A brief about my developing process of the Take Root project.
This project I started with looking into the swedish modernity. Interview and online discussion about concept of "home".
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Interview by Salla Johanna
How has your work been effected by the fact that it will be presented in the Furniture Fair? I think visitors aren't there just to look at perfect objects and design solutions, they expect something more. Through my project I want to engage people, not just with aesthetical and functional qualities, but more on an emotional level. How do you see the Fair phenomenon evolving in the next ten years? I see that Furniture Fair has the potential to become a place for different designer generations to exchange their visions. So it could learn from book fairs and offer platform for designers to have talks and also communicate with visitors. When it comes to exhibiting, there is a demand for more unconventional concepts. One solution is to provide more space and freedom for young designers. What would you like the role of the designer to be? Having my background in industrial design I am educated to operate as a problem solver. However, I aim to focus more on communicating values that I find essential, rather than just providing solutions to given briefs. I see design as something that can change the way people live, and find the antidote for the emptiness of existence. It can be “the cure”. To have money and a good job, is not an aim or destination, somehow it just shows the lack of beliefs. I think young designers should be clear about their morals, question their goals, and be prepared to argument why they design in the first place. How do you see our theme of Collectivity and Sharing reflects on the designer's role today? The value of communicating with people from different fields, also outside the design world, is becoming more and more crucial. Sharing can inspire and it helps to gain understanding and new perspectives. How is your project connected to the theme of Collectivity and Sharing? It was a method for me, a way of developing my idea by sharing personal experiences and being more open about my thoughts. The feedback I got during discussions, made me rethink the interaction and keywords in my design. What can you take with you from this theme to future works and projects? It was a positive experience and I see that I will encourage openness also in my future projects. The challenge is, the more you share with others, the harder it gets for you to decide what the final outcome will be. Some point you just need to narrow things down, that is a decision you need to make by yourself. It's all about making the balance here. Can you mention one designer or a theme that inspired you during your project? Within this project I looked into Swedish modernism, especially its relation to the concept of home. For example, I found the writings of Ellen Key very inspirational. She talks about beauty in every day life in the time where the importance of aesthetical surroundings just started to be valued. Coming from China, I noticed that Swedish people really pay attention to their home decoration. Every home seem to have some sort of style and taste, and people like to show it – at least if you walk around dark and look inside the windows, nobody seem to bother to close their curtains. This is the last week before the fair. I have a new record of being in the wood workshop until 2 in the morning.
Main stuff I did: finishing the back boards(L shape is tricky which cant be done by machine), glueing the frame and the back(L shape is tricky too), glueing the needled felt in the back, sanding, waxing and glueing the round shape felt on the surface. The project is finished on Thursday 2 oclock in the morning Then fotoshooting and packing. I am leaving for Stockholm fair tommorrow morning. See you in the fair! Today is Tuesday. Since the last post, I successfully got the felt material. The factory help me to cut the 15mm thickness felt into round circles. I cut other pieces during the weekends. ( around 50 pieces)
The needle felting on the back has gone halfway now. The wooden part. I cut the biscuits joining tracks on Monday. Tuesday, I applied a hole cutter on the drilling machine to cut out the 120mm hole on the borads. (about 30 pieces). From which I got nice looking wooden wheels :) Since the max diameter is only 110 mm on the hole cutter, I have to sand the hole into 120mm, which takes time. I tried to glue the felt on the board. Tommorrow is gonna be the big glueing day. Hope everything goes well. Production phase has reached a busiest time.
Last week I finished all the wood cutting and board gluing. And I just completed cutting the 45 degree angle meeting on all the side boards. Things are going a little bit difficult because the wood changes a lot and sometimes have a curve and I cant use the circular saw to get a perfect angle. A kind of construction was applied on the machine, to press the board to the workingg table. This way I made the angle quite nice, though it takes much more time and energy with all the screws and stuff. But things are under controll and I start the needle felting for the back in the evening. Tommorrow I am going to Halmstad to pick up natural wool felt from the factory. Busy week. I think the weekends will not be free. Though it is Chinese new year, and this will be the year of dragon. This is my year. These thoughts came during the exhibition course in HDK. We are preparing for the Stockholm furniture fair 2012. I looked into the design history together with my experience of my life in Sweden, about how Sweden formed its modern design. Carl Larsson, Ellen Key.. They set the root for the Swedish people's forever relationship with their homes.
Yes, I'd like to assume, Swedish modern design begins from every ordinary people's home. All these time I have been curious, why every single Swedish People care so much about their home decorations. From the very first day I came in this country, I have noticed this is like a national hobby. Hobby shops, material shops all over the city, crowded design store, all reflect a common enthusiasm about handcraft and home decorations. No wonder this country have the big international brand IKEA just for home products. Like Ellen Key says, every worker is a potential artist, Swedish design is meant to make everyday life beautiful for ordinary people. Ellen Key says in her book" beauty in the home" already at the beginning of the last century: “New aethetic sensibility must begin in the domestic setting". "The beautiful, is that which is practical, useful, informed by its purpose, and expressive of the soul of the user or creator." "All people need to create beautiful surroundings for themselves, and this creation begins in the home." "If beauty exists in the home, lives will be transformed, and so, ultimately will every aspect of society." The spirit lies in the core value of their culture identity. That is "Hem". Those values are embedded in this culture, they are still true for nowadays Swedish society. But the new modern life has changed the surroundings of the culture. Mobility, fast modern living pace and lack of emotional links. Everybody lives in some kind of individuality. It is especially true for the young generations. Globalization means, you are more connected to the world, at the same time you are more easily drifting away from your home, from where you belong. We are all kind of "ROOTLESS". You are individual and seperate from your surroundings. The lack of belonging and a feeling of floating take control of your life. You don't know where you are gonna stay for a reasonably long time or it is just a stop of your life journey. You wonder, the laughing people surrounding you now, will they disappear tomorrow like they have never been here. Life is full of packing and unpacking. You have a list of"must have", "whatever" and "throw away." You don't know when and where you are gonna "TAKE ROOT", like a flying balloon catched by a tree. You dare not buy heavy and expensive antiques or have too much emotional links to something big because you are afraid in case next time of moving you have to throw them away. So cheap and flexible IKEA seems the best solution. However, put the everyday necessity aside, there must be some emotional objects you ought to carry with you all the time. " a security blanket", " a portrait of lover", "a childhood toy", "a ticket to mars"...They are there because of the emotional links, because they create a feeling of belonging, a feeling of home. Where I put "you", I mean "me". If you share the same "rootless" feeling, I would very much to hear your voices. We are talking about collective arent we? I am now ready to collect you rootless people's emotional murmurs. (I remember Miss Salla have some speech about it..and Astrid too?..) 1. What is "home" to you? (In this subject, there have been lots of famous people's quotes: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Robert Frost quotes (American poet, 1874-1963) “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” Maya Angelou quotes (American Poet, b.1928) “He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832) “Home is not where you live, but where they understand you” Christian Morganstern quotes) 2. What will you take if tomorrow's doomed and we are leaving for Mars? Name one or some.(If you tell me whyyy...I will save you a ticket :) We're all born alone but...let's PARTY! http://exhibitingthecollective.tumblr.com/post/13796275886/hem-a-sharing-of-thoughts |