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Unpacking the Nano Exhibition

Unpacking the Nano: An Investigation of the Latest People’s Car is an exhibition at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The exhibition, which runs through March 27, 2011, features a disassembled Nano car made by India’s Tata Motors.

From the release:

The world may soon be profoundly changed by a single object, one which the typical American could buy using a credit card. In June, India’s Tata Motors began production of the world’s most affordable car: the Tata Nano. Selling for a mere $2,500, the Nano is financially within reach for 500 million Indians. And with 250,000 produced in 2010, this car is the equivalent to the second coming of Ford’s Model T. The Nano is poised to socially, physically, and environmentally revolutionize India—the world’s largest democracy, a nuclear power, and a place of vast and underused resources—and could spark monumental change that ripples across the globe.

Cornell University’s exhibition, Unpacking the Nano, is the first in the United States to explore the car’s design and potential impact while also serving as a critical assessment of U.S. auto culture. The exhibition features a production Nano dismantled and suspended in air in its 2,000 constituent parts, and assigns weight, price, and environmental impact to the 1,400-pound car. The exhibition also features an intact Nano, a Tata Motors’ concept vehicle consisting of two used motor scooters welded together, and a 25-foot-diameter balloon representing the Nano’s annual emissions floating in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum’s sculpture garden.

Click here for Unpacking the Nano events.

Exhibition Team & Sponsorship
Codirected by Kent Kleinman, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of Architecture, Art, and Planning; Aleksandr Mergold, visiting assistant professor of architecture. Symposium organized by Kent Kleinman and Mary Norman Woods, professor of architectural theory. Sponsored by Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Exhibition design team also includes Spencer Lapp, Ben Widger, Sarah Haubner, Nikole Bouchard, Gabriel Hohag, Frank Parish, Andrew Fu, Laura Kennedy, Roberto Soto, Jeremy Siegel. See the full team list.

Photos courtesy of Spencer Lapp.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.