Design
Understanding Carlos Gómez Gavazzo's 'Development Calculator'
Rediscovered two years ago, researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how the thing works.
There’s an arrestingly strange, complicated object on the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan right now. Ostensibly, it’s there to welcome you into the museum’s exhibit on mid-century planning and design in Latin America. But don’t expect to understand it at first glance, and don’t be surprised if it stays in your mind as you make your way through the show.
A wooden board with metallic lines traveling over and away from painted variables and measuring sticks make up Carlos Gómez Gavazzo’s “development calculator,” which he created in 1960.