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MAP OFFICE and SCHOOL OF DESIGN [Hong Kong Polytechnic University] will participate at NABASUTRA – FURIOSALONE 2008 – CITY OF DESIRE a 3 days workshop, Milan Furniture Fair 2008, 16-21/04/2008

link: http://www.naba.it/home_page.php#naba_938

Death With Objects

In the South China metropolis and especially in Hong Kong, many paper offering shops display objects that are destined to accompany the body of the dead during the funerals. Made of bamboo and paper, these objects are part of the cremation process. They accompany the deceased to the ‘other world’, guaranteeing that they will still have material ‘worldly goods’ while awaiting a better life.

‘Death1 With Objects’ explores the taxonomy of these objects to understand the latent power of design and brands, but will ignore religious and cultural rituals.

This project is structured into two basic parts:
First a survey of ‘popular design’ and the evolution of design through what is recognized as important in the context of the ritual. The selection of offering objects in the specialized shop is directly informed by the demands of the society. It reflects the evolution of trends in electronics, food and fashion as well as the recent introduction of global brands into the household.

The power of objects and brands is divided into 3 categories:
Industrial objects: transport (plane, car, motorbike), electric appliances (air-conditioner, hair dryer, rice cooker), music (radio, MP3), telecommunications (phone, mobile phone).
Fashionable objects: clothes, shoes, hand bags, jewellery, etc.
Consumable objects: food and drink (and cigarettes).

Techniques: paper cutting, collage, print

Brands and their misspellings: Mini Cooper, Louis Vuitton, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Marlboro, Sony, Nokia, etc.

‘Bank of Hell’ banknotes to burn2

In the second phase of the project, the ‘City of Desires’ will find some resonance in Hell3. During the Salone del Mobile, the participants of the workshop will be asked to choose one of the many ‘Objects of Desires’ and to reproduce it in bamboo and paper. At the end of the workshop, an ‘other Salone’ will be created and all the exhibited work will be burnt. If design is made to be consumed, our critical interpretation will be to set our pavilion on fire and celebrate a new ‘Life without Objects’. 3

1 ‘Death’ as a word is avoid and replaced by ‘gone’, ‘gone to fairyland’, ‘passed away’, ‘not here’, or ‘gone to San Francisco to sell salted duck eggs’.
2’Hell’ in the Chinese context refers to the ‘waiting room’ for the afterlife, and not the underworld of atonement and punishment that the word denotes within the Christian tradition.
3 This funeral ritual ‘Death With Objects’ has a strong echo in Superstudio’s motto ‘Life Without Objects’, Peter Lang, William Menkin (eds.), Skira, Milano, 2003.