Funky Bones 

Near the Indianapolis Museum of Art lies a public artwork that consists of twenty-two white and black benches in the shape of bones. These benches are made mostly of fiberglass, but also consist of plywood and concrete. The bones are laid out in a skeleton shape. The artwork was done by Atelier Van Lieshout, an artist collective led by Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout. This artwork has been at the Indianapolis Museum of Art since May of 2010. If you are familiar at all with the book-turned-movie “The Fault In Our Stars,” you may have heard of or even seen this work of art before. In the movie, a replica was created on set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania so the Funky Bones shown is not the real piece.

This artwork made me think of the two slow design principles: Engage and Participate. Participation in the work is something that Slow Design encourages and thats exactly what Funky Bones allows people (mostly children) to do. The fiberglass material adds a foam top that makes it safe for anyone to play on, like a human jungle gym. You can sit (stand, run, jump, etc) all over the bones from one to another. This also takes on the Engage design principle because this was a collaborative piece that could help the design evolve in the future with the help of multiple people collaborating.

I will post the second artwork when I can find one