& Co.maríafigueira

& Co.Degree Project

Furniture Design DepartmentRhode Island School of Design

May 28th, 2010

maríafigueira

+1 973 876 9718mfigueir@g.risd.eduwww.mariafigueira.com

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Introduction 5

Deconstructed Chair 11Maddy’s Chair 23Women’s Work Chair 35Branded Chair 45

Transcripts 54

Snare Drum Chair 59White Chair 69

Conclusion 74

Terms 78

Notes 80Images 81Bibliography 82

Contents

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From what I understand, objects are indicators of a region, of a lifestyle, and of a time period. In a way, they have become our new secular icons: signs that stand for something to someone in some capacity. Within my project the ‘chair’ is used then as an ‘icon’, a starting point from which an ‘event’ is initiated. This ‘event’ consists of several impermanent variables such as location, time, participants and materials. In these ‘events,’ each ‘participating’ chair is transformed, thus serving as proof that the particular ‘event’ happened, and thus providing connotations that relate specifically to that point in time, space, and the participant’s mind. Although the ‘chair’ as chosen ‘object’ might seem rather arbitrary, the interaction between an individual and a chair is rather unique and constant. As a recognizable and functional object, the chair allows for other issues to emerge, and as a furniture piece, as opposed to a sculptural object, it facilitates the focus on use rather than contemplation. It acts as a starting platform or a gathering point from which relationships between individuals and objects arise.

The work for this degree project can be understood as an experiment, or a study in the consequences of community. It is a process or a progression of combined ‘design efforts’ specifically enacted to promote understanding through experience. As opposed to having the design process end in the product, the product itself begins it. Furthermore, the design process does not merely encompass those elements that pertain to furniture design alone, such as form, style, and technique, but also includes those qualities that deal specifically with human interaction, such as dialogue and movement. The physical body of work is the result of circumstance. It serves the dual role of product and documentation of an event, a moment in time. The ‘events’ are completed one after the other, in an almost chronological order, so that one ‘event’ informs the next promoting the artist’s growth as well as the work’s refinement. The ‘chairs’ are fabricated in a similar way so that the evolution of the process is evident in the design of the chair.

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The first series of ‘events’ for this project resembles the early stages of my design process, each step informing and refining the next. Thus, each stage in the process is necessary and beneficial, providing an organized and verified path towards a well-designed solution. One after the next, four chairs are produced each with a specific

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purpose in mind. When I speak of purpose, I refer not only to the time and place that corresponds to the ‘completion’ of the chair, but also to the specific individuals that interact with it. The four chairs serve to inform the continuation and growth of my degree project. What originally started as an attempt to study human interaction as it relates to design developed into an interest and celebration of collaboration.

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Every artwork--- even the most ‘open-ended’--- determines in advance the type of participation that the viewer may have within it.

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Deconstructed Chair

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The starting chair was produced hastily, displaying little attention to craft and design. This chair, uncomfortable and ugly, acted as the mock-up or test of what was to come. As did the ‘event’, for it proved to be unorganized and spontaneous: a gathering of friends all brought together for the specific purpose of ‘participating’. From the start, I chose to have no expectations. I did not hope for something specific to happen. By having no end result in mind, the success of the ‘event’ could be judged more objectively. During the ‘event’, the ‘participants’, already knowing what my degree project was about, had absolute freedom of expression, of action, of materials and of time. In short, they could do whatever they pleased with the chair. The end result was overwhelming: an object destroyed still attempting to act as a chair. The piece had become more complex in form and style. There was pattern, texture and color used to ‘enhance’ the aesthetics of the original ugly chair. Parts and details of the traditional form were completely transfigured. However, I sensed a destructive nature in all that happened to it. Here was something I cared little about getting smashed, yet I could not help but feel violated. What we do, actions or objects, are in the end projections of ourselves. When those projections are then altered, the alteration affects the creator on different levels and in different ways. Looking back, the outcome of the chair was to be expected. Individuals will react to a place or to an action, in this case a poorly constructed chair and an open environment. Perhaps a catalyst was necessary, as seen by the intervention of Emmett and his cinder block. Moreover, the ‘participants’ were a group of creative art students provided with an opportunity to ‘play around’ with another person’s work. The ‘opportunity’ in this case was not fully developed; hence the ‘finished’ chair’s outcome was not so refined. Had the chair been designed or built better, I believe the outcome would have been different. Individuals respond to circumstance and environment, so even though I played the role of onlooker during the ‘event’, I provided the ‘participants’ with the chair. Had my personal involvement been more carefully considered, and more thoroughly developed, I believe the outcome would have been less destructive and more refined.

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MArcH 20TH, 201012:30 PM – 3:00 PM330 WICkENDEN STREET

- Little moderator control.- Large availability of material.- Open and informal setting.

In ATTEnDAncE

Laura BlosserMiya Buxton

Madeleine Dodge Santiago Hinojos

Joshua LantzyNicholas McFadden

Emmett MooreBenjamin Phillips

Claire Wood

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Maddy’s Chair

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For the second chair, I decided to change significantly the variables I would be working with. Instead of dealing with a large group of people, I worked with my roommate, Madeleine Dodge, someone I am familiar with and that I know I can work with well. The result of limiting my interaction as designer to one individual led to a more finalized concept and a very developed chair. When one invites another person to participate in the process of design, the result can be unexpected and interesting. She saw this ‘event’ as an opportunity to recreate a memory in the form of a chair from her childhood. We designed the chair together, so even though it had all the specifications she requested, this new chair looked nothing like that chair from her childhood. This chair has details that recall the original chair, but its overall design allows it to become its own object. In comparison to the Deconstructed chair, Maddy’s chair is the result of an extensive and involved design process, one which allowed me to openly acknowledge a second viewpoint within my design practice.

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With time, individuals filter details, and it is the fleeting impressions left that remind us of the objects in our past. The material specifics of an object might escape our mind, but the way a chair felt, sounded or looked will leave an impression.

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MArcH 25TH, 20108:30 PM – 10:30 PM330 WICkENDEN STREET

- Participation of one.- Extensive designer/participant interaction.- Event as culmination of design process.

In ATTEnDAncE

Benedicte Dodge Madeleine Dodge

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The third and fourth chairs were built simultaneously in order to streamline the process. Both were built with a specific ‘event’ in mind. They occurred not more than a day apart, and were intended to ‘happen’ more so than to be ‘carried out’. Each chair had a context set aside: one would be ‘handled’ only by a few women in an upholstery room, and the other would be ‘burnt’ in a welding shop by a larger group of people.

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Women’s Work Chair

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After Maddy’s chair, I decided to recreate the way we worked together as friends and as women, but this time with other people. Our interaction had been intimate, productive, and natural. I wanted to experience a similar environment as an outsider. Girls from the Furniture Design department were invited to participate. Only a couple stayed throughout the entire process of upholstering the chair. Fortunately, that interaction between two people was enough to observe the nature of individuals working in partnership. As a design, the process slowly developed into a set of compromises, all carefully presented and agreed on. The interaction showcased the nature of design as an individual’s desire to carry out a personal and independent idea. As designers, we have visions of what the right answers are; more often than not we will discredit that idea which does not come from within us. Once compromises were accepted, the chair’s ‘finishing’ process rapidly developed, the presence of other people enabling a more productive working environment. The result was not the most comfortable chair, but a beautiful object with an alternative twist on a traditional technique. The strips are all monochromatic and about two inches thick, woven into each other. The spontaneous pattern implies a process that could only have happened in that place, at that time, and only by those people.

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MArcH 30TH, 20106:30 PM – 11:00 PMBAnk BuILDInG

- Specific demographic and trade.- replicated previous chair’s variables.- no moderator involvement.

In ATTEnDAncE

Iliahi AnthonyMegan CallahanTessa Carpenternatalie HirshLarene Woo

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Branded Chair

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The Branded Chair became a way to revisit the Deconstructed chair. This time around, the materials would be limited, the setting would be predetermined, and there would be firm rules in place. An invitation was extended to my classmates. They would have to leave twenty-five percent of the chair unharmed and at least twenty-five percent of it charred. The participants had objections to the rules and questions as to whether my involvement in the ‘event’ was too strongly felt. My fear was that this Branded chair would become a second ‘Deconstructed chair’, and would prove a regression within the development of the Degree Project. I justified my decision to implement more stringent ‘variables’, realizing the importance of clear communication within a group of working individuals.

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MArcH 31TH, 20109:30 PM – 11:00 PMMETAL SHOP

- Limited resources and specific variables- Large group dynamic- use of destructive material for constructive purpose

In ATTEnDAncE

Frank Cresencianatalie HirshChris JohnsonMisha kahnConor kleinSun kooJeffrey MackenzieEmmett MooreBarkha PatelEliot ParkBenjamin PhillipsErica Sarlo

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What Do YouCall Yourself?

Transcripts from a Mid-Term critique.

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What’s the next chair? Two more chairs, depend on feedback.

I get where you are going.Perfomative aspect, highly collaborative. People comfortable with no one touching their work.

System, there are parameters that you set it free, it’s no surprise what the outcomes are.Not having to care about something.How do you gauge improvement/success.Overall thing, or each chair.Design: ultimately wage the value of a choice, this direction rather than another.The response to a decision.What have I noticed. Study experience, I design an object for the sake of the object.What we learn can be translated to other things.Utilize the chair as the driving force for gathering.I saw a breaking point nice finished objects but where do they belong?This only belongs to certain time and certain space.Having this will inform my design process and mind.

Staged, expect people to do. Orchestrated subconsciously. Maddy’s most interesting.Designing this thing with this other person.Make a person’s memory physical. The most controlled and unexpected, ironically.How do people really interact with chairs. Selfish, getting people to help you.I still want this to be a project with my name on it.Still, selfish, acknowledging…self indulging.Me dealing with that…how these object… there isn’t a single thing I have made that doesn’t have a place or a person in mind. Directed to someone else.There’s many things to work. Collaborative nature, in the actual making of the object.Celebration of what people are capable, not democratically.Second chair more open in the process. Let them explore, describe their experience, compart-mentalize that experience.

Be careful about trapping the documentation. As long as I am documenting that validates.Most interesting when the object tells the story without the documentation.And then documentation on its side.I can see many many of these where you refine the construction.Reacting to sense of apology, don’t apologize, press on.

How can this become product.Not looking to create a personal product.

Each one makes the next one different. How does this experience manifest. Documentation, photos, Scientific. Conducting a study, not scientific take it seriously.Other methods of presenting your findings.That would be as interesting as these objects are.

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Design, is ultimately, how we wage the value of a choice.

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This direction rather than another.The response to a decision.

Snare Drum Chair

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Perhaps the most frustrating of all chairs to design and build throughout this Degree Project, the Snare Drum Chair is a piece that is conceptually influenced by the thesis of a couple of friends. I presented an offer to construct a piece of furniture for two Architecture students who are collaborators in their own work. Their own decision to collaborate in such an important phase of their education initiated my interest in working with them. My objective was to create a piece that would not only showcase my background as a Furniture Design major, but also demonstrate their ideas in a tangible way. The chair frame was very different from the previous pieces, and dealt with pitch and sound in a way that I am not familiar with. What was frustrating, but ultimately enlightening was working on something unrecognizable to oneself but so familiar to others.

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MAy 2010RISD

- Specific demographic.- Focus on external interests.

In ATTEnDAncE

Joshua LantzyBenjamin Phillips

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White Chair

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The White Chair acts mostly as a stepping-stone towards future projects of a ‘collaborative nature’. I was dumbfounded by the notion of having to create one last ‘culminating’ chair. The idea of making a chair that would exemplify collaboration within design became an overwhelming roadblock, but once I acknowledged the fact that this last chair did not have to be the end of my interests in collaboration, I decided to build again with spontaneity. For the chair frame, I was interested in revisiting elements from some of the chairs that were made earlier in the project, specifically, the rounded surfaces of Maddy’s chair and the proportions of the Branded chair. I was also interested in involving people, but given the time frame I was worried that this last chair would become a burden for others rather than a fun side project. I asked friends to paint some anonymous parts of my chair white. I did not specify what kind of white, although I did ask that it was as flat and as permanent as possible. For example, saying ‘make it white’, as opposed to ‘paint it white’ would have allowed for more freedom of materials, making the assembly of the chair more difficult. Furthermore, by limiting the variable to one specific action, that of painting something white, I was hoping to push people to seek as varied solutions as possible within a small range. The result was a white chair that almost acts as a rainbow. Even when the options seem so limited, the truth remains that the inclusion of other minds will make the result more surprising.

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MAy 24TH, 2010THrOuGHOuT THE DAyWOOD SHOP

- Specific task, open to interpretation- Many participants working separately

In ATTEnDAncE

Frank CresenciaMadeleine DodgeConor kleinSun kooJeffrey MackenzieEmmett MooreBarkha PatelEliot ParkErica SarloEkin Varon

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An important aspect of this degree project to acknowledge is that for the most part the people involved in the ‘finishing’ of the chairs were all members of a creative environment. Throughout the project, observations were made regarding the possibility of including people outside the rISD community. The truth is that the limitation of people allowed for a more manageable ‘study’, in the sense that there was an understanding and a common ground for all those participating. Furthermore, a design object drove the evolution of the project. It makes sense then that the first stages of this idea have become remnants of the work of designers.

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During the mid-term critique someone mentioned that what I was doing with this Degree Project was ‘celebrating collaboration’. Perhaps ‘celebrating’ is not the right word; what I am doing is enabling a more permanent state of collaboration. I would like this to be considered as a depiction of a state of creativity where the obligation to work with others becomes the preferred design method, a state of recognition and validation of the influence of others on our own work.

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ThreeTerms To TakeWithYouCollaboration

In theory, the notion of collaboration presupposes an effective and preferred method of working. Many individuals work together towards a common goal and the work is produced in a more efficient way. In practice, collaboration acts in a different way, where the individuals struggle to claim ownership. collaboration amongst creative individuals should ideally be void of any competitiveness. A compromise between two people collaborating should be considered the best possible solution to a problem, which neither individual could have envisioned on their own. It should not be an inconsiderate and confused merge of the two participants’ isolated vision, but an enlightened answer. “To claim the creative process as your artwork,” it is necessary “to release physical elements of the creative process to others and divest yourself from claiming total authorship.” Through the appropriation of the process by the group of individuals, the collaboration extends beyond and transcends the final product.

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Design Object (i.e. Chair)

Let us consider design to be, among other things, the “language with which to shape … objects and to tailor the message that [the objects] carry.” As a result, the designer must fulfill the dual role of conveying the message through the object in a clear manner, and of providing a solution to rising formal and functional problems. Furthermore, when we speak of ‘objects’ we should view them as a “way in which we measure the passing of our lives. They are what we use to define ourselves, to signal who we are, and who we are not.”

The place the chair occupies among other design ‘archetypes’ is quite significant and unique. It is an object that by itself must imply utility and function, “and yet it is also regarded as culturally significant because it has a long history that is so closely associated with so many purposes that go far beyond utility.”

As a result, “...the history of modern design is so often told as a sequence of relatively high-status chairs, rather than of cars or handguns or typefaces or any other contenders to calibrate the enormous range of possible approaches to design within the parameters of a single type of object. All these, however, can be seen as more functionally useful than the chair, so a chair can be smuggled into a museum to act as emissary for its more compromised kin. And so many extraordinary objects take the form of chairs that to seem them as a microcosm of the world of design is an entirely plausible idea.”

Of personal interest are the ideas of Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis group, who was “less interested in technique than in form and pattern, and used the chair as the point of departure for a long-drawn-out series of speculations on the nature of the ritual, and symbol…. Sottsass was one of the first designers to grasp that, beneath the functional alibis, the psychological need for such phenomena still exists in the contemporary world, even if they may take a different form.”

Relational Aesthetics

considered to be the latest –ism in art, relational Art, or relationism as it also referred to, can be defined as “a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.” Thought up by former co-director of the Paris art gallery Palais de Tokyo, nicolas Bourriaud, the term is intended to identify that work which represents, produces or prompts human interactions and relations. It is not to be considered a ‘simple theory of interactive art,’ but instead as work that “seek[s] to set up encounters between people in which meaning is elaborated collectively rather than in the privatized space of individual consumption.” The individual experience as it relates to the specific work of art then lacks importance, as the focus remains on the plural: “viewers are addressed as a collective, social mass.” What is perhaps more interesting and relevant to my own work is that “in many of these works we are given the structure to create a community, however temporary or utopian this might be.”

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NotesBishop, Claire, Installation Art A Critical History, “4 Activated Spectatorship”, Pg. 127

Figueira, Maria, Mid-Term Critique Transcripts Recording, with Peter Dean, Paul Loebach, Lane Myer, Erica Sarlo & chris Specce. April 6th, 2010

Myer, Lane, Mid-Term Critique Transcripts Recording, with Peter Dean, Paul Loebach, Lane Myer, Erica Sarlo & chris Specce. April 6th, 2010

Myer, Lane, The Possibilities, rISD.TWO.EDu, May 28th, 2010. http://two.risd.edu/2010/05/21/the-possibilities/

Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things, “Language”, Pg. 23Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things, “Language”, Pg. 23Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things, “Language”, Pg. 160Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things, “Language”, Pg. 161Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things, “Language”, Pg. 164Bourriaud, Nicolas, Relational Aesthetics, Pg.113Bishop, Claire, Installation Art A Critical History, “4 Activated Spectatorship”, Pg. 116Bishop, Claire, Installation Art A Critical History, “4 Activated Spectatorship”, Pg. 116

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ImagesBranded Chair line drawingInitial sketch modelsDeconstructed Chair detailDeconstructed chair frame before ‘event’Participants working on Deconstructed ChairDeconstructed Chair detailsDeconstructed Chair drawingsMaddy’s Chair detailMaddy’s ChairMadeleine workingWeaving of Maddy’s Chair Maddy’s Chair DrawingLine drawing of Maddy’s chair, Women’s Work Chair and Branded ChairWomen’s Work Chair detailParticipants working on Women’s Work ChairWomen’s Work Chair construction detailsWomen’s Work Chair drawingBranded Chair detailParticipants preparing for Branded Chair eventParticipants working on Branded ChairBranded Chair drawingSnares getting stretchedProcess shots from Snare Drum ChairParticipants playing with Snare Drum ChairSnare Drum Chair drawingWhite Chair detailWhite ChairWhite Chair drawingAll chairsFinal critique setting

All images and drawings by María Figueira

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Bibliography

Bishop, Claire, Installation Art A Critical History. Tate Publishing, London 2005

Bourriaud, Nicolas, Relational Aesthetics. Les Presse Du reel, France 1998 Sudjic, Deyan, The Language of Things: Understanding the World of DesirableObjects. W.W. norton & company Inc., new york 2009

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Thank you to everyone who made this possible.