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.
This stacking set of drawers houses mementos, photographs, missives, or other small objects of import. The drawers act like three-dimensional scrapbooks, whose contents mark specific events or time periods—a vacation, a ceremony, or a calendar year—and can be removed from the stack and reviewed or discussed on a couch or other comfortable place. The front face of each drawer is a mirror, and as more drawers are added the reflective area increases. The mirror grows with the mementos that are collected over time, representing the relationship between one's experiences and one's identity. Eventually, a full-sized mirror is achieved.
EXPERIENCE–IDENTITY TOWER
Mirrored, stacking memento drawers
Smoked acrylic, mirror, neoprene drawer lining
1995



