The course, Transaction, is aiming to explore the role of artefacts within social settings, focusing on borders and examples of deviant behaviours. The context of this project is based on the Scottish National Gallery.
“We all have an ideal model in our heads of how to perform in public, what if the outline of this model is blurred, will people look at the world differently? And how will people criticise this boundaryless world?” – Yifu Liu
At the beginning, the design was focusing on revealing unseen deviant behaviours. By creating an umbrella-shaped space, people could comfortably speak about the deviant behaviours that they saw and all the sentences that they said would go on a similarly shaped screen in the same public space.
After testing it, we found that the first design was not inviting people to talk. The idea of observing spaces through a hole then came into our minds, this would allow people to focus on what they otherwise ignore. Based on the functions of observing and speaking, we created a cone-shaped object with a hole in the end, through which people could look and speak about the deviant behaviours they saw. Around the hole inside the cone the sentence says “ anything questionable that you can see from here?”, which instructs people to understand the function of the object.
The final design consists of the cone shape product and the separate screen. The cone stands on a post and to use it the user has to go into Fokus and look through the hole on the opposite end.
After researching different materials, such as a wood, cardboard, metal and plastic, we talked to technicians and chose plastic for a cover and wood as support.
The final design’s purpose is to be minimalistic, but on the other hand a little bit luxurious, keeping in mind the atmosphere of the National Gallery of Art. White colour was chosen because it is inviting and neutral.
