"Do Not Touch!"

A chair constructed from a single length of bent wire sits on an art gallery pedestal. Visitors are encouraged to trace its contours with an attached wire loop. But be careful. As with carnival games, if metal meets metal, the visitor is startled by a warning — an electronic voice barks out “Do not touch!” like an irascible museum guard.

The chair is British designer Dominic Wilcox’s contribution to “About a Minute,” the inaugural exhibition at The Gopher Hole, a London gallery devoted to edgy explorations in architecture, design and art. The show’s title refers to the conviction that in our distractable society, no single artwork will secure more than 59 seconds of a viewer’s attention. Wilcox set out to defeat this dour estimate with an interactive honeytrap.

A society that engages in “exponential hyperactive consumption,” in the words of the show’s organizers, is thus being asked to slow down. But will it? The “Do Not Touch Chair” is basically an exercise in hand-eye coordination. I’m guessing a generation of video gamers will make fast work of it.

“About a Minute” features more than a dozen contributors, from architectural visionary Rachel Armstrong to poet Luke Wright. It's on view through February 14, 2011.

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l totally disagree, if you see a work of art/design/architecture that is of exceptional quality some do use a lot of time on it.
The problem is there are few works that is worth the time, as most of what you see are just average ... , as "About a Minute" is. Sorry.
Pace Explorer, cought my attention, the meaning, as I am norwegian!

Elisabeth Knap
12.21.10 at 12:16

Never satisfied with titles, I switched from "Pace Explorer" (a bad pun) to the existing headline. I hope Norwegians will still be tempted to open the piece.

Julie Lasky
12.21.10 at 12:25

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Lasky is editor of Change Observer. She was previously editor-in-chief of I.D. and Interiors, and managing editor of Print. Lasky has contributed to The New York Times, Metropolis, Dwell, Eye, Slate and NPR.
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