Things I make/made/will make

Plastic Laser Cut lace- heirloom from a throw away?

To Change Hearts and Minds… Change Their Chair!

If you want to convince someone about something, you’d better give them a soft seat.

This is one design implication coming out of a surprising new set of studies that examines the relationship between our sense of touch and our attitudes and decisions. The studies looked at the unconscious associations between aesthetic elements such as texture, hardness, and weight, and found that by exposing subjects to these elements, researchers could elicit different responses to the same social questions and tests.

For example, study participants who sat in a soft seat and were asked to negotiate with a car dealer made far more generous second offers than those who sat in hard seats. The hard seats literally made them more rigid. Similarly, when volunteers were asked to read and evaluate a story about an interaction between a supervisor and an employee, the ones in the hard wooden chairs viewed the boss as stricter and more rigid than the ones who sat in soft, cushioned chairs. In another experiment, participants who had just put together a puzzle with pieces coated in rough sandpaper were more likely to find a story of an ambiguous social interaction to be difficult and adversarial than those who had put together a puzzle made of smooth, varnished pieces. Harsh textures evidently prime us to think harshly. Other related studies have shown correlations between temperature and social attitudes (proving the intrinsic truth behind the phrases “warm fuzzies” and “cold pricklies”), between weight and perceived seriousness, and between “clean smells” and moral behavior.

These studies are part of an emerging field of study in psychology known as embodied cognition, which is revealing just how much the logic of the mind is shaped by the unconscious perceptions of the body, and creating fascinating new avenues of exploration for designers in the process.

Read the rest of the article at Core77.

I attended a party out at this curious house-size wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities) on my trip out to Savannah with Tricia. 

Expect to start hearing more from me soon (That’s right, I’m going to update my process/work tumblr along the ride for this project)- Dr. Joyce Medina agreed to sponsor my independent study on emotional and tactile experiences with materials (please see the project brief in the last post).

Email me at colleenelizabethjordan@gmail.com if you’re interested in being a guinea pig talking about items and products that you use everyday.

Trying to garner input on my proposal for independent study this summer. Let me know what y’all think.

PROJECT TITLE:

The Emotional Quality of Materials in Design

OBJECTIVES:

To explore the emotional qualities of materials in the objects that surround us- from inexpensive ephemeral consumer products to tools to family heirlooms, and later create a set of objects that betray our learned perceptions.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

As humans, we are surrounded by created objects- tools, utensils, jewelry, clothing, dishes, etc. Each of these were consciously made and each material chosen for a specific reason and purpose. What qualities do these materials lend to the objects they compose, and how does this affect our perceptions of these objects and products?

The product will consist of two parts, research and creation.

In the research phase I will observe and note the objects that surround people in their daily life and ask other’s their perception of these products. From here, I will go onto research specific materials- how they are made, their cultural perceptions, their lifespan, etc..

In the creation phase, I will take what I learned in the first part, and go on to create a set of objects that are meant to convey a specific emotion, but through its material selection, betray the consumer’s original perceptions.

METHODOLOGY:

I’ll begin by objectively observing and recording the materials in objects that are encountered in every day life through photography and interviews. Later research will include further investigation of these materials.

In the creation phase, I’ll explore the materials I’ve come across, the emotions people ascribe to them, and create a set of objects that through their material choice challenge the consumer’s perspective of them.

RESOURCES: (People/Books/Etc.)

Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Outcomes, Joshua Glenn & Carol Hayes

Materials for Inspirational Design, Chris Lefteri

OUTCOMES:

At the end of this course of study I will create a book with my research findings and accompanying objects that have resulted from this research and synthesis.

I kept with my design for children theme and built a teepee this weekend in my living room.

Apparently a weekend of dilly-dallying, napping in the park, making teepees, going on walks, hanging out in libraries, coffee, drawing robots, and Pecha Kucha amounts to zero inspiration or motivation to do creative work for tomorrow morning. I really need to stop procrastinating.

Except all of that coffee is keeping me awake.

Okay, I’m pretty bad about blogging, seeing as its been about 3 weeks since my last post. It’s just so easy to ignore these things if they’re not right in front of you, and I hear the internet is a machine that moves pretty fast.

This weekend’s assignment for studio was to create a tabletop scale object that demonstrated one of our studio’s working goals for our Children’s Museum exhibit. I decided to make something that would show the scale and placement of organs, and thats how I came about this doll. Beneath her/his scar lies all sorts of organs!

The doll is a simple construction, right now my monster only has a few of its organs. The bladder and stomach were made by crocheting little balls, and the intestines were knitted on a loom. I think when I continue this I’m going to knit and crochet all of the organs in the torso for a doll about 3’ tall.

I searched for more yarns after class and was quite pleased with the yarn collection I’ve amassed over time. The blue will be the lungs, the brown the kidneys, and the same pink for the intestines. Come back to see my progress on this creepy toy.

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Last week our studio built a room sized camera obscura. Here’s some shots from the making of it. Christina Mayo and I made the graphics to advertise and show how it works.