Assignment 3

Substantiating claims

My theme is ‘Everyday Design’ and for research my question is ‘what role do everyday objects such as toothbrush play in today’s world?’ This question is interesting to me because almost everyone use objects in their daily life without realizing, how important they are for us. So considering my research question I found some material related to my question. The most interesting and amazing book I found in concern to the question is ‘Ordinary Lives: studies in the everyday’ by Ben Highmore. In this book the author has elaborated the everyday objects in such a good way that it makes a person to think of everyday objects differently and importantly. The author has provided quite few examples in regard to the importance of everyday objects. One of the examples from the book is given below:

Ben Highmore says that “As human beings we attach ourselves to the thingly world: our ordinary lives are lived out in the midst of things. We often surround ourselves with keepsakes and mementos; we arrange our intimate spaces with furniture, tools and utensils; we simultaneously hide and reveal our naked bodies with clothes” (Highmore, 2011, pp. 58).

Ben Highmore used above example to show that how a person is connected to the objects around him/her. The objects around us are our need and they play important role in our everyday life such as- we put furniture at our place because we need it, to sit, rest and sleep. Without furniture it would be hard to perform those functions. Similarly, tools and utensils help us to make our routine tasks easier. Especially the utensils help us in cooking and consuming the food. The most important are clothes, without which we can’t even imagine our lives, as they act as our basic necessity. So through this example Ben Highmore proves that the everyday objects have a very important role in our lives.

The most interesting example provided by Ben Highmore is that how the everyday objects reveals their history. The author wrote that, “Tools subtly weathered by daily human contact demand to be held and used. Soles of shoes scuffed smooth like pebbles seem to yearn for our feet. Tables scratched and scorched by the paraphernalia of cooking tell us their histories” (Highmore, 2011).  

The author talks about the tools used every day that how the marks and traces on them represent their history and use. Correspondingly, the shoe soles signify their everyday use and essentiality in our lives. The fascinating part in this example is that how the marks, scratches on a table tells its history and everyday use. The table is used for several purposes such as cooking, as a desk etc. and it also narrates the history of things, it has been used for. So through this example Ben Highmore shows that everyday objects not just act as an important part of our lives but also reveals the history, related to the object and reminds us of our ancestors.

References:-

Highmore, B. (2011). Ordinary Lives: Studies in the Everyday. Great Britain; TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.

Assignment 2

Abstract

Taking as “Everyday Design” my theme I will research ‘what role do everyday objects such as toothbrush play in today’s world?’

 I choose ‘Everyday Design’ as my theme for my research because in our ‘everyday life’ we come across plenty of designs for ‘everyday use’ and we don’t even realize how important they are in our lives. The design of ‘everyday use objects’ plays important role in our everyday life. The world is developing day by day and so does- our ‘everyday objects’. The need for our actual ‘everyday object’ remains the same but somehow there design is changing, leading to many choices for a person for example- a brush, as it use to be a normal teeth cleaning brush but now it has developed to electronic brush with many choices. So with this, a person meets his/her needs, but has choice of design with it.

I have chosen this as my research question because people use everyday objects without realizing how important role they play in our lives. Without everyday objects it will be hard to continue smoothly the routine life. I want to examine what role has ‘everyday use objects’ placed in our lives.

I will research ‘Nicholson Baker’s’ reading ‘The Mezzanine’ about, how little everyday objects affects our lives yet we don’t even realize it. It was Nicholson Baker’s reading which inspired me to choose “Everyday Design” theme. I will also look ‘Ben Highmore’s book ‘Ordinary Lives: studies in the everyday’, in which Ben talks about the things we come across every day.  I also found a journal by ‘Lisa Kocaurek’ on ‘Everyday Objects, New Aesthetic’. I might have a look at another book ‘The authority of everyday objects: a cultural history of West German industrial design’ written by ‘Paul Betts’.

The possible outcome to this research question, according to me will be that the everyday objects plays a vital role in our everyday life, without which the routine everyday life will become hard for today’s world. So we should do realize the importance of even little everyday objects in our lives.

Assignment 1

For assignment 1, I choose “The everyday” theme for research. The source I choose for this research theme is a book called, “Humble Masterpieces: 100 Everyday Marvels of design” written by “Paola Antonelli”. I have chosen this book my source for research theme because it contains the examples of inventions of objects that we use in our day to day life. Most objects like paper clips and bubble wrap we use every day without realizing their importance until they are not available plus we use these objects without bothering about the effort and time put on that object by the designer. Some of the examples I choose to analyze from this book are Lead Pencil, Paper cups and Potato peeler. I choose these examples because these out of all are the important everyday things in our lives.

The lead pencil can be considered an important invention. The pencil is used for day to day purposes like it can be used to draw something or to write erasable and it is really good for temporarily marking down. The lead was found in Cumberland Hills in United Kingdom in 1565. People begin to use it for writing by introducing it into wooden vessel. Kasper Faber in 1761 opened his first pencil shop in Germany.

A paper cup invention was so great in terms of hygiene. In 1907 Lawrence Luellen felt the need for creating individual cups because before that people use to share each other’s metal cups and he thought it really unhygienic. He invented a water cooling dispenser with disposable cups. Later on that developed into Dixie paper Company in U.S.A. Today almost everyone prefers using paper cups if they are outside their houses. It is used to drink water, tea or coffee. Everyone is so busy and health conscious today that no one actually wants to share the cups and even they don’t have that much time for sharing the cups.

The Rex Potato peeler was designed in 1947 by Alfred Neweczeral, keeping in mind both the left and right handed users. The peeler was made strong enough to scoop out potato eyes with a movable stainless steel head. The head of the peeler doesn’t allow the blade to cut too deep into the potato. The potato peeler was first made for Arthritis patients, to help them peel the potato easily, later everyone started using it as it was easier, quick (time consuming) and convenient.

The whole book contains great examples of everyday objects used by us, objects that we don’t even think about normally. I think it would have been better if the book would have followed some serial order, for example: the objects could be in a serial order like what objects average human beings use from beginning to the end of the day.  Overall this book gives clear information about the objects history and its uses, with their photographs. 

References:-

Antonelli, P. (2005). Humble Masterpieces: 100 Everyday Marvels of design. London, Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Culture + context

Design as Inquiry.....