Revitalizing the Lost, Forgotten, and Discarded

While writing a short bio for the Industry Projects class with Danese, I was reflecting on past projects to find common threads in my work. I realized that my best projects have involved revitalizing lost, forgotten, or discarded objects, crafts, and practices via new contexts. I think this continues the ideas in the previous post about retro. What is the appeal of the archaic and obsolete? How can we utilize objects that already exist and make them interesting again? The current rate of obsolescence means we have a massive supply of materials that are no longer wanted. However, the recently out of fashion, by definition, can't be cool. Objects seem to need to fade away before they have a chance to be appreciated again. How long does that take, and can a designer shorten the time needed by placing it in the right context?

Multifunctionality vs. Particularity

While working on the Danese project this semester, we've been thinking a lot about combining functions and breaking out of typologies by focusing on behavior. However, targeting one very specific behavior and function is also intriguing. The philosophy of Unix software development is "Do one thing, and do it well." A great example of this in objects is Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny's Writing Table No. 3.

The top of the large wood frame table is made of thousands of strips of paper that form a forgiving surface designed solely for writing. Other behaviors, like eating, are implicitly discouraged because of the pristine, white, uncleanable material. Another interesting aspect of this project is the way in which objects can communicate their intended use.

Particularity is a refreshing approach compared to today's ubiquity of feature creep and multifunction.