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Book Review: Aluminum by Design: Jewelry to Jets
12-26-02
Start with a stunning photo album that captures the history of aluminum. Overlay thoughtful essays by scholars discussing the symbiosis between the designer and the aluminum industry over different eras in a number of important market areas. Add vignettes focusing on specific people and events. Top it off with a glossary of technical terms and an extensive reading list of books and periodicals that provide the resources for further study. The result: Aluminum by Design: Jewelry to Jets, the published work documenting the efforts of the Carnegie Museum of Art and curator Sarah Nichols in particular to capture in an interdisciplinary manner the creative use of aluminum from a variety of perspectives. This is a book that should be on the coffee table of everyone to whom aluminum is important, because through understanding the light metal's history, its present is so much richer.
Aluminum by Design began in 1997, when the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh approached the Alcoa Foundation with the proposal for a multidisciplinary examination of the contribution to the evolution of design. Through the Foundation's financial support and the efforts of the Museum's staff, an exhibition entitled Aluminum by Design: Jewelry to Jets opened in Pittsburgh in 2000, and is now travelling to other cities around the world. While the book version catalogues the items in the exhibition and illustrates many of them in photographs, it is much more than just a picture book.
The core of the book is six essays, by Ms. Nichols as well as others, each of which takes a different perspective on the evolution of aluminum's development and application, with a keen eye on the role of the designer both influencing and being influenced by this process. Perhaps Ms. Nichols said it best in her overview essay when she states "as a product of social invention and human ingenuity, a case study of aluminum provides insight into the broader political and economic currents prevalent at certain historical moments. Aluminum, in turn, has had profound effects on modern life, both embodying and shaping modernity as concept and as lived experience." This initial essay summarizes the key developments, including the evolution of aluminum from precious metal to commodity, the role that aluminum played in World War II and the resulting industrial dynamics, and how today aluminum competes vigorously in the three key market areas of transportation, packaging, and construction. She also notes "the boundaries that aluminum crosses and the multitude and variety of successful applications attest to its versatility."
Robert Friedel's essay "A New Metal! Aluminum in its 19th Century Context" certainly provides a complete historical picture of the metal's discovery and evolution. An 1859 quote from Henri Sainte-Claire DeVille in De l'aluminium states "nothing is more difficult to admit to the customs of life and introduce into the habits of men a new material, however great may be its utility." While reflecting on the case for aluminum in the early days, it is a sentiment that rings true to all those working to promote new materials today. The "context" that Friedel promises in the essay's title is delivered in the form of insights regarding the view of the extraction of aluminum as a victory of science over nature, the excitement generated with the new production processes in the late 1800's that would make aluminum the "ultimate metal", and the interplay between the development of aluminum smelting and the availability of reliable electricity for electrolysis. His concluding remark is that "one of the virtues of aluminum's story is its eloquent denial of the role of necessity in the expansion of our material world".
A perspective of the role of aluminum in building and construction is presented in the essay "From Precious to Pervasive: Aluminum and Architecture" by Dennis Doordan. Doordan's argument is that aluminum became a pervasive material in architecture due to the confluence of a number of "forces", which he identifies as "an aluminum industry eager to build markets, manufacturers of building products looking for ways to improve their products (and hence profits), and the design theories that inspired modern architects." The 1930's were the decade in which aluminum began to be regularly considered for architectural use, and development of such products as aluminum curtain wall facilitated progress. This essay also notes that resistance to the use of aluminum in architecture came from "cultural conservatives" as well as industrial and trade groups with a stake in the existing materials of the building industry, so the story is not a simple one of unbridled enthusiasm and application.
The essay of Penny Sparke entitled "Cookware to Cocktail Shakers: The Domestication of Aluminum in the United States, 1900-1939" draws the strongest links between the developments in aluminum products and the change in the social fabric of the time. During this period there was a change in the role of the housewife from the "scientific" model in which the rational women was preoccupied with efficiency, health, and safety to the "Mrs. Consumer" model, a more "irrational" one in which the emotional aspects of domesticity were valued. Sparke makes the argument that the aluminum industry, rather than just reflecting the cultural change during this period, became an agent of that change. The development and marketing of aluminum cookware reflected the increasing responsibility of the housewife vis a vis domestic help in the early part of this time period. With time there was a shift from the utilitarian to the artistic, and the role of designers of household goods became more important. The role of aluminum in this area reached its conclusion with the onset of World War II, with the need to divert aluminum for wartime use. Stainless steel largely replaced aluminum in many household applications after the war, and thus aluminum has not returned to its earlier prominence.
The fifth essay in the series addresses the postwar era. Entitled "Aluminum: A Competitive Material of Choice in the Design of New Products: 1950 to the Present" was written by Craig Vogel. By the mid-twentieth century, aluminum had had three identities: precious metal, cheap raw material competing for low end production applications, and then a high performance, mass produced material after World War II. Vogel notes that "during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, aluminum became the material that best exemplified the attempt by industry and the U.S. government to apply the advances of science and technology to the design and fabrication of objects that would be accessible and affordable to the ever-expanding middle class in their everyday lives". Through examples, application of two basic and distinct styles of design, engineering design focused on material performance and manufacturing and industrial design that is more sensitive to ergonomics and aesthetics, are contrasted. Fascinating case studies of aluminum seating, anodized products, sporting goods, and the beverage container competition are discussed to illustrate these contrasts in this essay.
The final essay is "Aluminum and the New Materialism" by Paola Antonelli. This essay observes that materials have catalyzed the efforts of contemporary designers, and the power of aluminum "resides in both its ability to evoke nostalgia for the past and the technical possibilities allowed by its flexible nature as a material." The focus here is on the pure design element and how aluminum has been used as a "material of accents", playing the role of "a great character actor." The closing sentences of this essay capture one view of aluminum's future in design: "Aluminum can not help but embody the optimism that accompanies a reorientation toward a better, cleaner, simpler world. It is the material that best expresses nostalgia for the future."
Following the six essays are 42 "Highlights", two page illustrated pieces that profile a person, development, or event that contributed to aluminum's history from a design viewpoint. With subjects ranging from Napoleon III to contemporary cars, this section further enhances and brings into perspective the sometimes seemingly disparate events that have brought aluminum to its present state.
A Glossary of Technical Terms provides "laymen's" definitions of the jargon used in the aluminum industry to enable to reader to suitably understand the descriptions in the prior sections. A discussion of the various spellings of the metal (aluminum vs. aluminium) is included that provides a different account than the commonly held "printer's error" theory. The book concludes with a listing of books and periodicals for further reading as well as an index to the works in the exhibition.
Article provided courtesy of The Aluminum Association - www.aluminum.org
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