The Evolution of Forms: Introduction

I recently went to the museum of science and technology in Ottawa Canada with my daughters. They had it completely renovated, and all of the exhibits were redone, it was always one of my favorite museums, so I was excited to see the changes. While I was there, I was shocked to see some all to familiar pieces. In the home and living section they had different appliances and there lined up with all other fridges and stoves was my easy bake oven and the newer version that my niece got a few years later. It was strange to see my easy bake oven sitting there but yes that was over 20 years now, but that doesn’t feel like history to me. We then moved into the music section where again I was hit by my iPod sitting on display, handheld devices- my blackberry and portable tech - my smartwatch.

I tell you this story because I want to highlight that we don’t feel history being written. This is our present and even the things that happen to us don’t feel old enough to be considered historic our likely even notable. Forms are also like this, but unlike tech in a museum, the audience of people who care about the history of forms is probably a lot smaller. Personally, I find it very interesting especially because we are in a very interesting historic period right now.

In this series I am going to look at where forms originated and how they evolved, what is going on today in the present with forms and make some predictions as to where I think forms are going to go in the future. I hope this excited you too and has enticed you to watch out for the rest of this series where we explore the eras of forms together.