Clocks From a Tree
After having adviser meetings in week8, I started thinking about developing a methodology using what I have so far. One is the question of “why people can’t accept imperfection in technology” and the other is “how can we avoid the uncanny valley while causing empathy using objects.”
I came to the conclusion of trying out “thinking from the perspective of technology” and try to design pieces of technology that would look at “imperfect” things in this world and empathize with them. We’ve been trying to empathize with technology but how about turning the table around for a change? Would technology inconvenience the user for the benefit of himself? is man-made nature as natural as nature?
*image explanation
left to right: people, animals, plants, nature, technology
top to bottom: albinoism, imbalance, birthmarks, miniaturism, paranoia, personification
I realized that with the considerations illustrated above, I was dealing with purely physical factors.
What if we could grow electronics off trees?
They would all be different shapes, sizes, colors, textures, balanced, off-balance, too big, too small, and even just right……would we appreciate their “defects”?
In order to try out my “electronic on a tree” idea, I was desperately looking for gourds, vines, and different plants. While searching for ways to make an “alarm clock tree,” I came across some barriers and decided to use a technique called “vacu-forming” in order to give a new skin to alarm clocks.
As seen above, the mold would make different skins every time I made a vacu-formed skin.
Because the process embraces defects, irregularities, and imperfection, can the owner of this object be more embracing of the clock’s irregularities? I think so. This may be a little closer to the “customized” or “DIY” feel but it does have similar traits as apples being all different even off the same tree, or pottery being different when hand-made.
Without having any outer mold, I was able to embed electronic parts on a flat surface, which I then cut to make a shape that would orient the LCD screen to my liking. Flexible skin for an alarm clock!
I think the flat initial state was more interesting in terms of its form because it was so elaborate and reflective of the process. It revealed the vacu-formed back-side a little better than when it was molded into a shape.
The modified version is more embracing of the current DIY culture. Cutting and shaping to my own liking…I think it only assured me that DIY is not what I want to investigate for my thesis.