Meta-projects develop analytic reflection skills and perspectives that lead the way to new discoveries. It keep the emotional relation between human, objects and environment is a constant. The Meta-project constitutes an heuristic approach to a project, it is the part of the research that enhances access to new theoretical developments and/or empirical discoveries, free from pre-conceived ideas or stereotypes, which are simply assumption and repetition, indeed limiting our vision and perception of reality.
Globalisation might allow a broad exchange of perspectives, but our understanding of the objects around us is shaped by social education and living habits. Monkey Wrench superposes a fork and a monkey wrench to reveal different layers in the mind and how one layer can come before the other, depending on past experiences. In Europe, we see the fork first. In China, they would see the monkey wrench first. Even young children could become confused depending on the stage of their social education.
Drinking from a cup is an unconscious, everyday gesture that is also a sacred gesture in the Christian ritual tradition. Wild Glass, constructed like a ‘stress reliever’ sponge, is a reflection on this elementary human action. The exertion of the fist, in deforming the vessel’s shape, expresses a sacred and profane contrast: urban violence, the passion of Jesus Christ, as well as the intensity of an exhausted marathon runner who crushes the cup after quenching his thirst.
What appears to be an electrical wall unit is only just a candleholder? The objective of Plag-In is to reveal our unconscious courses of logic regarding objects: the progress of an industrial object in time (the candle came before electricity) as well as its cause-and-effect functioning in space. Our minds immediately relate the flame of a candle to the electricity we assume is behind the wall plug, yet there is no necessary causal connection.
In the virtual world, it is especially easy to develop false perceptions. This object is covered completely with aluminium foil, with one small part spread with real chocolate. We automatically imagine the object is made completely of chocolate and the foil is simply broken in this part. This is a metaphor for our perceptive ability in the world today: virtual
communications manipulate people in good ways, but also in bad ways. It is important to understand this if we want a world made of democracy and not of chocolate. We need to challenge perceptions and ask questions sometimes, especially when the virtual world limits our ability to touch, feel and smell whether an object is, at base, chocolate or aluminium.
Often the design of a technological device is driven by its function, which is hidden inside it – the words and letters, as well as the pathways between them – that its user manipulates. Empty Technology is an aluminium device devoid of its core function as it is impossible to use for calculation. This leaves behind the object’s pure form, representing a relic of culture without any information having ever passed through it.
It invites only one to sit yet suggests others are welcome, though there is no practical place provided. Sunny Day Bench is a metaphor for contradictions in the human condition: we may dislike the company of others, but we need it. We may hate to be alone, but ultimately we are. We flee crowds, but we are also attracted to them; and, more often than not, we demand a degree of individuality and independence.
Priorities in life change when we are given the opportunity to welcome surprises, beautiful little things that impact our daily lives.
Do-Baby is one answer to the question of how to find solutions for making this a seamless transition. While Do-Baby teases the idea of children as commodities, it more so challenges the ways we can blend childcare with the objects already ubiquitous in our everyday lives.
Defining the lead approach for many future projects, its start was simple: playful observation at the beach, and dreaming while looking up at the stars.
A method of mixing sand and water yields a meteorite-like object which is the result of simple actions, natural elements and their unique combination. Meteorite is a reflection on how objects are formed: natural elements, along with gravity, can create a solid mass that is greater than the sum of its parts.