MONA
A metaphor for creativity as a whole
Strangely, many creative pursuits are surrounded by people who claim to know how things ‘should’ be done. Marketers, curators, producers are but a few that one might encounter. David Walsh, the benefactor and mastermind of MONA, is now infamous for disregarding this kind of advice.
Lets look at Advertising to begin with. It’s fair to say that in advertising we are surrounded by myths in which people claim to predict how an audience will react. R. P. Feynman the famous physicist once described however how hard it is to actually ‘know’ something. He postulated that because of the success of science a kind of ‘pseudo science’ had emerged in which people claimed to be experts in all kinds of things, but from his vantage point it would be impossible for them to accurately make those claims. Some scientists spend their whole careers on one puzzle in which they never solve.1
Advertising and market research can often fall into this category and many will reel of statements as ‘evidence’, as to how you should design something. There’s a famous great quote by Henry Ford however, that states, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’
Its nice then to speak to Leigh Carmichael the in-house designer at MONA, who states that David Walsh is abhorred by this kind of rhetoric. They now have one of the most successful brands in Australia. Their visual identity is dark, gothic, lacking in much information and mysterious. It brings to mind all the stories we have heard about its mysterious benefactor and how he might or might not have made his money. A kind of seditious robin hood of the art world, hood winking casinos of the world and throwing brazen and wanton parties with the spoilings.
The Museum of Old and New Art is self described as a ‘subversive Disneyland’ and is filled with an astounding collection of art and artifacts from around the globe. Artworks are contained in fishtanks, Nolans placed next to little known illustrators and mummy remains and secret doors lead to rooms that remind one of the human anatomy. I have heard MONA described as populist, but instead I think it is simply popular, a rarity for museums in the modern world. It reminds us that in the creative world, it never really pays that much to play by the rules.
Originally published in Poetic Tactics, 2011.
Notes:
1. FEYNMAN, R. P. (1999) The Pleasure of Finding Things Out Cambridge, Massachusetts Helix Books.
