Li 1

Viola Li

Academic Writing 5

03/27/22

Chamber of Horrors

Chamber of Horrors

What defines bad design? The Chamber of Horrors which displayed in the Great

Exhibition by sir Henry Cole answered the question in 1851.1 The exhibition was

aimed to show people what are the “good tastes”. However, designs and aesthetics

been changed over 200 years, and the purpose of my exhibition of Chamber of

Horrors would be showing the beauty of imperfection. Although designs had been

improved over these years since more people have the chance to concern art, bad

designs still exist because of the liberal quantity of designs.

The Chamber of Horrors was designed during the industry revolution in 1851. In that

period, sir Henry Cole decided to built an exhibition that displays designs which did

not reach Henry Cole’s aesthetic standards.2 His purpose was to make an

improvement of “the character of national manufactures” and a guide to develop

public’s good aesthetic. However, it’s not a long term solution by only displays them

without appreciate the beauty of imperfection.

1“V&a · Building the Museum.” n.d. Victoria and Albert Museum. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/
building-the-museum#slideshow=31131014&slide=0.
2 “V&a · Building the Museum.”

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The first design I chose to displays on my Chamber of Horror is the table lamp from

Henry Cole’s selection. I think the design can be described as a good design instead

of a chamber of horror. Cole made a comment on the table lamp in a museum label.

The label of the object made my Cole said “This table lamp is also dismissed as being

‘a direct imitation of nature’ and therefore ‘possessing unfitness of purpose.’”3

However, I think the “imitation of nature” should not be an “unfitness of purpose”.

There are still people who like artificial flowers because they made us appreciate the

flower itself without worrying about the withered flowers. The designer perfectly

imitated the flower in nature and used some design method that makes the table lamp

looks like a flower. The color selection is also perfectly matched with the blue and

gold colors, and I think they made the design elegant and graceful. In conclusion, I

think the design of the table lamp is fine because the “imitation of nature” is not an

“unfitness of purpose”.

The second one is an over-decorated Turkey wine bottle from my classmate Kuan-Yu

Lee. Although there’re too many strange decorations on it, we can still find a sense of

beauty of the wine bottle. He made a comment which is “This is the gypsum wine

bottle from Turkey, it is look like a coral or king oyster mushrooms. This objects

meets the Cole's false principle of lack of symmetry, formless confusion, disregard

for structural form, and concentration on the superficial aspects of the design. The

overall bottle has been carved with the complex pattern and shapes that representing

Turkey culture. The shape of the bottle was disorderly, and it's difficult for people to

3 “V&a · Building the Museum.”

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understand it's a wine bottle. The bottle has too much emphasis on its surface by

complicate carving.”4 I agree with him that the design is too complex and the

distorted shape made the bottle looks strange, but it provides a sense of Turkey style

that you can not feel in any other design. The imperfection of the bottle’s shape

happens to be the feeling of a natural object, and I can see it is handmade rather than

a general design.

Last object is a cup that looks like a frog from Karin Shibuya. It’s also showed us the

beauty of imperfection in a cute way. Her comment for the cup is “This is a cup in the

shape of frog. I made this works of pottery when I was 8 years old in elementary

school. It was first time I made a pottery, so it is an awkward shape. First, it

is not symmetrical. When I put this cup on the desk, the cup is wobbly and unstable.

Next, it's appearance confuse its purpose. The opening of this cup is too thick, so it

is hard to drink the water in the cup. Thus, this object meets Cole’s False

Principles for two reasons.”5 I think the cup is attractive in an unusual way. Although

the design was rough and it’s not functional because you can’t drink water by using

the cup, the big two eyeballs that were added on the lid give a visual impact to the

audience and made it looks adorable rather than weird. That is another example of the

beauty of imperfection because it’s would be normal and plain if it was well-designed

and well-colored.

4 Kuan-Yu Lee. <https://canvas.newschool.edu/courses/1618583/discussion_topics/7529189>

5 Karin Shibuya. <https://canvas.newschool.edu/courses/1618583/discussion_topics/7529189>

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Our aesthetics and our points of art are changing nowadays, we should be not used

only one set of standards to evaluate all the designs. I think it would be better to

appreciate imperfection because every work made by designers have their unique

meaning. The biggest purpose of my Chamber of Horror is to remind people to

respect all the designs by showing the imperfection in the world.