Object Study
Object Study ︎
A photographic series of still-lifes depiciting 17 objects that represent good design and personal significance.
The 17 items featured in this spead are design objects from various fields belonging to the author.
Rather than rotting under dim UV light they have been showcased as an antidote to malaise.
They are of great personal significance and are foremost examples of the joy beautiful things can
bring to a person and the radical potential of design.
To the chagrin of the would-be dissidents, design is unlikely to bring about the kind of ‘radicalism’ they support.
There is no coming revolution or societal upheaval; the ‘professional activist's’ impotent flailing is nothing more
than Bordiga’s description: a blood infection requiring constant treatment. Their theories on the organization of
society are obsolete at best and horrifically misanthropic at worst. No matter their prescriptions on the political
importance of art and design their roads lead back to Rome.
The 'radicalism' design instead offers us, and good design especially, is our only consolation. That is, it offers us
the chance to continue our imagination. Paglia wrote “Nature has a master agenda we can only dimly know”, and
we cannot fight specters that no longer exist. Design can keep alight the desires and hopes we require to realize
some change in the order of things that lies beyond the horizon.
The 17 items featured in this spead are design objects from various fields belonging to the author.
Rather than rotting under dim UV light they have been showcased as an antidote to malaise.
They are of great personal significance and are foremost examples of the joy beautiful things can
bring to a person and the radical potential of design.
To the chagrin of the would-be dissidents, design is unlikely to bring about the kind of ‘radicalism’ they support.
There is no coming revolution or societal upheaval; the ‘professional activist's’ impotent flailing is nothing more
than Bordiga’s description: a blood infection requiring constant treatment. Their theories on the organization of
society are obsolete at best and horrifically misanthropic at worst. No matter their prescriptions on the political
importance of art and design their roads lead back to Rome.
The 'radicalism' design instead offers us, and good design especially, is our only consolation. That is, it offers us
the chance to continue our imagination. Paglia wrote “Nature has a master agenda we can only dimly know”, and
we cannot fight specters that no longer exist. Design can keep alight the desires and hopes we require to realize
some change in the order of things that lies beyond the horizon.