Philly Field Trip: Stefan Sagmeister's "The Happy Show"
Apr 12, 2012
Sagmeister at work "I am usually rather bored with definitions. Happiness, however, is such a big subject that it might be worth a try to pin it down."
Renowned designer Stefan Sagmeister has spent the last year working hard at being happy (and filming his attempts.) What's emerged is The Happy Film, a documentary about Sagmeister's three-pronged approach to finding the path to true happiness via meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy and prescription drugs. Through experiments and explorations “from the sublime to the ridiculous” loosely based on his pivotal book “Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far,” Sagmeister tests “once and for all if it’s possible for a person to have a meaningful impact on their own happiness.”
Now he's taking his show on the road with "The Happy Show," at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, running now through August 12, 2012. The exhibition, which spans the entire second floor gallery and ramp, includes a 12-minute sneak peak of the documentary as well as work from his 10-year investigation into the relationship between typography and happiness.
"To contextualize the maxims that appear throughout the exhibition, Sagmeister has gathered the social data of Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Steven Pinker, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, anthropologist Donald Symons, and several prominent historians."
Check out a quick preview of the the film's opening titles followed by glimpses of the show invitations being laser-cut from bologna (!!!)
Meanwhile: Want to see if design does in fact make you happier, enroll in one of 3rd Ward's many Design classes to find out.
