design research and objects

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It is my dream to one day design a manhole cover. I have no idea how that might come about, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos of manhole covers I took whilst living in Japan. Like many things from Japan, they are finely designed and crafted, and sometimes wonderfully humorous.

EDIT March 2010: I’ve discovered some more nice examples of manhole covers here, and even more interestingly, an article explaining the origin of Japan’s colorful manhole covers at the Japan Times. Apparently, the covers were initially a way for central government to encourage small towns council to cover the cost of installing sewerage infrastructure, so making the covers unique and representative helped the small town politicians justify the costs to their constituents. They were so popular that bigger cities began to upgrade their own covers as well when the time came. Previous to the 1970’s and 80’s manhole covers were more conservative, and sometimes even direct copies of foreign manhole covers (I assume American?).

hidden in a garden of an izakaya in nishi-Tokyo, probably Tanashi-cho.

near Shibuya station.

from a Japanese island, I think it was Miyake Jima.

from Araichi, Arai-cho, an area famous for the fireworks basket carried by the man depicted.

and again from Toyohashi, Arai-cho, a similar graphic with Toyohashi castle in the background.

for those who are interested, many more amazing manhole covers from Japan can be found by image searching the phrase “mannho-ru “- manhole in katakana. Some of my favorites are below (not my photos, but the images link to their original source).

… and in addition there is a wonderful series of manhole covers,  which together tell a graphical story, here.

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About a year ago I recieved a phone call, out of the blue, from Arne Hendriks of Platform21, to talk about my SMASH REPAIR project, the second prototype of which he had seen on my website. He wanted to exhibit it, I told him it was in the bin. I asked, could I make another for Platform21? Yes. Would Platform21 pay for it? Yes. Could I build it at Platform21? Definitely yes. And could I also present a lecture about my ideas and philosophy of repairing (and also get paid for that)? Yes…!

Well, its not often that I hear “yes” so much, nor have such an enjoyable phone call. But that inclusive and agreeable attitude is what made Platform21 so unique; an open-minded position that drew artists and designers from all over the world and from all areas of the community.

Platform21 was conceived as experimental phase, an incubator, to precede a bigger art and design centre called Supermaker which would have its own custom built workshop and exhibition space, however, and unfortunately, I just heard that Supermaker will not get off the ground due to a lack of funding. Which means Platform21 has finally ended. A shame, but I think everyone involved should be proud of the remarkable things Platform21 achieved. The website will remain up as an archive of the cool projects they did (Hacking Ikea, the Breakfast Machine, Repair Manifesto etc.)

Platform21, goodbye.

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After setting up the Sottsass exhibition in Maastricht a few weeks ago, I traveled back to London with copies of the die-cut models. At a pub in Shortditch, I passed some around and invited my friends to assemble them together. I was interested in seeing how long it might take someone unfamiliar with the design, especially I was not going to be at the opening. The results were decent. Most could do the boxes in less than 10 minutes, even after a couple of beers. A some took longer and a few gave up – on closer inspection because they had made a incorrect assumption early on which frustrated all their later assembling decisions… Overall, pretty fun. I clocked myself at about 2 minutes for the easiest box (Yellow), but thats after making several hundred of them in Maastricht the day before

My write up of the actual exhibition and purpose of these cardboard models is here.

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My interview by Ingeborg van Lieshout from the Green Light District has been placed up on DutchDFA. Its a little long-winded, of course! but I hope you enjoy it. And thank you Ingeborg.

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These graphics are diagrams that guide the creation of a model Ettore Sottsass Superbox. Functional elements, like fold and cut lines are presented, however they are disguised by irrational elements. The density of patterning and color creates a tension between the rational and irrational. Unlike conventional schematic diagrams, this tension produces abstraction, an emanating energy. Not unlike a mandala, but for secular society; the process of balancing the tension and and ‘folding up’ the superbox mentally is the discovery of a structural truth.

The schematic sheets are designed double-sided, with an ‘authentic’ superbox on one side and a text block on the other. The box can be folded up both ways, with either the text trapped inside or presented on the outside surface.

above, from this drawing.

above, from this maquette. (notice the ‘watermelons’ – they are modelled from foam.)

above, from this prototype.

zoomed details:

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New images of the Smash Repair 3 table, a structure generated continuous cycles of smash and repair. The smashing is facilitated by ‘break lines’ that guide the direction of fractures around bolt holes, leaving the holes functionally intact, ready for repair. Pre-cut tiles are then bolted on to place broken sections back together, in time building up layers of repair in areas where structural support is needed. These photos show the structure after the ninth cycle. To find out more and see the smashing apparatus, check out the video, pictures or infosheet.

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Earlier in the year I made a post about the Austrian/Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, and his influence on my own work. Part of the post dealt with the Superboxes, marvelous and provocative “product-sculptures” he produced in the mid-60’s. They were a reaction to what he had seen and experienced earlier in India and the United States, a contrasting relationship with objects that was deep, spiritual and monogamous, on one hand, in the case of India, and fetishistic and consumerist in the case of the States.

The Superboxes bear influences from both continents. Large, and bulky, they are positioned in the middle of the rooms and dominant everything in it, something Sottsass learnt from his study of Indian objects. On the other hand, they are directly influenced from the American pop artists; their stripes and and bright colors reminiscent of Donald Judd or Jasper Johns. impressive and totemic, they operate on a kind of metaphysical wavelength, that seeks to disrupt perceptions of everyday life with a transcendental vibration.

They way we read them is not the same as conventional furniture, and in fact, drawer knobs are only occasionally visible, and the objects are not photographed with doors or drawers open. Yet they are obviously products – and sometimes they are photographed in domestic settings with pillows, hi-fi equipment and, bizarrely, melons. On closer inspection we can see the melons and pillows are made out of foam, and these Superboxes are maquettes. Nevertheless, their depiction as products is central to their message; a provocative statement on understanding objects for their spiritual qualities as opposed to only functional or aesthetic concerns.

In December this year, Lisette Smits will curate a special Superbox exhibition at the Marres Art Centre in Maastrcht, Original and re-produced Superboxes will be exhibited, with a satellite exhibition featuring contributions from four other artists and designers, including myself. My contribution is still being developed, but in the meantime I am experimenting.

The photographs that open and close this post are of a box I made recently, and which I patterned in a monstrous collage of object hyperlinking tags. In the 1960’s, Sottsass set himself the task of criticising the consumption of industrial objects, an issue which he saw, as an industrial designer, very clearly. It cannot be denied that we still consume products easily, like we consume food and air, but we now also consume information. A blanket of virtual information overlays our experience of reality. Augmented reality, the connection of real world objects to hyper-real constructs made of digital information, once conjectured, has become real. In Japan, supermarket products carrying mobile phone readable ‘QR-code‘ link to virtual information, as do movie and concert posters. Its beginning to happen in Europe too…. The proposal is enrichment – a way to manage the array of products in our lives with contextual information, but are we, in essence, only increasing the volume of information to process?

In these images, the model uses a mobile phone to reads a code embedded in the patterns on a furniture box. The patterns are made from a collage of QR, Datamatrix, Blotcode and others. The codes link to this post.

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My furniture research project, Object for Atheists, and the furniture item it inspired, LKBP, pictured, is on exhibition at the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Galleries 2009, from October 17th to 25th.

The research involved ethnography of online atheist groups, and historical analysis of the influence of religion on aesthetics. The resulting furniture presents an inversion of aesthetic function. Shelves are hidden in the back of a chest of drawers, becoming a secret to be discovered; and superseding the secretive nature of drawers. This concept is positioned as a metaphor for the continual drive of atheists to uncover and expose the mysteries of science, religion and life.

You can read through the research or download my thesis from my research journal.

The furniture is constructed from sustainably harvested bamboo with dovetail joinery, with no nails nor screws and very little glue. Four industrial strength spherical castors allow movement across the floor in all directions, so it can be rotated easily away from the wall to access the hidden bookshelf, or used free-standing as a movable partition. Drawer opening is friction-less, made possible by a novel rail and groove system from special polymers, in a very small containment space (1.5 mm) between the drawer and the case.

“Beautifully minimalistic but with enough detail to keep the eye interested. There’s also hint to the tree-of-life. Love it.”
contributor from from the online forum The Brights

Additionally, my summer project SMASH REPAIR 3 is on display at the exhibition Origin of Pieces, curated by Eindhoven designers Limited Edition Lab (L.E. Lab) during the same dates. More info here.

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2 new pictures of the SMASH REPAIR 3 table, after the 7th smash and final repair, taken outside Martijn’s studio in Eindhoven. More images can be found here on my research site, along with a somewhat lengthy schizoanalysis, manifest as 7 conceptual interpretations, which can also be downloaded here.

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In my last post I wrote about the Object Without A Story by Andrea Bandoni and Joana Meroz – a glass vase critiquing the use of stories as devices through which we understand objects. Their conclusion is that interpretation of objects should not be “monopolized” by on official story but that the object should be open enough to for the viewer to make their own meaning. This was a thesis project for Bandoni and Meroz at the Design Academy Eindhoven – by way of convergence by own thesis at the Design Academy came to a similar conclusion, but in different way.

Objects for Atheists, (object | thesis), is an attempt to give an answer to the question: Can atheism, as a social paradigm and philosophical viewpoint, be used to generate aesthetics in the same way that social systems from the past, such as the religious examples of Catholicism and Protestantism, have been used to define aesthetics?

After a field study of atheist groups online, the short answer is: not really. The online community of atheists, that has been realised by the development of the internet in the last decade or so, is far too eclectic and heterogeneous for discrete aesthetic moves to be made. This is in contrast to say, Protestantism, which possess a precise idealogy (for arguments sake lets say simplicity) which can easily manifest into aesthetic choices. And that is what the Protestants did – the Shaker’s removed all decoration from their elegant and simple wooden furniture, and the European Protestants inspired the major stylistic change of the 20th century, Modernism.

However, the long answer to the question above is Yes – the atheism movement can inspire aesthetic choices, by way of reflective modeling; capturing the essence of the community by conceptual expression. My decision was to represent the diverse and culturally expanding community by the provocation of subjective interpretation. If every viewer can produce their own personal meaning for an object, it can relieve them the acceptance of an external interpretation. The analogy here is to the submission of religious doctrine, seen by atheists as a an externally controlling, top-down, societal force. So just as atheists choose their own life beliefs, so to can they choose the meanings for objects in their lives – the ability to think freely and subjectively being a highly valued quality. In this sense, an atheist aesthetic is far from being Modern, and while closer to post-Modern, in that complexity, detail and historical sources are important tools, the aesthetic should not just be a re-configuration of historical aspects, but a striving for a physically realised and pluralistic ambiguity that truly captures the subjective imagination.

So the conclusions of the project “Object for Atheists” gel with the conclusions of “The Object Without a Story”, but the paths for reaching that conclusion was very different. What does this indicate?

The next object I produced after the bookshelf/chest of drawer for Objects for Atheists, was the SMASH REPAIR series. Originally conceived by Martijn Dijkhuizen and myself as a process for exploring structural limitations, it very quickly became much more. This began when Arne Hendricks from Platform 21 called me to ask if I could re-produce it for the gallery’s Repair theme. Repair is central to the process of SMASH REPAIR, and it is part of the name, but there is an illogic to it also. Why repair something that isn’t naturally broken? The answer, apart from the argument for discovering structural information, is that it frees repair from the stigma of its relationship to old things. Repair as a concept is a wonderful process for form generation – and once we see it applied to the formation of new objects we can envision the transformation of old objects by repair with greater vitality and conviction.

But SMASH REPAIR, does not end quite there. It is purposely and energetically an ambiguous object – and its possible interpretations fragment and break away from it rapidly, as I realised near its completion. I generated 7 story possibilities for the writer Freek Lomme during an email conversation, and I’m sure more are possible. The difference between Bandoni and Meroz’ work is that their stories were generated systematically as an expos of the design-copy writing system – the metaphors of visibility, reflection and transparency in their work is therefore paramount. The collection of stories generated by SMASH REPAIR are altogether different, cobbled together and haphazrdly screwed onto a frame that is continuously morphing. So like the processes of smashing and repair involved in its physical construction, the conceptual form uses a continuing process of de-construction and re-construction…. for a new story to make sense, it must be applied over the broken remnants of the previous.

The 7 stories of SMASH REPAIR can be downloaded as a PDF.

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The Object Without A Story is a set of four interconnecting glass vases, designed by Andrea Bandoni and Joana Meroz. The object is special in that it is born from research suggesting that the stereotypical text accompanying conceptual design objects is entirely systematic. The designers discovered sentence patterns and word clusters that were repetitiously used in the marketing of design objects. From a re-production Bauhaus lamp to Marcel Wanders newest sofa, specific words and phrase types are re-cycled over and over. Rather than simply assuming this indicates a stagnation in the artistry of copy writing, although it probably still does, Bandoni and Meoz present evidence that the stories tended to fall into four categories or archetypes.

“Are we looking at a world with subtitles?“

The implication is that production of these stories is in fact mechanistic, and that they are intuitively used by designers, PR people, writers, critics, curators etc. because they are sub-consciously assumed to work. Bandoni and Meroz then extrapolate the mechanism into a formula which can generate multiple and arbitrary stories. Their vase is therefore presented as not as having a single story, but four; generated by this formula and corresponding to the archetypes they uncovered.

“We found that 100% of designers believe the story interferes in the perception of the object.“

The vase presents four layers of visibility: four stories manifest as four layers of glass. One is on the outside, and one on the inside, and 2 in between. All are seen. The metaphor of transparency is paramount, and we can sense the transparency of the stories as conceptual devices. The materiality is precise; the use of glass reflects the highly controlled formation of an idea which is both poetic and brittle; that a story can express truth. The four stories presented here bite into one another, leaking away their opacity and exposing the structure of the whole.

“The story can be used as a walking stick“

Bandoni and Meroz makes a position that the vase devalues all stories, however, at its heart, there is a powerful meta-narrative at play. The title “The object without a story” is a msinomer; the object has many, and far more than the original four. There is a story written in the blog posts: and also written in the research paper. There is the story of how Bandoni and Meroz used statistic analysis to dissect the stories used to sell and market conceptual design. There is a story also in the workshop Meroz conducted in Poland, mixing up designers, authors, stories and objects into random combination, and there is story in the production of the vase itself – part of that story is the apparent strangeness of having the mould made in a Czech glass factory, but the glass blowing in a Dutch one. The four mechanically generated stories are also important – while seemingly arbitrary they are designed to stimulate subjective interpretation.

“Stories don’t reveal the truth about an object but we are still obsessed with them.“

The final story is the one that forms when jumbling the visual information one gets from looking at the vase, with the textual information one gets from reading about the vase. Much in the same way the glass of the each vase is is structurally separate, but visually interrelated, the stories of the vase are discrete narrative entities making up a meta-narrative which can be subconsciously constructed and intuitively felt. The real story is that all objects have different narratives depending on the personal way you tilt your head to look at it. It forms when we open our mouths to speak at a gallery or when look up from our magazine at the cafe: we are obsessed with stories because they represent creation, and we are constantly and sub-consciously making them in our minds. But the nice thing about story creation is also its problem; we are rarely aware we are doing it – the formation is intuitive. And in the mire of laziness, we re-produce rather than produce. Intuition can be like the leak of light to a blind man who otherwwise must think with his fingers, but we don’t always interpret this glimmer as creatively as we should. When it comes to thinking about the objects with which we fill our lives, mostly we are just groping around in the dark.

This is what Bandoni and Meroz present; mechanistically produced stories are value less. Subsequently, they make the position that the viewer should form their own story about the vase. Once we do, we realise we have circumvented the conventional process of understanding design, which itself becomes the story. The meta-story is now awake, and made tactile and concrete via the synthesis of construction and material into a set of, really nice, blown glass vases.

All quotes from “Narrative Objects/From Vormgever to Woordgever” by Andrea Bandoni and Joana Meroz.

THE OBJECT WITHOUT A STORY is now available at THE FROZEN FOUNTAIN
Opening: Saturday 19 September, 17:00 > 19:30, Prinsengracht 645 – Amsterdam

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Recently I have been engaged in an interesting email dialogue with curator and writor Freek Lomme about my and Martijn’s SMASH REPAIR project. Its inspired me to reflect upon my own intentions for the work, and as a designer in general – especially when prompted by Lomme to define my visual politics.

My visual politics are to promote subjective personal interpretation. Every object I make has more than one interpretation and I purposely attempt to activate imagination in the viewer by producing ambiguous design. This is my reaction to the over use of conceptual stories for the marketing of design and art objects. It also my technique for maintaining interest in my own work and warding off the boredom of familiarity. At worst, a reflection of my mind’s inability to focus on a single idea. But this is what I think life in the 21st century has become; moments, feelings, ideas and encounters, branched and connected nebulously without barrier or frame.

I believe that every object should have not one single story, but many and multiple, offered by the artist, or imagined by the viewer. It is intuitively natural for me to share my thinking and working processes, but also interesting to create a hyper or meta-awareness of the marketing processes at work in the conceptual design field. To offer many stories is to debase the value of each. The only valuable story becomes the subjective. To keep the story of the object open and flexible is a mark of respect to the viewer, critic or curator.

The only true story is transitory, which is the ephemeral construct we make in our imaginations when we sense an object.

Confrontation with interpretative choice is capable of producing a special effect. This is the dynamical sublime, first defined by Jean Francois Lyotard. It begins with an assault or provocation on our senses that makes the mind recoil. The provocation is perhaps monstrous, illogical or absurd, but after the initial shock the mind has the ability to recover via the use of its thinking power, our imagination. We intellectually process these assaults, imagine their reason for existence, subdue their effect, and subjugate the monster. At once we are affected by profound feelings of beauty and hyper-awareness; the dynamical sublime. It is, metaphorically, a near-death encounter avoided by ninja move, that leaves one shaken yet stirred by empathy for the fragility of life. Aware of human inadequacies, yet braced by strengthening of self-confidence. For we are proud of the little survival mechanisms which help us to cope with complexity.

One of my inspirations is Junya Ishigami, who uses a method to produce ambiguity in this way. Starting from a strong conceptual point he develops his work along as cascading series of fragmenting lines until the work is perceived as a network, or cloud of ideas. Ishigami refers to this ambiguity in the Japanese as aimai, or “unclear”. Normally used in the derogatory sense, it is claimed back and uplifted as a critically advantageous method of presentation. The best example of this in Ishigami’s work is, in my opinion, is the aluminium balooon he presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Giant, rectilinear yet irregular, clad in vibrating metal and helium filled, the sculpture occupied a mass amount of space, yet moved with a contrasting smooth fluidity. Like slo-mo beach ball at a dance party, it rose and descended before being sent skywards again by the gentle touch of fingers. The video on youtube, despite being low resolution, is the best to get a sense of its size and movement.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z18UkhGUZ8s]

This expression of ambiguity has cultural roots in the Japanese tea ceremony and is especially represented in the warped and cracked ceramics of the wabi-sabi style – a movement composed on designers and design studios all attempting to out run other designers with the production of intriguing and novel ceramic techniques. The mystery of these techniques, perfect for reflective dialogue during the tea ceremony, were also products of self-interest; they differentiated one designer or studio from another and were secretively guarded.

~images courtesy of the Freer+Sackler Galleries~

These examples are interpreted here entirely subjectively – I am using them as support for the correct understanding of my own design, the third SMASH REPAIR table. My interpretation of these examples is a subjective interpretation, a quality I consider highly desirable in an object. These objects lend themselves to such interpretations, and I hope, so does SMASH REPAIR. However, there is one fundamental difference. SMASH REPAIR was born from and developed during my studies at the Design Academy, and from within the broader context of “Dutch Design” in general, which prizes the clear and concise reading of objects. From conceptual genesis to functional reading, its considered best if an object has a single, strong and unambiguous narrative.

Given that my proposal for SMASH REPAIR is to do the opposite, its natural to assume that it must also be criticism. In order to both critique the marketing of conceptual design and to survive its earnest machinations, I cannot provide a single concrete narrative. But, practically, I can provide several stories to use as critical diving platforms – from which one can jump into personal mysteries or ascend into the meta-narrative of object as story as idea as thought as commodity. Next, I will post the first of these stories, paired with new images, and also discuss how it relates to the project “The Object W
ithout A Story” by my colleagues and former fellow students Joana Meroz and Andrea Bandoni.

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SMASH_REPAIR-3
A short video compilation of the first 5 smashes of the smash repair 3 table project.

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New images of my 1 = 2 chairs, originally posted here in January

One old chair was cut apart and rebuilt into 2 chairs with the addition of one material, 6mm steel rod. This was a method of repair, but also a way to forge new a new identity for an object made anonymous by the passing decades.

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Its true that SMASH REPAIR is cerebral. And perhaps a bit crazy. Why break something on purpose….. and then repair it so as to break it again?

So here is a link to a SMASH REPAIR infosheet that explains my concept, method and intent.

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…another day of repair and the form is growing in complexity…

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