The dependent objects by Chiao

The Dependent Objets

Design Academy Eindhoven Contextual Design Chan Chiao Chun

1.0 A NIGHTMARE

“Ahhhhhhhh!” He wakes up disquietly from a quaking dream. He’s still in a state of halfunconsciousness. He looks out from his drowsy eyes, everything looks so familiar. There is his childhood photo, in which he’s playing naked on the beach, still hanging on the wall. Abundant clothes burst out of the closet. The merchandise he bought, weeks ago, is still piling up on the floor. Massive amounts of shopping goods are gathered in the corner; some of them are even not unpacked. Yes, he is surely in his room.

He lies securely on his bed, and tries to recall what he dreamed of earlier. “I was like sitting on a chair which I just bought? ...But what was the story before that? Well…it seems that I dreamed that after work I went to a newly opened shop which is not far from my house. I seemed to spend a little time in the store. And I bought a newly released chair in the end. Then I thought about how to take it home. Because it was nearby, I decided to walk with it. But at the same time I was worried about the striking, so I remembered that I put my coat over the top to cover it, and carried it home. This journey was farther then I thought. Finally I got home, gasping. I hurried to clear a little space for this newly arrived chair, in the living room filled with stuff. Breathlessly I squeezed it into a crowd of chairs. The coat was still hanging on the chair. I looked at it, and thought: ‘’that is quite human-like’’. I did not have enough strength to keep my body standing up any longer, let alone to take the coat off the chair. I determined to sit on it first. Resting for a while, I looked around at the things I bought. I didn’t really make a good use of them.

At that moment, suddenly, I was shaken… was it an earthquake? He felt dizzy because of the shaking. Instead of earthquake, it was that chair, moving. He falls asleep again, and in his sleep he is recollecting. He’s sitting on a moving chair. All of his furniture is dressed up in his his clothes, starts to move, walks toward to him, and even acts human. He is shocked. In a short while, he has been encircled by house fittings. He wants to jump out of the chair. But he is caught, tightly, there is nothing he can do except be scared. It seems they’re scheming to do something to him sooner or later. A lamp is climbing on him and then invades into his body, forcedly. He has no power to resist. They all make incursions. He’s metamorphosing. He swallows all the furniture in the house.

2.0 METAMORPHOSIS

“What’s wrong with my body? “he attempts to shout out. He wakes up again in a cold sweat. He hurries to look at his body, it still appears as a quite human shape, naked. He hears his heartbeat racing. Again, he tries to touch his body, yet he finds something wrong with his condition. He’s unable to recognize if he is still in a dream. “Am I awake, or still in a dream?’’

He tries to move his body out of bed. But before that he’s looking for his phone. He doesn’t know why he wants to do that. “Ah…my body is so heavy” He can’t really control it well, or move smoothly. He feels a mass is hiding in his bulk. He recalls that in the past he often felt pain in the bed, which might be caused by a poor sleeping posture, plus a wrong sitting posture at work. He grabs his phone, gets out of bed. As usual, he goes to the sink, washes his face and brushes his teeth, to wake up. Today, moving hurts. In front of the sink, his hands holding the toothbrush and toothpaste, he squeezes paste on the brush. Puts it into the mouth, brushes the teeth. His fingers turn the tap on, water runs out. His hands contain water, wash up his face. He turns the tap off. He looks at the mirror with bleary eyes; the man in the mirror looks fuzzy, with a strange long hair. He has an intense sense of touch when he contacts those parts of things. He thinks he might be still in a hypnopompic hallucination. 1

1 Wikipedia: a hypnopompic state (or hypnopomp) is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep; the hypnopompic state is emotional and credulous dreaming cognition trying to make sense of real world stolidity.

After he has woken up, he moves to the front of the house . He puts his foot forward with some effort. When he opens the door, he is stunned and perplexed. The room is empty “Where is all my stuff? Eh…? This should be my living room. Did someone burgle me last night? “ He looks around. There are no clues for burglary. He has a lot of doubt. He stands in the middle of this unfurnished room with a phone in his hand. At that moment he realizes that the small gadget in his hand is the only thing he has. He remembers that ten years ago he never asked for a mobile phone. First people wanted it, then they needed it, and then it became inseparable from life in this high-tech era. At this moment, the phone has become an appendage of his body. He is not that anxious about the missing furniture but that enjoys theswe surroundings.

“Ring Ring Ring.” It is a phone call from the office. He forgot that today is a working day. He doesn’t pick up the call but wanly walks to the kitchen to have his breakfast. The narrow corridor is the only walkway leading to the kitchen from the empty living room. He walks slowly, wondering what the kitchen will be like. Will it have changed? Will there be furniture there? The corridor remains the same, but it feels like a walk in a tunnel leading to another world. He enters the kitchen, where there is substantially no change in sight. He grabs bread, wants to sit down, but finds that the chairs and table are gone. The phone rings while he is wondering where to get a table and chair. He begins to feel annoyed with the tone. It’s from the office again. He doesn’t want to take this call, he needs to concentrate on how to deal with the problem of ‘no chairs’. His feet hurt, and he sits down on the floor, spontaneously. He realizes that this is exactly the way to solving the matter. Then he thinks about arching his knee as a table. In this

moment, his body doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel quite right. His knee starts wriggling strangely. Some of the muscles in his leg are getting hot, just like a feeling of cells dividing. It is twitching forcedly, as if something wants to come out. It begins to deform, ball-like prominences roll in his knee, and they all vomit out, bubbling. His mouth falls open, he is completely astonished, suddenly overwhelmed. He has absolutely no idea how big it will grow. He is afraid he could be swallowed by this unknown mass. It could even submerge the kitchen and the house. Should he call for ambulance, he has the phone in his hand? At the same time, as he hesitates to call, he sees out of the corner of his eye that the undefined body has stopped growing. Strange to say he did not feel any pain. He looks at it carefully, as a new part of the body which extended from the knee. He canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really describe what it is, but this is the perfect height for a table. He tries to touch it and feel it, to ensure it is safe. He doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel any discomfort. He instinctively puts his

bread on it - it functions as a table. The phone rings; a call from the office again. He ignores it, thinking about the body extension. Again it rings, interrupting his mind. He starts to feel annoyed by the mobile phone. He decides to put it aside on the floor of kitchen, then heads back to living room. He leaves the kitchen, steps into the corridor. He continues thinking of the body extension. What if each movement of the body could create certain functions, what will happen to this surrounding? He stands a space, seemingly empty. He isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worried about the changes in his body, it arouses his curiosity. He thinks that he would not have to run around in a busy work place if he becomes a chair.

“What did I just think about?’’He is startled by his thought that he might want to become furniture. And the phone rings again! That continuous calling is quite troubling, but it slowly becomes indistinct. Now he has left the phone behind. Slowly he forgets the thought; he starts thinking about how he has never used more than half of those shopping goods. He just has that non-stop shopping habit. Suddenly, he feels ashamed of never spending time on those goods he bought, as if they have lives. He contemplates the fact. Yes, he didn’t have any memory of them. He is tugging his paces in the corridor, towards living room. The steps are getting heavier, he is wonders if it is the impact of the knee. The corridor feels endless. He feels his steps getting bogged down in the muddy floor, the wall he leans against has become soft as cotton. The hallway is getting narrower and narrower, he has a feeling his body melts into the tunnel. He has completely no idea where the tunnel is leading him. Is that his empty living room? Is that the world he is still familiar with?

With difficulty, he jostles out of the narrow passage into a space. Yes, he is back in the living room again. But everything in front of him has become different. A few strange objects appear in front of him, lying on the ground, leaning on the wall, hanging on the windowsill. He has an uneasy feeling. They look very weird, they cannot be regarded as furniture, but they are not creatures neither. They cannot be defined. But he finds a common element: they all are dependent.

3.0 REVOLUTION

He remembers when he just moved to this house. He stood in the corner of the living room, from where he could view the whole space. With a window right beside him, he could easilly feel day and night. He could look up, outside, see birds in the sky at dawn, stars in the sky at night. He stayed alone in this empty space. He was also looking forward to this new life. The next day, just saw a busy man hurrying out with a briefcase in the morning. Late at night, the man dragged his exhausted body home. Then that man took off his coat, shirt and work clothes, flung on him. He turned a blind eye to him and headed to the shower. After that, the man entered the room. Of course this wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t what he thought, he expected that he could have a devotion to this house. In the following days the same situations happened. There was nothing he could do, except to accept it quietly. He was thinking that he might need time to adapt to this new environment. Suddenly one day, he felt abnormal. Usually at this time the man

should have woken up and should be getting ready to go out, but it was totally quiet. He worried that something bad might have happened. Time was ticking . Finally a noise came from the room. He was anxious about what to do. After a while, he saw that the man walked out of the room safely, a load off his mind. Also he found that the man did not wear the same shirt like he normal does, but was dressed casually. The man was humming in the kitchen with an unusually good mood, which completely contrasted with the past few days. Looking at such a scene, his feelings were also well up, looking forward to a good thing to happen. He didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to wait too long. The man looked happy towards the living room from the kitchen, with a coffee and newspaper. His heart was beating fast. The man arrived in front of him, paused for a few seconds. The man put the coffee cup on the floor, and then sat on him. Finally he embraced and supported the man securely; watching him read the newspaper, also warming up the

body. He was so excited and light. This was the happiest day since he had moved in. He finally made a little contribution. In this peaceful night he was looking forward to the arrival of the next bright sky. The next morning, the man woke up late as he did the day before, but also with a relaxing movement, slowly walking to the kitchen. He was holding an expectation and waiting quietly. At long last the man went to the living room with his hands free, and then directly to his room . Soon enough, changed into a new suit, the man went out. He wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t clear about what just happened, but he had a feeling of loss. He was lonely, watching the birds flying across the window, thinking back to his existence in these last few days.

Just when the sky was getting dark, there were noises from behind the door. That was the man, coming back. From afar he saw that the man moved laboriously, his hands full of items, and moreover holding a big thing in his arms. After the door closed, the man dropped what he had in his his hands, unloaded the bags first, and then moved that thing in his direction. He was a little nervous, had no clue what was about to happen. That thing appeared not to look like him. The man arrived beside him. Looked around and hesitated. Put the thing on his right side. Unpacked it, stepped back and looked at them. The man looked a fairly satisfied, and then turned around and left.

This new comer was higher than him, and flat on the top. This immediately reminded him of the situation when there was no place for a coffee, yesterday. From that moment on, he had a new partner. She is a table.

The next morning, as usual, the man left in a rush with a suitcase. But today, he was not alone. He was sharing his past in this house with her, looking at the sky out of window. Soon time passed . The man was tired when he got home at night. As usual, the man took off his stiff suit. But this time it was not the same; there was company, someone who could share that cumbersome stuff with him. He felt sweet having her as a nice companion. He thought they were chummy, with endless talking.

Several days passed quickly. This day he woke up late again, but this time they were not worried. On the contrary, the were expecting something splendid to turn up. Really it was just same as last time. The man carried a cup of coffee and a book, walked toward them. This time the man put his cup on the table first, and sat on him. They spent a wonderful time together.

The following day the man again went out after waking up. They were assuming that this was the usual routine of work and rest. He came back from shopping spree. It seemed they would have a new friend. The man brought a new arrival, a chair, placed him on the other side of the table. The new arrival got along well with them; the three of them were on appropriate friendly terms. They often gazed out of window, dreaming that they themselves could move freely, one day. The new life of the set did not change too much, just one more friend for piling up the laundry. So day by day, they gradually figured out the routine of seven days.

This time the man came with an illuminating fellow. As time went by, there were more and more new recruits. In addition to chairs and tables, there was a carpet that not only helped them rid their feet of cold in the winter, but also to ease the weight. Among them were several chairs. He remembered that on a Saturday morning the man got up earlier than usual. After breakfast, instead of having a moment of leisure, the man started clearing up the house, rearranged the space, and even redecorated for them. They were all taken by surprise. They were gossiping about an upcoming event. In the evening, the doorbell rang. A group of guests arrived. All of a sudden the house was bustling with life. Unlike in the past, this night each of them had a great contribution to make. It could be said that it was an unforgettable night.

In the ensuing days, with a greater extent of new members the space was compressed progressively. They were out of breath. Some parts of them were not even harmonious. However, they still had to stay together. There was no other way.

After some time, the man arrived home with sharply drawn breath, and stayed a while in the porch. They were excited about a guest coming, they were under the impression that the man ahd returned with a visitor. But when the man and the visitor approached, they recognized that it was a chair, wearing the coat of a human. Alas! He was also squeezed in between them. The space became even more crowded. They were almost unable to breathe normally. They were furious. Staring at this dressing chair, he appeared to be human. This new guy made them into conscious beings, almost by magic. They all felt they could act as human. They attempted to move their bodies, also dealing with a plan. The man was worn out and slept on the new chair.

4.0 DREAM AND REALITY

Confronted with all of this, he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how to react. He tries to get closer, to observe them; he finds they are all dependent. They stir when he approaches. He is so scared, that he falls back down to the ground. They are like incomplete creatures, continually crawling toward him. He finds that they are comparable to starving animals, chasing prey; looking for their missing parts. He backs into the corner, from which there is no escape. Those undefined creatures are accessing him, attaching themselves to him, like parasites. He passes out.

5.0 EPILOGUE

In Kafkaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa transformed into an insect. His room gradually became a storage room, filled with furniture. The good influence of this furniture was not that it functioned for a human being, but that it gave him, in his condition, a great advantage to crawl.

Furniture is humanity alive. The chair is not only an object to sit on, but also the symbol of the idea of how, what, and where humans rest. Gregor yearns for an environment that could give freedom to his non-human form. Furniture (objects) keeps him human, as they do with us; like all forms of social code, they are a form of repression of other possibilities of being human. This is to say that objects are physically part of human imagination. They may liberate us, but they also force us to be human. That is what we talk about when we say that humans create objects, but also objects condemn humans to certain acts.

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From the ancient times to nowadays, from a stone to a sofa, from tatamis to lazybones, the invention of things redrew the relationship between humanity and objects. My aim is not that I want to break the rules of forms, but I want to question the ways our behaviour interacts with objects nowadays, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to bring other possibilities of relationships between objects and human beings.

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Mentors Louise Schouwenberg Karel Martens Koen Kleijn Jan Konings Gijs Assmann Hewald Jongenelis Simone Farresin Thanks to Chen Jhen Chiou Nai Yao Chang Nai Dan