On Introducing Art into the Design of Traffic Lights

Abstract

It is obvious that the appearance of both business and residential sections of cities at present is primarily controlled by economic rather than human considerations. Furthermore, the tone of the appearance of business sections is set by visual advertising. Sometimes architects in residential sections sacrifice the needs of man to the decoration of nature. I strongly feel that such aberrations should not be allowed in cities of the future. The above comments refer to the exterior appearance of cities. When one turns to modern fine art shown in cities of many countries one finds that non-figurative art in traditional media is broadly presented, in spite of the fact that the general public has as yet not found such art congenial. Perhaps kinetic art will be better received in view of the popularity of the cinema and television. However, I find that much of kinetic art still has bourgeois overtones, that is, it is conservative. What I feel we need is messages of ethical content for social collectives. After the long period of evolution of living matter on the Earth, we find that man has become the most powerful force controlling nature because he is able to reason. Human desires frequently conflict with the balance of nature and now we find that in many parts of the world man has not used his reason well, for nature is being despoiled. It appears that man began to make objects, which we call art objects, for magical and decorative purposes after he learned to use tools. These objects were based primarily on macroscopic aspects of nature and reached a high degree of accurate representation during recent historical times. There was a strong interplay between various ways of making art objects and technology but during the past century the impact on art of rapidly expanding scientific knowledge of nature and of man, and technology has been especially noticeable. Man has learned to control nature to the extent of using the energy of the atom, of constructing complex devices to permit exploration with instruments and with men of extraterrestrial space and of celestial bodies of our solar system, and of successfully transplanting internal organs in men and animals. I believe the artist must take into account these