DISRUPTORS

About

Having adopted the fundamental principles of reductionism, designer Rem D Koolhaas and industrial designer Joey Ruiter apply a minimalist approach to the look of conventional objects in independently conceived, yet complementary ways.  Both Koolhaas and Ruiter share a self-imposed mandate to strip all expectation of conformity from products ranging in scope from footwear and furniture to automobiles and motorcycles. Yet while their goals are shared, they pursue them through their own respective companies, United Nude and J. Ruiter.

Seizing an opportunity to create (and then cater to) a growing demand among enlightened, progressive consumers for the sophistication of simplicity, Koolhaas and Ruiter have eschewed a traditional design approach and in doing so left themselves free to mold familiar objects in unexpected ways.  A happy byproduct of such a practice, their simple designs also obviate many of the production problems that one would expect to encounter had the objects been more traditionally complex.

Together, Koolhaas and Ruiter jointly expose the barriers posed by currently accepted manufacturing methods, which have resulted from binary conceptualizations of production (form versus function), costs (time versus money), and resources (labor versus materials).  By eliminating gratuitous complexity, they have imbued their creations with a technical sophistication that could not have been achieved otherwise. Deliberately titled Disruptors, the Petersen Automotive Museum exhibition presents the works of two designers whose markedly different approaches upend the norm by superimposing technology and art on one another.