ATTALAN MAILVAGANAMTHOMAS VAN LANKVELD

RHYS DUINDAMROBERT KOOLEN

CHARA EUSTATHIOU

LECTURER:SIMONE DE WAART

DATE:28 - 11 - 2012

TU/E INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

MATERIALITY IN TIME & CONTEXT

DAY 1

The first day started with an in-troductory presentation. The first part focused on the philosophical notions of affordances, aesthetic versus non-aesthetic and haptic visuality. The second part was mainly a collection of examples of aging materials in culture. The fi-nal part of the presentation was an audio fragment of a blind woman’s first exploration of a new building. This audio fragment showed very clear links between specific mate-rial qualities and related meaning. An example was a heavy door that to the blind woman indicated she was entering an important space. In the afternoon we attended a lecture in Nijmegen.

WoRkShop

The final activity on this first day was a workshop in affective analysis, conducted in our case with 3 students from Eindhoven and 2 students from Nijmegen. For 4 objects brought by group mem-

bers, we attempted to first describe our affect, then our interpretations and finally the related concepts.

It appeared that the word ‘concept’ meant something very different to the students from Nijmegen than what it did to students from Eindhoven. In Eindhoven, the term ‘concept’ refers to a (mental) rep-resentation of something concrete. This could be a representation of for example a product, a service, a movie or a system. To the Nijme-gen students, a ‘concept’ is a cogni-tive idea in its most abstract form.

During the first affective analyses, we had much difficulty finding our affects. Much of the conversa-tion was focused on the personal story of the person who brought the object. Some members of the group were very temped to start by telling the others why they brought the object, and others were very tempted to try to imagine this per-sonal story.

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DAY 2

On the second day, 15 photos were selected of things that show ‘traces’. Again, for each of the 15 photos an affective analysis was executed. This time the group was more effective in finding related affects. This was partially because photos were used showing a detail of a product or a material, thus drawing the attention towards the affects and away from the context and interpretation. The number of affects and interpretations found with each photo ranged between 3 and 9. Only one concept was selected per photo. Other things that were written with each photo were the material qualities, the cause and effect of the traces and the personal story behind it. Two examples are elaborated below.

CARING

For this photo it was very hard to see what was actually depicted. Listed affects were ‘fabric, soft, clean, dark, stylish, used and sub-

tle glamour’. Interpretations were ‘Groove Armada, Sound of Silver, device, guiding lines, encapsula-tion and apple’. The combination of elements that show fragility with elements that show attention led to choosing the concept ‘car-ing’. Because of the abstract photo, the meaning of the used terms was very intertwined across the three layers. The personal story revealed that it was a laptop touchpad. This suits to the ‘caring’ concept, since a laptop user has a very physical-ly intimate relationship with the touchpad.

AbANDoNmENT

This photo showed a stain above a window. Listed affects were ‘scary, cold and quiet’. Interpretations were ‘empty pace, quiet place, this is a mansion on a big field; it has been empty for a long time and is sometimes used by random people, horror’. These affects and interpretations led to the concept

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‘abandonment’. This was actually Rhys’s kitchen. The stain was a case of water damage caused by nature. One might say that influ-ences by nature create an aesthetic that suggests an absence of human beings.

DAY 3

During this day we presented our 15 object pictures by describing for each one, their personal story, its affects, interpretations, notion of symbolism (concept), material characteristics and traces. After this we had to choose one con-cept and reflect it in 7 different artifacts. We choose the concept, Martyrdom. The reason was that we found this one a quite challeng-ing concept compared to the others and we like challenges!

After this we started exploring with Martyrdom in combination with material. By taking the idea of Candle Martyrdom, a candle slowly dissolve to provide light, we developed different ideas:

• An ashtray poured in with wax, when a cigarette would be put in, it would change the surface of the ashtray in the form of “scars”.

• A spatula covered in fabric what will get scars when you use it in the frying pan.WW

• A doorstop in the form of a nail, what sacrifices itself by holding the door open. This reminded us to the crucifixion of Jesus.

After we presented these ideas and reflected back on it , we saw a next direction to start exploring in: kitchen utensils that become mar-tyrs by providing the user a good meal. By focusing more on this direction we were able to get more in depth to the concept of Martyr-dom and therefore also less literal than the previous exploration.

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DAY 4

Continuing on from the explora-tions of day 3, our team went on to further test the meanings of Ma-teriality with a focus on a kitchen utensil’s interaction with the food. The idea was to design a utensil that had to sacrifice itself to ensure the success of the grander goal; a better tasting meal. This in turn meant that it became a Martyr for a greater cause.

An example of this that already exists is a stick with a chocolate block on the end of it. You use it as a spoon for a hot glass of milk, and the chocolate dissolves to turn the milk into yummy chocolate milk.

Many prototypes were built to in-vestigate this symbolic Martyrdom, as well as to imitate other ideals of existing Martyrs and highly reli-gious people.

• One spatula, made entirely out of tree bark, was meant to rep-resent a pure being, whereas the carefully sanded spatula is

considered an impure heretic. This was inspired by the long beards owned by devout Mus-lims, who believe cutting away a part of your body is an insult to the gifts given by Allah. [??]

• Another spatula breaks under the right amount of pressure, in a horrible cracking way. This was to symbolize a Martyr being crushed by the oppres-sor.

• Another spatula has grooves in it to grip on to the sauce of the food as long as possible, until very slowly, it loses it all. This symbolizes the loss suffered by Martyrs.

• Another spatula releases the liquid contents of its insides when it is scraped over the hot surface of the pan. It only releases a small amount at a time. This symbolized the slow suffering often associated with Martyrdom.

• One of many knife prototypes was made to bleed Jam from its handle (body) onto your

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sandwich. This was to symbol-ize a Martyr giving his life for the greater goal of creating a yummy sandwich.

• One object was made to have no purpose, other than to make people think. This one sym-bolizes the philosophy often linked in with Martyrdom

During a reflection meeting with Simone De Waart, where we described the backing stories / concepts of our symbolic proto-types, we were told that we needed to consider the materials aesthetic / non-aesthetic instead of symbol-ism. Through the discussion we came to an agreement that the knife that looked like “Jesus’s Cup” from Indiana Jones, was had the closest aesthetic / non-aesthetic to the Martyrdom philosophical notion. It showed a sense of hum-bleness and craftsmanship that gave the impression of Jesus’s cup of life, or simply a knife that Jesus would find in his kitchen. This object showed us the aesthetic link

between simple crafting (crafts-manship) and Martyrdom.

DAY 5

After the reflection meeting of day 4, the team suddenly came togeth-er with their ideals for the project. During earlier days, the explora-tion had been almost separate. The team, in this case, discussed the ideas and gave commentary on the prototypes and directions, but left it to each designer to make their own design. On day 5 this changed to a consensus, an understand-ing about what was needed. The chosen direction was craftsman-ship devolving towards an object of humble imperfection, an object that Jesus would choose for his kitchen.

After agreeing on the direction, a plan was drawn up for the 7 objects, so that they showed the devolution from the perfect tool of today, towards the imperfect tool of early craft; that is more worthy for Jesus (the worlds most famous Martyr).

We built the 7 objects in theses stages:

• Machined - Perfectionism - White Metal

• Machined Edited - White Metal

• Handmade Machine Look - White Metal

• Handmade Master - White with edge scratches

• Handmade Apprentice - White with heavy wear

• Handmade DIY - Barely White with Glued edges

• Handmade Beginner – Imper-fection - Barely White entirely hot glue

Strangely enough, the prototypes turned out to be a showcase of the team’s process. The team had a build heavy process, and it was through this process of giving your blood, sweat and tears; that ulti-mately meant that the designers, much like the final prototypes, went through the suffering of Mar-

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tyrs to ultimately reach enlighten-ment. Once the process was done, the object and the craftsman both had a shared Martyrdom in craft. This enlightenment was the mood / subject of the final video.

With regards to the video, it starts with that the objects are faded, pale and are undergoing suffer-ing during the crafting process, and then they emerge bright, vibrant and full of life at the end. This is then empowered by the song “Amazing Grace” which has the symbolic representation of a sombre calm that builds towards a crescendo of pride. [??]

The team presented their process, video and final prototypes to stu-dents and teachers from TU/e and Nijmegen University at this stage. Robert (the Nijmegen University student of the team) linked the development process and proto-types to the movie ‘2001: A space odyssey’. He believed it showed a transition of tools developing

towards an evil tool that overpow-ered man. [??]

Martijn [??] (One of the teachers from Nijmegen University) reflect-ed that the objects presented were based on multi-sensory impres-sions. For example, the chocolate spoon also considered the taste and smell, next to the visual and tactile experiences. He saw nice combination of the haptic quali-ties found at TU/e and conceptual qualities derived from a distance (Nijmegen).

REfLECTIoN oN YoUR CoNCEpT of mARTYRDom

The objects that were being dis-played reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, in particular the iconic scene where the monkey picks up a bone (the remnants of a dead animal) and begins to shatter the remains of the skeleton with that bone. It is presented as some sort of an awakening: the second the mon-key grabs the bone, it immediately functions as a logical expansion of its body. Earlier on, we see the monkey in struggle, a quiet desper-ation because food is scarce and the creatures that are left (tapir like beasts) are too big for the monkey to kill with its bare hands. In other words: the physical incor-poration of the tool is a necessary evil.

The next shot we see the same monkey killing a fellow species. Tools are not just for food, but can also become a weapon. It symbol-izes the beginning of mankind’s domination over its environment. To make the parallel more clear-er, after the killing the monkey

throws the bone in the air and it transforms into a spaceship. Now: we don’t have spaceships yet, but we did find a way to create tools that are more durable and efficient than a monkey’s bone.

Looking at one of your earlier creations, I find it very interest-ing that you chose tree bark as a material, because it puts us back to an earlier age, when mankind still had a harmonious relationship with nature and not an exploitive one. Furthermore, we are cutting down our ‘biological breathing apparatuses’ so to say. We are tor-turing ourselves in a way; because we need wood for several reasons but we also need trees for our life quality, it’s our air supply. We are sacrificing our own quality of life in exchange for material needs.

In order to bring forward tech-nological advancement, sacrifices need to be made and at the end of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, technology malfunctions and turns on its creator: the omnipresent AI

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* construct Hal 9000 closes the air-lock and by doing so, it seals off the ship’s entrance point for the astro-nauts and thus they have no choice but to float in space. As a species, we are extremely dependant on tools, their sacrifice as objects, to prevent us from extinction.

CoNCLUSIoN

Our final prototype is a set of 7 knifes reflecting 7 different stages of the concept, Martyrdom. We re-lated our directions during our dif-ferent exploration on the concept of the movie Indiana Jones: The Raiders of the Lost Ark; in were Jesus is compared to a deformed porcelain goblet and not to a gold goblet with diamonds. We saw Jesus as the perfect example of Martyrdom. Through this associa-tion we were able to come up with the terms: Holy and Craftsman-ship. When you look at the first knife it shows an artifact which is made machinery, in each step the knife changes into sometimes less machinery, referring to Crafts-manship and so on more to a form of Purity, which we connected to Holy. The exact same translation which was made in the movie!

We think that our final artifacts certainly have aesthetic quali-ties and can therefore be called aesthetic. These final artifacts not only require non-aesthetics

judgments, qualities, descriptions or concepts but guide the human aesthetic perception to a symbolic story of Martyrdom. Relating them to maybe movies, associations or affects. Especially when you focus on the object, the deformed shapes in combination with the pure white color can guide you to something Holy, what again can be associated to a God like Jesus, that eventually can be worked out to the concept of Martyrdom!

This is how we feel about this ourselves. We know that aesthetics judgments cannot be explained with rules, but we think that by doing these three different itera-tion of exploration we were able to understand the concept Martyr-dom and therefore were able to implement it in our final artifacts.

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