Sustainabizarre Design: Michael Whitney Studio
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 08.22.07
Blurring the line between art and furniture, Brooklyn-based Michael Whitney Studio has created a clever collection of furniture, clocks, lamps and mirrors from rather disparate reclaimed items that probably wouldn't be mated up otherwise. Side view mirrors from a Volvo and an old wooden chair. A dodge ball and a stool. "One Way" street signs and the frame of a chair. A "3-legged cooking part" and a glass globe. These sometimes ironic, always unique combinations prove that there isn't anything that can't be salvaged and repurposed into something far different but equally or more functional than its original design. Above is "One Way Pair" and "UFO Lamp" -- check out "Paranoid Chair," "Mirror Chair," "Dodgeball Stool" and "Scrubbing Bubble Lamp" below the fold. ::Michael Whitney Studio via ::Apartment Therapy
"Dodgeball Stool"
"Folding Mirror Chair"
"Paranoid Chair"
"Scrubbing Bubble Lamp"
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Odds & Ends from Jo Meesters
- World Economic Downturn "Decycles" Reclaimed Materials
- LIGHTEN UP lighting solutions by [re]design (Part 3)
- Bamboo in Chinese Art
It seems like that at three of the "designs" ruin otherwise useful objects ...
Dodgeball Stool - from the photo, it appears to be a new ball (notice the bright printing) and even if it is not new, it is clearly in good shape - aka could be used by a kid for some fun.
Folding Mirror Chair - Why couldn't those two items be left seperate? It would leave you with a bathroom mirror and a folding chair ... in other words, there is no reason to combine the two into something that is only as useful as either of them alone.
Paranoid Chair - That chair is a very nice chair, why did he go and stick rearview mirrors onto it? I know, I know ... it is art ... but doesn't that mean that we now have to produce more chairs (and other fittings, such as a plinth) so that people can enjoy it?
I am all for the designs like the lamps and road sign chair (as long as the chair was truly broken to begin with), but it is a fine line between those pieces of design which are truly reclaimed and those which appear reclaimed but use complete items as their base.
Thad,
Notice:
"salvaged and repurposed into something"
"disparate reclaimed items that probably wouldn't be mated up otherwise."
These are art pieces, one of a kind pieces, they are not mass produced......obviously. So why should the designer/artist care about their ulitimate usefullness? These are thought provoking items built from items that would have be thrown away, and I bet some were in dumpsters.
As far as the dodge ball....it is not fixed, so yes it can be used as a toy. Plus, I am not really sure that finding secondary dodge balls is all that easy.
As a designer and an engineer I appriciate these items for what they are: art. Creating "sustainable" art is the least of the worlds worries.....they are not made in the hundreds of thousands like your toothbrush or your soda cans.
Negativity will not help the issues that we are dealing with to generate the necessary shift in society's operations. We need to appriciate what is being done and support it.