Enrico Franzolini, is made.

The extremely hot molten glass is attached to the blow pipe

Next, the glass is sculpted into the desired shape

The glass is then placed into a wire cage, and air is blown through the blow pipe to inflate the glass until it bulges through the cage.

You can see just how much the glass has been blown through the cage

Here you can see additional molten glass being added

Almost there, just some finishing touches before the lamp is broken away from the blow pipe

Finally, here is the finished Egg Lamp in a table top version

And here's the pendant version

To see the entire process, watch the video below

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Watch how this bulging glass lamp is made

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Watch how this bulging glass lamp is made Italian lighting manufactuer Pallucco, have shared a video showing how their hand-blown glass 'Egg' lamp, designed by Enrico Franzolini, is made.

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I've been seeing the colour soft pink EVERYWHERE, especially in interiors, on Pinterest and Instagram, as well as in the pages of my favourite magazines - Kinfolk and the latest issue of Milk Decoration, to name two. I'm not talking about a tacky Barbie pink or a girly baby pink, but a grown-up dusty, almost dirty, pink. And I've been seriously considering painting a wall or a whole room in this dreamy colour, partly after seeing LapinBlu's half-wall of pink and partly because of the gorgeous colour combinations seen in this beautiful new boutique hotel in Paris from a post a couple of weeks ago (see it here).

As I'm not usually that daring with colour - light grey and white is as far as I've gone at home so far - soft pink is a great way to add a bit of colour for the colour-nervous. It's perfect for bedrooms because it's very calming and soft, not overpowering and looks fab with other light, muted colours such as white, grey and duck egg blue. I also like the idea of just painting accents, such as the back of a shelf or perhaps a skirting board. What do you think? Would you go pink?

I've also made a Pinterest board of pale pink interiors to get you inspired, hop along and have a look!

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Interior Trend: soft pink walls - cate st hill

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I've been seeing the colour soft pink EVERYWHERE, especially in interiors, on Pinterest and Instagram, as well as in the pages of my favourite magazines - Kinfolk and the latest issue of Milk Decoration, to name two. I'm not talking about a tacky Barbie pink or a girly baby pink, but a grown-up dusty, almost dirty, pink.

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Federal is a design studio specialized in visual communication. At the crossroads of art and the corporate world, we connect people with things, things with people, people with dreams.

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Freakshow Project - Gordian Simon Birch stockings, ballons, water

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Freakshow Project - Gordian Simon Birch stockings, ballons, water by SPEETway on Indulgy.com

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Soft Serve Bikini Party by Jeff Muhs on artnet

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View Soft Serve Bikini Party by Jeff Muhs on artnet. Browse more artworks Jeff Muhs from McNeill Art Group.

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"A blog exhibiting new trends within fashion, technology, luxury, and culture"

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Do you need fashion tips and inspiration? Read Discover, the new Dolce & Gabbana Luxury Magazine Online.

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designboom | architecture & design magazine

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the compound camera is a 20ft inflatable installation composed of 109 pinhole cameras, each projecting a slightly different angle of the surrounding environment "

the compound camera is a 20ft inflatable installation composed of 109 pinhole cameras, each projecting a slightly different angle of the surrounding environment onto its interior surface.

saving the world from shower hoggers and thus over consumption of water, elisabeth buecher's shower curtain inflates soft spikes after four minutes of use.

saving the world from shower hoggers and thus over consumption of water, elisabeth buecher's shower curtain inflates soft spikes after four minutes of use.

centering around the cultural themes he himself cherishes, the exhibition turns the museum into a place of architectural discussion and educational discourse.

centering around the cultural themes he himself cherishes, the exhibition turns the museum into a place of architectural discussion and educational discourse.

modern petrified artifacts replace traditional stones as an element of decoration, dotted around the bright blue sand landscape.

modern petrified artifacts replace traditional stones as an element of decoration, dotted around the bright blue sand landscape.

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maurizio cattelan + pierpaolo ferrari envision a surreal spring fashion shoot

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the compound camera is a 20ft inflatable installation composed of 109 pinhole cameras, each projecting a slightly different angle of the surrounding environment " the compound camera is a 20ft inflatable installation composed of 109 pinhole cameras, each projecting a slightly different angle of the surrounding environment onto its interior surface.

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I'm an interior designer + pianist. I love bunnies and the colour white more than is probably normal...

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Yuki Fujisawa on Color Collective. Inspired by Pantone's beautiful #ColoroftheYear Rose Quartz & Serenity.

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Looking through the computer-generated art by Rose Pilkington is a bit like sliding around in a big tub of rainbow coloured mercury whilst synthetic bubbles and digital geometric fragments are hurled towards you. We love her mind-boggling GIFs, which kind of look like what might happen if the shirts worn by Zack on Saved by the Bell were digitized and made into panoramic landscapes on Second Life. Take a look at her bright, kaleidoscopic website and 3D sketches here, you won't regret it, although you may have all the clashing CMYK colours imprinted on your vision for quite a while afterwards.

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Art: Check out Rose Pilkington's crazy, colourful computer-generated art

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Looking through the computer-generated art by Rose Pilkington is a bit like sliding around in a big tub of rainbow coloured mercury whilst synthetic bubbles and digital geometric fragments are hurled towards you. We love her mind-boggling GIFs, which kind of look like what might happen if the shirts worn by Zack on _Saved by the Bell_ were digitized and made into panoramic landscapes on _Second Life_.

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We're utterly mesmerised by Rose Pilktington's experimental 3D animation and its equally beguiling stills, Auroratone. The work is currently on show at east London's Dreambagsjaguarshoes, and is based around a visual therapy technique devised by filmmaker Cecil Stokes in the 1940s. According to Rose, Stokes' therapy "called upon the psychological powers of colour and sound to calm patients of war." Heck, we've not been to war but we can still see the powers of Rose's work to calm, to delight and to soothe; based around swirls of colour and shiny textures. Each moment in the animation is like a swathe of silk, a gentle rub on the back whispering "there there, It's Nice That; there there."

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Therapeutic and beguiling work from Rose Pilkington

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We're utterly mesmerised by Rose Pilktington's experimental 3D animation and its equally beguiling stills, _Auroratone_. The work is currently on show at east London's Dreambagsjaguarshoes, and is based around a visual therapy technique devised by filmmaker Cecil Stokes in the 1940s.

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Today we're getting ready for summer with these bold and colorful images from artist Eva Roovers. Maybe you already came across her photography as she has worked for clients such as ELLE UK, Restored, Scotch & Soda, L'Officiel France, ... Definitely some eye candy and it's a pleasure to have a look at her work. © All Images

studioevaroovers.com

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Today we're getting ready for summer with these bold and colorful images from artist Eva Roovers. Maybe you already came across her photography as she has worked for clients such as ELLE UK, Restored, Scotch & Soda, L'Officiel France, ... Definitely some eye candy and it's a pleasure to have a look at her work.

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Designer Shane Griffin shares his work that explores how light transitions through defective glass. The result is a beautiful hue of colours captured on paper and screen.

I've been a professional graphic designer for many years. I started this design blog to bring other designers a source of inspiration and a platform to showcase their work.

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Chromatic by Shane Griffin - Dose on Design

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Designer Shane Griffin shares his work that explores how light transitions through defective glass. The result is a beautiful hue of colours captured on paper and screen. I've been a professional graphic designer for many years. I started this design blog to bring other designers a source of inspiration and a platform to showcase their work.

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Explore the Mega vases collection on eBay. Follow thehogsterblack for more inspirational eBay listings.

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Mermaid's Tail Iridescent Metallic Leatherette Fabric - Baby Blue

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Textured colour changing leatherette fabric Soft felt backing A5: 148 x 210mm A4: 210 x 297mm Easy to cut with scissors or die cut - perfect for bow making

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Fused Glass Plate Rainbow Iridescent Art Glass Dish Textured

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TEN DESIGN LESSONS 1. Respect "the genius of a place." 2. Subordinate details to the whole. 3. The art is to conceal art. 4. Aim for the unconscious. 5. Avoid fashion for fashion's sake. 6. Formal training isn't required. 7. Words matter. 8. Stand for something. 9. Utility trumps ornament.

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Mike Tyka studied Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Bristol. He obtained his PhD in Biophysics in 2007 and went on to work as a research fellow at the University of Washington and has been studying the structure and dynamics of protein molecules.

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Scattered Crowd ballons baudruche 3 - Tuxboard

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Armé de son drone, Martynas Charevičius parcourt la Lituanie pour réaliser des clichés étonnants de ses plus beaux paysages, et on en prend plein les yeux. Les charmes insoupçonnés de La...

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SOFTlab creates crystallized light installation for melissa shoes in NYC

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located at their store in manhattan, the structure acts as a kaleidoscopic lantern that creates an otherworldly atmosphere within the shop. the piece is tied to the crystal, which is highly refined yet primitive. they can be found anywhere, yet their ubiquitousness never constrains them to the ordinary.

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(Wider view of) saltworks in Niger by George Steinmetz - aerial photography

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pattern, design, line, organic, water color, water and oil, shape

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Constance Williams is a contemporary abstract colorist painter of alcohol ink, encaustic paint and sculptural objects. Her studio is located in Asheville NC USA.

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dr. richard kessel & dr. randy kardon/tissues & organs

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Ciliated and nonciliated Clara cells lining the bronchiole of the respiratory tract. SEM X1245 **On Page Credit Required**

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Nature Does It Better: Biomimicry in Architecture and Engineering

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The most important convergence of design and biological sciences today relies on "innovation" that's millions, if not billions, of years old. Biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems; biomimicry in architecture and manufacturing is the practice of designing buildings and products that ...

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19.Ophrys-Tenthredinifera-section-detail .Using a variety of microscopy techniques the cellular structures of Portuguese wild flora including a number of rare orchids, reveal complex patterns and structures. Micro-fine sections of the flower stems were stained to expose functional characteristics. Working at a higher magnification than is normally used for whole sections detailed large format images are constructed from up to 500 individual frames.

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Find out how architectural designer and artist Jenny Sabin will insert a system of knitted forms into our gallery system at this lecture and hands-on demo. The demo side of the evening will be overseen by ADMK, who will be busier than our bees shaping Sabin's glow in the dark and reflective forms with Tyler Fibers & Material Studies Department through December. Sabin is the principle at Jenny Sabin Studio an experimental architecture & design firm here in Philadelphia as well as an Assistant Professor at Cornell University.

Sabin's interest lies in the interaction between architecture and science and much of her work is directly inspired by the biology of the body and its personalized architecture. In her knitted transformations she aims to answer questions about how the body and our own physical actions can personalize and enhance architecture and display the beauty inherent in natural systems. With her project at Temple Contemporary she will continue to investigate these the forms and processes of the body, tying together the relationship of the fabricated, knitted object to the natural occurrences of the body.

The KnitLab is a studio project envisioned by Andrew Dahlgren, which similarly explores the confluence of knitting and architecture but through the use of knitting machines. The KnitLab will set up their studio here at Temple Contemporary for the duration of the semester in order to execute the project envisioned by Jenny Sabin and transform the gallery space into an entirely new environment. Book here: http://jennysabin-templecontemporary.eventbrite.com/
Image: myThread Pavilion, New York, NY; Jenny Sabin Studio; client: Nike FlyKnit Collective; courtesy Jenny E. Sabin and Nike Inc.

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Jenny Sabin + Knit Lab Show + Tell Monday, September 16, 6-8 pm

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Find out how architectural designer and artist Jenny Sabin will insert a system of knitted forms into our gallery system at this lecture and hands-on demo. The demo side of the evening will be overseen by ADMK, who will be busier than our bees shaping Sabin's glow in the dark and reflective forms with Tyler Fibers & Material Studies Department through December.

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Art Review

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Jenny E. Sabin's "PolyThread Knitted Textile Pavilion," part of "Beauty - Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial." Credit Credit Byron Smith for The New York Times

This year's version of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's always interesting Design Triennial boldly ventures to tackle one of the most controversial topics in today's visual culture. With more than 250 works by 63 designers from around the world in a jam-packed, two-floor show, "Beauty" is a mixed, visually cacophonous bag in terms of quality. But whether or not everything in it qualifies as incontrovertibly beautiful, it's an exciting opportunity to meditate on the perennially confounding questions: What is beauty? And what is it good for?

For thinkers from Plato to Keats, the beautiful was a universally supreme notion on par with Truth and Goodness. But with the rise of Modern art and its frequently obstreperous challenges to conventional taste, beauty became suspect as an artistic goal. Progressively minded critics these days tend to evaluate art and design for their abilities to promote new ideas and behaviors, usually in favor of politically liberal aims. Mere beauty has come to be seen as a conservative - if not morally decadent - value.

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A ball gown of haute couture incongruity by Giambattista Valli. Credit Byron Smith for The New York Times

The exhibition probably won't change many minds about that divide. Consider the first item to greet visitors to the second-floor installation, a ball gown by Giambattista Valli. It consists of a flouncy, tulle skirt that fades from crimson at its top to pale pink near the floor. It's surprisingly topped by a red shirt with white piping resembling a bowling shirt or a waitress uniform. Besides being gorgeous, then, it's also a witty play with incongruous signifiers, a kind of a joke appealing to high-end fashion sophisticates.

Appropriately, Mr. Valli's haute couture dress appears in a section titled "Extravagant" - "the domain of glamour, seduction and excess," as a museum label puts it.

At the funky end of the aesthetic spectrum is a collection of goofy, cartoonish stuffed creatures called Afreaks: dog-size chimeras covered in intricately patterned colored beads, by the Haas Brothers, the twins Nikolai and Simon. They are products of a collaboration between the brothers and a group of about 25 expert beaders - all women who now proudly call themselves the Haas Sisters and who live in Khayelitsha, South Africa, a settlement near Cape Town. The Haases didn't just contract the women to fabricate predetermined designs but involved them from the start in visualizing imaginary animals and determining as well as executing the beadwork. In these sweetly grotesque beasts you see visual beauty - in the beaded patterns if not the comically ugly critters - admirably united with human goodness.

Between Mr. Valli's gown and the Haas Brothers' and Sisters' Afreaks are hundreds of useful objects, including lamps, furniture and office products, as well as jewelry, weavings and graphically punchy posters. Large photographs depict improbable women's hairdos by Guido Palau and makeup by Pat McGrath. Displayed on mannequin hands are elaborately ornamental fingernails, painted and with tiny, jewel-like sculptural elements by the Japanese manicurist Naomi Yasuda.

Pop-Victorian wallpaper by Studio Job accents the museum's stairwells. An installation in one closet-size room represents a Smell Lab where the Berlin-based aroma designer Sissel Tolaas "simulates complex and often transgressive olfactory experiences." Outside the lab, Ms. Tolaas has covered a 14-foot-wide wall with scratch-and-sniff paint imbued with smells of Central Park, including grass, car exhaust and horse manure.

Nearly everything is more or less stylish, elegant and sensuously attractive. But if you're looking for a kind of beauty that stuns, that makes your pulse race, gives your stomach butterflies and pushes you to the brink of fainting, you'll be disappointed. There's little that you could call mind-bogglingly beautiful in the show, which was organized by Andrea Lipps and Ellen Lupton, both Cooper Hewitt curators, in consultation with an international committee of six advisers. It looks as if it was determined by committee. That's a weakness, but it's a strength, too, if you see the exhibition as an open-ended inquiry. In that respect, the catalog is particularly useful as the bulk of it is devoted to interviews in which nearly all the designers are asked for their thoughts about beauty. Jean Yu, a Korean-American designer of Minimalist women's undergarments, says: "It has a transporting quality. I feel light and buoyant and can move past the 'container' to feel connected to all else."

"Otaared" (2014) by Neri Oxman, founder of the MIT Media Labs Mediated Matter group,
is a 3-D printed wearable device for extraterrestrial explorers. Credit Byron Smith for The New York Times

Some of the show's most intriguing items are science fictional. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, a British artist with no formal scientific training, designs small, artificial life-forms that are intended to help cleanse the earth of pollutants. A set of four slugs, 3-D printed in clear resin, represent machines engineered to neutralize acidic soils. Neri Oxman, founder of the MIT Media Lab's Mediated Matter group, has created a pair of 3-D printed, weirdly organic, vividly colorful wearable devices for extraterrestrial explorers. A museum label explains, "Oxman imagines seeding printed internal capillaries with microorganisms that could digest biological waste and hydrocarbons, enabling human survival on distant planets." Shades of "Dune," or "The Martian."

The exhibition's most provocative examples of beauty, playing on a screen, are opening titles and credits for several critically acclaimed TV shows by Elastic, a design studio in Santa Monica, Calif. Those for both seasons of "True Detectives" are surrealistic montages of worried faces, bleak landscapes and atmospheric commotion, summing up with terrific intensity the show's noirish melodrama. One for "Masters of Sex" is a comical sequence of sexually suggestive but not explicit images, like an erupting champagne bottle. Such short movies project a kind of beauty that burrows through the eyes and into the souls of millions all over the globe and around the clock. Whether that's a good sort of beauty is debatable, depending on how suspicious you may be of the entertainment industry. But it's hard to resist its canny allure.

"Beauty - Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial," continues through Aug. 12 at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street, Manhattan; 212-849-8400, cooperhewitt.org.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C29 of the New York edition with the headline: In the Eye of the Beholder, and Even the Nose. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Cooper Hewitt Triennial Offers a Bold Look at 'Beauty'

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Art Review This year's version of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's always interesting Design Triennial boldly ventures to tackle one of the most controversial topics in today's visual culture. With more than 250 works by 63 designers from around the world in a jam-packed, two-floor show, "Beauty" is a mixed, visually cacophonous bag in terms of quality.