Study: Garage fold up chair

Study: Cantelever single seats

I found these in Elephant and Castle, Cantelever seats that are similar to these earlier sketch models.

Sketch Model: Kissing chair

Simplify the Warped Up chair, use visual clutter on legs only, see also Wrap Around and Wrapped Up

Study: Light falling on anti-human ledge, the desolate mini scapes petruding the city banks and offices with the human equivelent of pigeon spikes

Study: Half underwater photos

Lost bouys

Sunbathing

Study: Park Bench - panoptigon

From the sketch models on the idea of the panoptigon
And later studies

On this bench even on cold winter days beggars travellers and drunks congregate here in paranoid huddles. Sometimes they cluster in patches of stereotypes viewing the world with suspicious glares and fidgety dances. On better days it is like the international space station of young mothers with satellite prams orbiting close proximity. On the dull days suits face one way wardens another and apart from the flapping of a pigeon the farty slapping of the pathetic fountain is the only accompaniment to the London hum. On the hottest days everybody forgets who they are and the delerium breaks bounderies like snowball fights with strangers. But most of the time it is not used at all, snow falls and melts and leaves get stuck inbetween the bars and nobody notices. It is funny then that from here so much is noticed, absorbed and soaked in. It is like the panoptigon of the city. You sit and blend into the furniture of the city. People walking past do not care who you are, you are part of the scenery of their day they cannot see you for their security blinkers. You become anonymous and un-noticed but from this bench you can see the whole spectrum of life all of the details of the lives of others here in south east london and from this bench you go can include or seclude yourself.

see also first posting

Study: Metal wire, wood, snow and netting

interesting forms in relation to the warped kissing seat

Study: Snow chair

Snow on a patio chair gave me an idea for (structurally strengthened and) upholstered patio furniture. Lavishly decorated and luxuriously comfortable cheapness, the chair that thinks it is above its station, inflated self...

Study: Shop seats

Solidarity and Solitude

Acts of solidarity that counter solitude. Typically a word used by the left wing that has been used to support those who have been perceived to be isolated.

British custom of rooting for the underdog.

At the same time the news is about increasing division between people (economically - poverty gap, / socially -ethnic divisions, power structures, class divides / idealogically - ) our ability to express solidarity and for the message to be received has also increased. (expand, dates numbers figures - mobile phone ownership, % of populations with internet access.)

Richard Dawkins contradictory science / religion beleifs, accepting both without examining the fact that they in many ways cannot co-exist. The church of England in typical reaction to Darwins popularity embraced the man upon his death and buried his body in Westminster abbey.

Graphics: Blog banner changes

If Plato's descriptions of imperfect societies casts our current situation somewhere between a democracy and an oligarchy rich with the associatted stereotypes then what would happen to a society that is increasingly divided along increasingly intrigate myriad of divisions so with a dose of vertigo enducing reality checks this project will also try to design for a future of increasingly solitudal (oh yes I did just make that word up) lives.

Study: Rock Climbers

Rock climber sat in tree bottom left

Some experiences can shift our perception of ourselves from egocentric significance, awe, realisation, to relative insignificance. These are the words that I would use to describe the shift in thought patterns when challenged with some of the spectacles of life. Being overwhelmed by sheer physical presence or moved by an emotive event. Whether it is moving outside your comfort zone or having your perceptions challenged or horizons broadened or just experiencing a unique moment. One can experience a shift that puts one from the centre of the world to a little spec in a much bigger picture. This shift is unsettling it distorts our perception and alters many of our senses and ability to process the information provided by them the enormity of the gap between singular and the infinite too immense. Before putting yourself in these positions the anticipation is subjective, how you are going to experience something you have been wanting to experience (or avoid!). There is a moment here where one can experience another perfect archetype of solitude. The transition in relating this to all other experiences maybe what makes us unique from other people and their experiences. It is moments like these that can drive us to philosophical distraction. Filling that gap between the singular and the infinite, inside and out.

Study: Part Chair part Earth

Chairs bought to rest by the high tide. These objects are here because of some violent or catestrophic intervention that has caused them to break, be discarded or removed from their usual places. I like half submerged fractions of chair, half embedded in another material (reminds me of this image), here the forms are semi recognisable enough to give the impression of a chair attached to something else.

Prototype: Beautiful Freaks - Oversized Legs

Consistant with the mainstream media's fascination with those labelled freaks (plastic surgery nightmares - michael jackson, lesley ash, easily identifiable villians - abu hamsa, and heroes - Jed, youtube "stars" (take your pick), oversized glamour models and porn stars, guiness book entries (see tallest, heaviest, longest appendage etc) etc etc etc)

this project takes the weakness of the object (where it has broken) and overcompensates for its deficiencies, or highlights its difference.

Supporters of Darwin would argue that without natural slection or without mutations evolution would not have occured. Social Darwinianists tried to turn this on its head and act as the forceful hand of god through implementing nature on natures behalf, exterminating the "weak" those who in different environments evoke the better sympathetic empathic altruistic tendancies from society.

Have we increasingly encouraged ourselves to be fascinated by difference. When difference distinguishes something we praise it and call it progress or unique, maybe we express disgust because of perceived grotesqueness or mutations, these can be translated into strengths or weaknesses.

The white chair broke at its weak point around the back support. I thought it would be interesting to start a process of replacing every breakage with an oversized component. This could elaborate into experiments with materials and structures to effect significant structural and visual strengths and weaknesses that can be manipulated to produce a range of prototypes further exploring these possibilities.

Prototype: Ghosted Chair

This frame holds an old wooden chair profile in a black square tubular steel office chair frame. The back rest upright going into the leg is a sructural strength that both structures share, the black frame could be seen as an evolution from wooden construction. A part of its evolution as an object, a member of a family tree, a piece that has evolved from constant improvements and alterations natural and intended interventions to form and processes, all are still present in its construction. Chairs as footprints of their owners, empty chairs as echos of people, traces of their previous incarnations. There are posibilites for more abstract interpretations also.

There is potential in experimenting with fabrics and upholstery, printing and illustrations.

This idea evolved from the Beautiful freaks prototypes using left over chair parts to try and emphasise a new aspect of the form, the back leg up into the backrest.

Study: Death dying and dead stuff

our persepective on death and the neccesity to explain what happens afterwards...the dead headless pigeon with just its wings and torso left in the gutter. When we see dead things we can tend think about our own mortality, seeing something with its head detached it makes me think of more than death. It makes me question the connection between the head and the heart. The moment of death must be the single most isolating moment in ones life.

Prototype: Kissing chair - warped up

I found the beginnings of this chair as two frames intertwined locked together inseparable without wrenching apart. Although it has resulted in looking like a kissing chair, it suggests two users with two back rests, that was not the intention. Although it would be appropriate to investigate its potential as a kissing chair. The positioning of the users would involve interlocking legs which would add to the visual clutter of the users/chairs legs.

Sketch: Benches

Benches are by type a solitary object. No other piece of street furniture seems to be to its intended use for such a small proportion of its time than many public benches. When in use the bench usually only serves one u ser at a time. Bins are by comparision in constant use, they are always holding litter or being emptied or being used. Street lights are used everynight.
The bench with a user claims the area immmediately within its location especially where the space is restricted. The user can expect to sit there without anyone else sitting within a unspoken boundary infringing in the users space. Challenges to this rule are either met with a response to perceived aggression or an open invitation to share the space.

Study: Urban Igloo!

Deep in Deptfords snowiest region an urban retreat from the hectic winter!

Prototype: circular seat

This first prototype is slightly too high but efficient use of 100% recycled wood. Old table and old ikea chair providing the perfect componants, unfortunately in the wrong composition, looks too much like a crows nest atop a mast!

sit inside fits 1 person extra comfy, 2 back to back, several sat around outside ring. Used by one person sat inside, pad up the uprights as back rests. Upholster ring to make circular bar stool. Drop the height by at least 300mm to make ring bar stool height.

Studies: Secluded garden seats

Study: Tree trunk carved chair