"Designers need to be mavericks, because the best way to design a successful object is to pretend that either it never existed or that people will be able to have a new behavior with it. "
Italian native Paola Antonelli is one of the world's foremost experts on design. She is senior curator of the architecture and design department at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and as of 2012, its inaugural director of research and development. A much-sought-after speaker on the role of design in today's technology-saturated world, Antonelli is known for her work on MoMA shows such as Design and the Elastic Mind, which considered the relationship of design and technology, and Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects. In 2012, she led a move to acquire 14 video games for MoMA to create a new branch of the museum's permanent collection. Antonelli has taught design history and theory at UCLA and Harvard and is the author of Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design (HarperCollins, 2005) and other books based on her exhibits for MoMA. She is a contributor to What Makes a Great Exhibition?, published by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in 2006.
