ACCEPTING IMPERFECTION

Accepting Imperfection is a side project completed alongside Fairway (group project in 2020). The project was to design and make a light fitting inspired by previous work from Fairway. In the early stages of the group work, we individually looked into Utopia, and what we consider Utopia to us. When scrolling through the images below, you will see the two prototypes and the final product, a working lamp.

Utopia can be described simply as the “Perfect World", and the word translates from Ancient Greek to “no-place.” Given the basic definition of this word, I think there is no real Utopia, everybody's definition of this idea is different and when thinking about the direct translation to “no-place” means there is no possible way to create a Utopia.

The first prototype was an attempt at rebuilding a “log” out of shards of wood. The obvious result of this is there is no way that it’s possible to return these pieces to their original form. The second prototype is modifying and redesigning to get an actual item out of the idea.

When creating the final light fitting I really wanted it to be refined and well produced, but still reflecting the idea of creating Utopia, which is impossible to do. Noticeable in the final design is the “shards” cut on an angle, to resemble them being broken but still being refined in the way it was created. The pieces are angled to also reflect aspects of the original prototype, and the splits in the wood are byproducts of the method I used to put the fitting together, and is another feature of imperfection which we can accept knowing that it is not possible to recreate the original form of wood, and repeats the idea that it is not possible to create a Utopia.

Scroll through my booklet at the bottom of the page