Life has its challenges, provoking us to approach scenarios in a tactful way. If you over bake the bread, make croutons. Get a hair cut that’s too short, start a hat collection.
A mastermind at giving us new perspectives is Lina-Marie Koppen in her “learn to unlearn” thesis project for the Netherland’s Design Academy Eindhoven. Using scrub brush teeth and broom handles, stool seats and nylon bristles she makes our brains rewire around the way we are used to seeing things. She tests our abilities to adapt to the imperfections, or rather new perfections. We begin to create our own solutions within these parameters, and so we stand successfully untaught.
She provides an insightful overview of the project, “according to society’s normal standards, this family of objects functions imperfectly – that is, they function according to their own conditions, which may create outcomes different to the expected results. this disturbance is needed to sensitize the user to the interactions suggested by the objects and therefore endorse a more conscious relationship. Each product tells its own story, and if you listen carefully, they communicate how they became what they are today. Western society has generated its own biggest conflict. We feel the need to compete with things that were built in the first place to improve mankind. designing ‘failure’ could become the most important message in design.”
