Philosophy
by
Emma Allen
October 11th, 2012
The New Yorker
Toys are getting less cuddly—batteries often included, use in the bathtub not advised. It’s no wonder, then, that some of the historic toys in “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, have been baffling younger visitors.
“What are those?” a recent museumgoer wailed, pounding small fists against a display case.
“Stop that!” the boy’s mother answered. “They’re blocks, O.K.?”
“But what’s inside the blocks?” the boy yelled. “What’s inside the blocks?”
A bit later, two grownups stood before the same display. One, a woman, clutched a stack of papers. The other, a man in ripped jeans, had hair that could have used a maternal patting down. Perhaps these two could offer a more satisfying answer to the boy’s query.
“One of the revolutionary things about blocks is that girls could be architects, builders, with these toys as easily as boys,” the woman, who had a crisp British accent, said.
“I love how the shapes are just really rudimentary, like, a cone, a cube, and yet you can make a tower, which is cool!” the man said gleefully.
The woman was Juliet Kinchin, a MOMA curator, an expert in Central European modernism. Her guest was Jordan Hembrough, a self-proclaimed “Star Wars” connoisseur and the host of “Toy Hunter,” a reality television series on the Travel Channel, in which he paws through the attics and basements of vintage-toy enthusiasts.
In the next gallery, the pair admired Bauhaus nursery furniture from the early nineteen-twenties.
“The cupboard door you could pull open and perform a puppet show through the window, and then you could make these boxes into a train, or a car, or giant building blocks,” Kinchin explained.
“I see a lot of people saving the simple things—the Lincoln Logs, the blocks—for their children, saying, ‘Look at what Grandma played with,’ ” Hembrough said. “I have two teen-agers, and the other day my son downloaded marbles on his iPhone. I said, ‘I’ll buy you real marbles; we’ll go outside and get down on the ground’ ”—Hembrough got onto his hands and knees and squirmed around to demonstrate—“ ‘and we’ll shoot marbles.’ ”
Kinchin walked on, past wall text from the 1915 Futurist Manifesto that read, “The Futurist toy will be very useful to the adult too, because it will keep him young, nimble, joyful, carefree, ready for anything, tireless, instinctive and intuitive.”
“Here we are—Slinky,” Kinchin said, pointing to the perennial favorite, from 1945. “The thing I remember about the Slinky is the noise, the smell of the metal, the feel of it in your little hands.”
“I can’t believe you just said smell, because that’s what collectors always talk about. When we were kids, we’d have our brand-new action figures in their packages and we’d take them out and”—Hembrough breathed deeply—“smell the plastic.” (He revealed later that in his pocket, in a Baggie, was a rare Boba Fett figurine, a kind of secret talisman, which he valued at more than a thousand dollars.)
“Play-Doh,” Kinchin said wistfully. “Yes, of all the senses, smell and taste really do trigger some intense memories.”
Passing an exhibit charting the simultaneous development of Soviet and American space-themed toys in the sixties, Hembrough remembered a call he’d recently received from a childhood friend of Neil Armstrong, who said he had a bunch of the late astronaut’s things.
“I asked, What are they? And they were tin rocket ships,” Hembrough said.
“It’s just such a primeval kid’s dream to fly, to go into outer space,” Kinchin said.
Gazing at screens displaying Tetris, Sim City, and Katamari Damacy, Kinchin said, “We’ve just started to collect these classic video games. It’s very difficult—what are you collecting? We’re collecting the interface, so it’s about intellectual design.”
Hembrough said, “After a while, the electronics break down, things burn out.”
“Everything has its own conservation and storage issues,” Kinchin said.
“Like, you don’t want to be storing blocks where there are termites,” Hembrough said. “I always say, Toys should live where you live.”
As the pair walked out, a security guard could be heard scolding a middle-aged visitor, who had just snapped a photo.
“There’s a ‘No Photography’ sign right there!” the guard said. “If I catch you doing that again, I will take away your phone.”
- Felt Art
Still thinking about Ludwig von Beethoven and the nature of art. Here was an artist who lost his ability to perceive his own art form and all those connected with hearing -- music and the spoken word. But, there were others art forms still open to him....
- Chinese Scale Models...tiangong
"Toys for Tiangong" by Morris Jones August 9th, 2011 Space Daily Wanna buy a spaceship? No, you can't have the real thing. But you can buy a model at a reasonable price. That's been the driving force behind a strongly entrenched...
- Physics Central's Toys/physics Contest
Toys...physics...trophy...$l,000--WHAT A DEAL. Physics Central, a subdivision of the American Physical Society is sponsoring a contest. Like tossing yo-yos? Ever wanted to unravel the mystery of the drinking bird? Then the Toy Box Physics video contest...
- Science Toys
Never too old to have some fun with science toys. "Science toys" Tim Rowett is an avid collector of science-related toys. Robert P Crease and son drop in to play with them. by Robert P Crease January 5th, 2009 physicsworld.com "I have a low boredom...
- Ig Nobel Project Candidate For 2009?
Van Allan Eau De Cologne "What does outer space smell like?" October 16th, 2008 ITV.com Ever wondered what space smells like? Well, a British chemist knows and he's now recreating the odour in a laboratory. For those of you who can't wait until...
Philosophy
A "toy story" from the past
"Toys at MOMA"
by
Emma Allen
October 11th, 2012
The New Yorker
Toys are getting less cuddly—batteries often included, use in the bathtub not advised. It’s no wonder, then, that some of the historic toys in “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, have been baffling younger visitors.
“What are those?” a recent museumgoer wailed, pounding small fists against a display case.
“Stop that!” the boy’s mother answered. “They’re blocks, O.K.?”
“But what’s inside the blocks?” the boy yelled. “What’s inside the blocks?”
A bit later, two grownups stood before the same display. One, a woman, clutched a stack of papers. The other, a man in ripped jeans, had hair that could have used a maternal patting down. Perhaps these two could offer a more satisfying answer to the boy’s query.
“One of the revolutionary things about blocks is that girls could be architects, builders, with these toys as easily as boys,” the woman, who had a crisp British accent, said.
“I love how the shapes are just really rudimentary, like, a cone, a cube, and yet you can make a tower, which is cool!” the man said gleefully.
The woman was Juliet Kinchin, a MOMA curator, an expert in Central European modernism. Her guest was Jordan Hembrough, a self-proclaimed “Star Wars” connoisseur and the host of “Toy Hunter,” a reality television series on the Travel Channel, in which he paws through the attics and basements of vintage-toy enthusiasts.
In the next gallery, the pair admired Bauhaus nursery furniture from the early nineteen-twenties.
“The cupboard door you could pull open and perform a puppet show through the window, and then you could make these boxes into a train, or a car, or giant building blocks,” Kinchin explained.
“I see a lot of people saving the simple things—the Lincoln Logs, the blocks—for their children, saying, ‘Look at what Grandma played with,’ ” Hembrough said. “I have two teen-agers, and the other day my son downloaded marbles on his iPhone. I said, ‘I’ll buy you real marbles; we’ll go outside and get down on the ground’ ”—Hembrough got onto his hands and knees and squirmed around to demonstrate—“ ‘and we’ll shoot marbles.’ ”
Kinchin walked on, past wall text from the 1915 Futurist Manifesto that read, “The Futurist toy will be very useful to the adult too, because it will keep him young, nimble, joyful, carefree, ready for anything, tireless, instinctive and intuitive.”
“Here we are—Slinky,” Kinchin said, pointing to the perennial favorite, from 1945. “The thing I remember about the Slinky is the noise, the smell of the metal, the feel of it in your little hands.”
“I can’t believe you just said smell, because that’s what collectors always talk about. When we were kids, we’d have our brand-new action figures in their packages and we’d take them out and”—Hembrough breathed deeply—“smell the plastic.” (He revealed later that in his pocket, in a Baggie, was a rare Boba Fett figurine, a kind of secret talisman, which he valued at more than a thousand dollars.)
“Play-Doh,” Kinchin said wistfully. “Yes, of all the senses, smell and taste really do trigger some intense memories.”
Passing an exhibit charting the simultaneous development of Soviet and American space-themed toys in the sixties, Hembrough remembered a call he’d recently received from a childhood friend of Neil Armstrong, who said he had a bunch of the late astronaut’s things.
“I asked, What are they? And they were tin rocket ships,” Hembrough said.
“It’s just such a primeval kid’s dream to fly, to go into outer space,” Kinchin said.
Gazing at screens displaying Tetris, Sim City, and Katamari Damacy, Kinchin said, “We’ve just started to collect these classic video games. It’s very difficult—what are you collecting? We’re collecting the interface, so it’s about intellectual design.”
Hembrough said, “After a while, the electronics break down, things burn out.”
“Everything has its own conservation and storage issues,” Kinchin said.
“Like, you don’t want to be storing blocks where there are termites,” Hembrough said. “I always say, Toys should live where you live.”
As the pair walked out, a security guard could be heard scolding a middle-aged visitor, who had just snapped a photo.
“There’s a ‘No Photography’ sign right there!” the guard said. “If I catch you doing that again, I will take away your phone.”
- Felt Art
Still thinking about Ludwig von Beethoven and the nature of art. Here was an artist who lost his ability to perceive his own art form and all those connected with hearing -- music and the spoken word. But, there were others art forms still open to him....
- Chinese Scale Models...tiangong
"Toys for Tiangong" by Morris Jones August 9th, 2011 Space Daily Wanna buy a spaceship? No, you can't have the real thing. But you can buy a model at a reasonable price. That's been the driving force behind a strongly entrenched...
- Physics Central's Toys/physics Contest
Toys...physics...trophy...$l,000--WHAT A DEAL. Physics Central, a subdivision of the American Physical Society is sponsoring a contest. Like tossing yo-yos? Ever wanted to unravel the mystery of the drinking bird? Then the Toy Box Physics video contest...
- Science Toys
Never too old to have some fun with science toys. "Science toys" Tim Rowett is an avid collector of science-related toys. Robert P Crease and son drop in to play with them. by Robert P Crease January 5th, 2009 physicsworld.com "I have a low boredom...
- Ig Nobel Project Candidate For 2009?
Van Allan Eau De Cologne "What does outer space smell like?" October 16th, 2008 ITV.com Ever wondered what space smells like? Well, a British chemist knows and he's now recreating the odour in a laboratory. For those of you who can't wait until...