Week 8: Stefan Sagmeister.
- Pei Enn
- Jun 17, 2020
- 2 min read
The first time I've heard about him was when a lecturer recommended me to do some research about him and Jessica Walsh, but I never really put any thought into it. But eventually in another class, we were told to study about his film called The Happy Film, and I enjoyed every second of it.
I have no idea why am I so attracted to him and his artwork but during Hillman Curtis Artist Series, when Hillman asks Bob Gill what does he think of Stefan, all he said was "Hot.". And at that moment I realized I couldn't agree more. I think it is cause of how real his works are, and how well he turns design into art, it's just brilliant. HAHAHA. Okay enough of me horsing around, let's dive into his work.
The Happy Film.
The start of the movie, which was surprisingly ironic.
The content of the film revolves around happiness but he narrowed it down to 3 different ways to gets happiness and he took himself as a test subject. The film was portrayed in a really raw meaning where there's no filter, or sugar-coating to make the film aesthetically pleasing, but in a way of showing how humane it is to portray feelings into an art. And I've also learned about how he records his daily data to keep track of how he is feeling on a daily basis. (Heller, 2016)
2. The Happy Show.
The first thing you see as you walk in the exhibition.
Yes, it's related to the work above but, this exhibition doesn't focus on himself but he uses the data he collected and turn it into art in the exhibit itself. The exhibition consists of an interactive installation that takes people inside the mind of Stefan Sagmeister when he experiences the different methods of gaining happiness which was mediation, cognitive therapy, and drugs. And there's one particular set up that I took interest the most, which was 10 gumball machine lined together, labeled 1-10, with the question at the bottom, "HOW HAPPY ARE YOU?". As visitors takes a gumball, and the emptied part of the machine will create a chart for the people who been through the show. (Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show, (n.d.)
The Gumball Chart.
Citation:
Steven Heller, (2016, September 5), The Happy Film: Famed Designer Stefan Sagmeister's Wild, Unsettling Pursuit of Bliss, WIRED.
Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show, (n.d.), MOCA.
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