Alexandra Midal

The simultaneous emergence of the serial killer and the assembly line as expressions of the rationality of modern production methods. In 1896, at the age of 35, Henry Howard Holmes, whose real name was Herman Webster Mudget, became the first serial killer in the United States, confessing to dozens of crimes. To carry out his activities quietly, he built in Chicago a building so vast that his neighbors called it the "Ch teau." Located just a stone's throw from the most sophisticated slaughterhouses in the world, lethal, practical, and comfortable, Holmes's building was equipped with the latest innovations. A rational, cozy masterpiece of crime dressed in slippers, Holmes's project fit perfectly into the functionalist project of the modern world. In The Murder Factory, Alexandra Midal examines the almost simultaneous emergence of the industrial revolution and the figure of the serial killer. Far from being a coincidence, it marks the rationality of new production methods--of which the assembly line and serial murder are two expressions. In the Holmes case, an antihero of modern history can shed light on the treatment of living things brought about by this economic, mechanical, and cultural revolution. H. H. Holmes's confessions, published in the Philadelphia Enquirer just before his execution in April 1896, follow Midal's text.

A counterhistory and new historiography of design. In Design by Accident, Alexandra Midal declares the autonomy of design, in and on its own terms. This meticulously researched work proposes not only a counterhistory but a new historiography of design, shedding light on overlooked historical landmarks and figures while reevaluating the legacies of design's established luminaries from the nineteenth century to the present. Midal rejects both linear narratives of progress and the long-held perception of design as a footnote to the histories of fine art and architecture. By weaving critical analysis of the canon of design history and theory together, with special attention to the writings of designers themselves, she draws out the nuances and radical potentials of the discipline--from William Morris's ambivalence toward industry, to Catharine Beecher's proto-feminist household appliances, to the Bauhaus's Expressionist origins, and the influence of Herbert Marcuse on Joe Colombo.

An innovatively designed monograph on the work of Matali Crasset, one of France’s leading product designers. A darling of French industrial design, Matali Crasset has earned critical praise internationally with her unique spaces and products. Ranging from simple, ergonomic kitchen utensils to architecture, her work engages its end users by asking questions on the role design plays in their everyday lives. Crasset was awarded International Interior Designer of the Year at the British Interior Design Awards in 2004, received the Grand Prize for Design from the city of Paris in 1997, and was a previous recipient of the Premier Prix de Concours Louis Vuitton. Her work includes products and interventions for Philippe Starck (whom she worked with for five years), Established and Sons, Hermès, Swarovski, Authentics, Domeau & Pérès, Alessi, Meta/Mallet, Artemide, and others. She has also engaged in architecture in the round, including hotels in Nice and Tunisia. Raised in a small village in the north of France, where work and life were intimately bound, the designer’s formative experiences clearly inform her view on contemporary design. The uncluttered rhythms of life in the country are reflected in the simple—but often colorful—forms that have earned Crasset a name for herself in the realms of product design, interiors, architecture, and art installations. Lavishly depicted with more than three hundred sketches, concept renderings, and photographs in a unique and brightly hued book format, the projects are organized thematically, with a special emphasis on materials and process.