Today's Cultural Maneuvers seminar revolved around the car, or more specifically the car as a piece of art or sculpture.
We viewed a Ted Talk by Chris Bangle in 2002 about how the model of a car is basically a piece of art in itself. He expressed a type of feeling of falling in love with his craft, of falling in love with the car itself. As someone who has never really been interested in cars, I find this idea kind of amusing. I have never understood the obsession with cars, their purpose is for transport, the idea of a 'beautiful' car seems unnecessary to me.
However, I can see how that's quite small minded of me... I guess it's like fashion... the purpose of clothing is to cover us up and keep us warm. Though that doesn't mean clothes can't be beautiful, fashion is incredibly important to identity and style, so I suppose that could apply to cars as well.
Bangle went on to talk about a story of how his group of engineers and designers went on a 3 month holiday to gain inspiration for a new car design called 'deep-blue'. However there was a great divide in communication between the two group, and as a result, no designs were made.
Bangle was obviously distraught, but later he remembered something he learnt about in marriage... Love isn't selfish.
He decided then to not be angry anymore, but to TRUST the two groups that they can grow together and work on their communication. Even though a lot of ties were cut that day, however in the end, that group ended up creating a lot of Brillant stuff over the later years.
It's a sweet message, more about teamwork that the necessity of a motor. Although, I can understand the desire for design now, however I still feel as if it is unnecessary.
I agree with Michael Pinsky's views, that travel in a car is only necessary in the countryside, but in a place like a city, it isn't. There are so many different, more efficient ways to travel around the city that a fancy car just seems... frivolous.
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