Rewind Remix Replay

Design, Music & Everyday Experience showcases the role that design plays in shaping our experience of music. The devices on which we listen to music, the instruments musicians play, the images of bands and concerts we regularly see and the environments where we buy and listen to music together constitute a material culture of music.

Winston Churchill famously said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”—an astute observation that extends to all material things—including our iPods, turntables, record albums and guitars. Such objects have played active roles in design history: affording specific kinds of action, encouraging certain types of behavior and eliciting particular forms of emotion. Objects of our design, they design us in return.

This exhibition focuses on iconic, innovative product designs used by music creators and consumers in five key object categories. Two of these object types are actively used in music consumption: the boombox (also known as the ghetto blaster) and the personal portable stereo (from the transistor radio to the Walkman to the iPod). Two, the synthesizer and the guitar, are used in music production. And one, the turntable, is used in both realms. This spectrum of objects forms a complex matrix of use, a kind of ecosystem involving both an “ecology” of products (their relational network) and “evolution” (historical development).

Rewind Remix Replay: Design, Music & Everyday Experience showcases objects that illustrate the relationships between design and music culture. Some are design experiments, others demonstrate engineering ingenuity. Together, they present a history of ways in which music has been produced and consumed. This history in turn illuminates the impact of design on everyday life from the late 1940s through the present, including the influence of corporations and designers who have created these products. The exhibition considers several themes: transformative technological breakthroughs, such as the vinyl record, transistor, Moog synthesizer, Walkman and MP3 player; the creative practices of users and musicians who modify existing equipment like turntables; the graphic packaging of music, from album packaging and design to music videos; the shift from music as a communal experience to an isolated private activity. The exhibition also looks at the spaces of the music store and the home environment as a means of investigating how commercial consumption of music has evolved in both the public and the private realms.

Most important, the objects and materials in this exhibition contain stories of our personal relationship to music. They have aided musicians in creating unique new sounds and have given fans and audiophiles access to musical genius in a variety of settings, which have in turn influenced the kind of music produced. They are signifiers of a constantly evolving audio culture − a culture that is visible in the chronicles of their design journeys and everyday use.