The Assignment

The general subject of this project is materiality. In order to investigate the subject you must first find and bring in an object. The object has to meet the following criteria:

1. The object has to be something that you purchased for yourself. In other words your acquisition of this object has to be the result of the reciprocal, commodity exchange process.
2. The object has to be a readily available, mass produced product. No precious, one-of-a-kind art objects allowed.
3. The object has to be something that will fit through the door of room 336.

Consider why it tripped your trigger aesthetically. On a base, material level what caused that undefinable, knee-jerk reaction of attraction to this inanimate thing? What about your object caused you to want to possess it? To give hard earned money for it? What caused you to select this object/product from all of the other objects/products of a similar nature out there? Did you respond to it as a designer, artist, student, human being, or all of the above?

Consider your psychological attraction to this object and genre of products. For instance the implied romance, mystery and allure of the perfume genre or the sleek, shiny metallic efficiency of high-tech gadgetry. A current direction in product design (as well as identity design) is to create objects/products that emote; products that you might have an emotional attraction to or develop an emotional bond with. For instance the kitchen utensils that make you think of the comforts of home or the orange juice that makes you think of Sunday breakfast with your family. What perceived characteristics of the product do you identify with? Does it reinforce some aspect of your self image or does it prop-up another aspect of your self-image that you perceive to be lacking?

~Dan Jasper