My design work varies from the poetic to the pragmatic. With self-initiated projects, I tend to design for the domestic sphere, at the scale of the individual, and often without a lot of technology. My academic projects involve greater ethnographic research and participatory methods and tend toward systems-, service-, and strategic-design. The images below represents the "making" aspect of my design practice, often in collaboration with Stephanie M. Tharp and our studio, materious.
A 21st-Century butler pull, MasterSwitch uses piezoelectric technology to harvest energy when pulling down on the tassel; this generates the power needed to send a radio frequency signal to the wall outlet receiver into which the appliance is plugged—no batteries needed.
MASTER SWITCH
Remote, energy-harvesting pull switch
2008
The mundaneness of switching everyday appliances on and off now becomes a more resplendent—and potentially reflective—act, better expressing our (supposed) mastership over our electrical domestic “servants.” Referencing Hegel’s master–slave dialectic, the interface between human and machine is altered and challenged— are we truly the masters of our technologies?

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