The 'blobject' comes of age

While blobjects sometimes may be whimsical and lighthearted, the thinking behind them has substance, the cocurators say. "There's something there that is deeper [in blobjects] than just 'Oh, gee, it's a cool-looking thing,' " Mara says.

Pop culture has helped visual literacy "really increase in a very exceptional and beautiful way in recent years," says Steven, echoing the ideas of Steven Johnson, whose recent book "Everything Bad Is Good for You" argues that engaging with pop culture actually makes people smarter. In the same way, cultural "pariahs" such as video games and MTV have helped people experience design in a deeper way, Steven says.

The earliest expressions of blobjects go back to ancient carvings, even to the curves of the human body itself. After World War II, the Shmoo became one of the first pop-culture icons. In Al Capp's "Lil' Abner" comic strip, the friendly blob-like characters could morph into anything that would please people, a symbol of the dawning consumer age.

The roots of blobjects also can be found in aspects of Art Nouveau, streamlining, Surrealism, even 1960s psychedelia. In the 20th century, artists such as Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, and Henry Moore explored curvaceous, blobby forms. But these were handcrafted, one-of-a-kind art objects. Now those ideas have been transformed into consumer products that are "both tool and toy," Steven says.

At their most frivolous, blobjects take the form of "cutensils" (cute utensils) - small gadgets such as staplers, hand mixers, or watering cans that look like bright, cartoon-like toys but were carefully designed with human hands in mind.

On a larger scale, the San Jose exhibition displays a Smart Car, designed by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Team in 1998. It features a podlike passenger compartment, rounded nose, smiling grille, and a friendly aura that the cocurators say makes them think of "a pet beagle."

The years since 1998 have seen the high-tech industry bubble burst (for many Bay Area companies, "all that was left was dust and a few Aeron chairs," Steven notes), anxiety over Y2K and the new millennium, and fresh concerns over personal safety spawned by the 9/11 tragedies. Reflecting these events, some versions of the cheery blobject have headed in a darker direction, "toward forms that are mutated and disturbed, morphed and stretched, dangerous and intimidating," the couple writes in a book accompanying the exhibition.

But however it evolves, they say, the blobject will continue to show itself to be "this generation's master metaphor."

• "Blobjects and Beyond: The New Fluidity in Design" is at the San Jose (Calif.) Museum of Art through July 10. The exhibition is expected to tour, but dates and venues are still to be announced. A book by the same title (Chronicle Books, $35) explains blobjects in more detail and contains photos of works in the show as well as additional examples.

Page: 1 | 2