inspiration – colors

Each of these mixed media collage pieces is based on a color:

ORANGE – warmth, beginnings, spirit

 

RED – danger, sexuality, loss of control

 

PURPLE – regality, femininity, decorum

Personification

The famous psychologist Harry Harlow conducted maternal deprivation experiments with rhesus monkeys in the 1950s.

Video of the experiments:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLrBrk9DXVk

The baby monkeys were given a choice between a warm cloth mother which provided no food and a cold wire mother which provided food. The babies almost exclusively spent most of their time with the warm soft mother while only associating with the wire mother when hungry. The experiments are a landmark in the study of attachment and loss, but also provide some interesting revelations for designers to consider.

We live in an age of loneliness. The majority of americans are single. We live far away from our families and are rarely in multi-generational living situations. We are focused on our careers, our interests and our needs. We have embraced electronic ‘social networking’ and other online venues in order to maintain and create human connections. But at the end of the day, we are and always will be like those baby monkeys. We want something real and tangible. The ‘E-world’ is only so great, it can’t hug you back. And, more than ever before, many of us have turned to our pets for companionship. In Cali, doctors even prescribe pets; allowing apartment dwellers to keep pets as a way to fend off depression, even if the landlord does not usually permit it. Fact is, things that seem human, more alive, are often more attractive. As the Japanese have done for years, simply adding a face to anything can make it more human and, in turn, more alive:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alessi has made a name for themselves by personifying many many inanimate objects. The sheer whimsy of these products have made them a huge hit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do think it’d be insane to plaster faces on every possible object, but there is a huge market for this aesthetic. People need this sort of human-like presence in their lives. Though it may seem unhealthy, we are attached to all kinds inanimate things. We love our cars, ipods, laptops… some people really genuinely love these things. They name them and care for them as if they were living beings with feelings. And people do talk to and interact with inanimate objects. It was normal and perfectly healthy when we were  young (dolls, stuffed toys), but after a certain point, society just doesn’t allow it. Why not be a little crazy and talk to our stuff? It might actually make us more sane. I want these….