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 bench acknowledges the fallen tree as our earliest mode of furniture. Here the humble form of a fallen log is celebrated and made anew with tufted leather upholstering. One version has a weighted bottom that rocks and another is chocked with walnut wedges.
FALLEN
Upholstered bench (rocking and stable versions)
Wood, Leather or wool upholstery
2009
Chicago solo exhibition of materious work
Self-rights when pushed to allow easy rocking (does not roll away)