Things reassessed. Parsons launches an archive of collective isolation.
After Gary Hustwit’s film Objectified, in which designers and design experts from across the world inform viewers about things and their design for more than an hour, American author Rob Walker cuts to the chase of the matter and summarises what was said like this: there is a hurricane coming. What things do you take with you? You take all those things that are most important to you personally, not those with the best design. In some ways this scenario resembles the situation in which we find ourselves at the moment. What is necessary? What do people really need? The Observational Practice Lab at Parsons School of Design in the United States is using the current crisis as an occasion to establish a new archive: the Atlas of Everyday Objects – In the Age of Global Social Isolation. Everyone is called on to take part and select nine objects that have gained a new importance for them throughout the course of today’s social isolation and restrictions on wider social life. Everyday objects and aesthetics are an essential element of the world of design, and researchers might one day take a closer look at the #objectsofmyisolation archive and draw their conclusions based on it.
