March 22, 2010

Symbolic Acquisition

Last year, Klaus Biesenbach extended MoMA’s permanent collection of performance art beyond video & photo documentation to the performance itself, a move that foreshadowed the current Marina Abramovic retrospective. (It’s quite good, at least for someone who has had nominal exposure to her work. Highly recommended.)

Today, in what they are regarding as a similar move, MoMA expands its definition of design—or perhaps its role as an arbiter of design—by celebrating the ‘acquisition’ of the @ (at) sign, imbuing the symbol with a new layer of meaning as it becomes “art object befitting MoMA’s collection.” In other words, if the ‘@’ sign “does not declare itself a work of design,” then it is befitting, if not altogether necessary for the institution to do so, knowingly asserting itself as a conceptual creator à la Duchamp.

I don’t know how I feel about the smug implication that MoMA is doing us a favor by sharing this design gem with the world—the ‘@’ sign isn’t quite the same as, say, a UNESCO World Heritage Site—but it’s nice of them to share its history and significance (without mentioning Twitter).