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Nov 2, 2011

"Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults." --Henri Frederic Amiel

The Potential for Design

"Design is an inescapable dimension of human activity. To adapt one of my favorite quotes by Reyner Banham, like the weather it is always there, but we speak about it only when it is exceptionally bad or exceptionally good. Design is also a powerful political tool, as pharaohs, queens, presidents, and dictators throughout history have taught us. It comes not only in very visible and traditional applications -- in the national identities expressed by currencies, symbols, monuments, an public buildings -- but also in less apparent and yet equally momentous applications such as the design of complex systems, ranging from territorial infrastructures to the planning of new communities, and the translation of technological and social innovation for the use of the population." Paola Antonelli, senior curator of Design and Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, further explores the potential for design.