What is “sensuous impulse” in design?
Where do we see it manifest, today or historically?
Sensuous impulse is a style which occurred in the 1700s and became an important part of the rococo movement. Rococo itself uses the senses and a specific “S” Shaped curvature to express and create more natural and more organic objects, mimicking to an extent the female form.
Rococo became most popular in the 1800s within Europe. The times had changed, there was more wealth and more spending on tertiary products. Through “Sensuous Impulse” people had a way of expressing their wealth and or taste. A much different style to the previous uniformity.
Sensuous impulse over time has become less and less evident. However, it still exists and influences modern objects. Although modernism seems to have taken over, rococo style still exists depending on your location. Modern houses are smaller in scale versus the old style mansions of Europe. For example, the image provided, modern, yet very relative to the S curvature and fluidity of the rococo period. (Lila Jang). Was and is, made for modernist homes, but kept parts of the old sensuous design edge.
Where do we see it manifest, today or historically?
Sensuous impulse is a style which occurred in the 1700s and became an important part of the rococo movement. Rococo itself uses the senses and a specific “S” Shaped curvature to express and create more natural and more organic objects, mimicking to an extent the female form.
Rococo became most popular in the 1800s within Europe. The times had changed, there was more wealth and more spending on tertiary products. Through “Sensuous Impulse” people had a way of expressing their wealth and or taste. A much different style to the previous uniformity.
Sensuous impulse over time has become less and less evident. However, it still exists and influences modern objects. Although modernism seems to have taken over, rococo style still exists depending on your location. Modern houses are smaller in scale versus the old style mansions of Europe. For example, the image provided, modern, yet very relative to the S curvature and fluidity of the rococo period. (Lila Jang). Was and is, made for modernist homes, but kept parts of the old sensuous design edge.
from Jessica Christini:
What I feel the sensuous impulse in design is the human want for natural things. It is being spontaneous and letting our senses take hold rather than what is ‘accepted’ or what rules state it should be. In this way nature has a massive influence over more sensual design as it stimulates more than one of our senses constantly and is therefore attractive to us as it allows us interaction - a flower can look pretty but once we pick it up we can smell it and feel its texture. Nature is also very curved - there are very few linear things like what modern design demands but there are plenty of curvy features of nature - including the human body, mainly the woman body.
In this way I feel that it manifests not only historically or today - I feel it manifests constantly. An example, however, of modern sensuous design comes from Front Studio. Simply it is a horse (an organic thing) as functioning lamp (a purposeful thing). A lot of what Front Studio does embraces the rococo thought process but keeps it purposeful as well.
