Andrea Brugi
The first artist I wanted to share with you is Andrea Brugi. He is a wood artist from Tuscany. When speaking of his work he says that he never knows what his end product would look like. He gets his inspiration from “the world around” him. He tries to make everything he has at his disposal useful. All of the materials that he uses are found around his house. Brugi’s every piece is handcrafted by him in his ‘Labarotorio’ which is an old shed.
cutting boards.
He creates these boards in such shape not by his own choice. He claims that he prolongs the life of the wood he finds. When making something in his lab oratorio, he takes as much time as he needs to understand the material. Brugi says that by changing the form of the material, he slowly learns/find new purpose for it. This is an explicit example of slow design because the artist intentionally or unintentionally follows all the principles of it. He reveals what the object has “experienced” since he doesn’t paint on on the wood. He expands objects lifespan. He reflects how the object has changed over time. He engages others to follow his example and he also sells his work. He is an active participant go his community because he collects the wood around his neighborhood. And lastly, Brugi, recycles the object and makes it available for people to reuse.
The Murakami Chair
This is a rocking chair in which the light turns on from the rocking motion of the chair. A designer Rochus Jacob created this chair in hopes of preserving the energy we waste everyday. He used nano-dynamo technologies built into the skids of the chair to power up the reading lamp. The lamp shade is the source of the light and it built from OLEDs.(organic light emitting diode) The OLEDs don’t require great amount of power to turn on.
This is an amazing example of slow design because again it follows the principles of it. It is very interactive. It makes me personally think how many things in the world can be transformed into something similar in the idea so that we can save energy, save water, clear air from the pollution,etc. In this way this invention reveals how simple objects can be repurposed into something very useful in every aspect of it. As ridiculous as it sounds, I think this chair (the invention itself of course) teaches us how we could start recycling beyond just paper or plastic.