Couch Constructions
The submission to the Herron School of Art exhibition, Couch Constructions entitled, AMID/IUCA+D Couch4920 is an interdisciplinary collaboration. Kevin Lair, Deborah Christiansen, Jane Matranga, and Kate Rowold, approached the provocation of the couch as opportunistic design investigation. One of the key themes of our investigation arose from the collection of abandoned couches. The image of the couch as displaced from the home and left on the curb facing either adoption or destruction brings context to the foreground. The couch in this context easily anthropomorphized as the family member cast off. The intimacy of the couch is exposed as it transitions from part of the home to a mere object to be thrown away. We investigated a few themes: the couch straddling the space between the environment that we inhabit with the clothing we wear, the couch as inorganic object vs. living body, the organic living couch as one that decomposes or regrows, and instructional drawings or diagrams of both dissection or fabrication of the couch.
The next critical context for us became the place we were going to use to work on the couches. It is a warehouse at 4920 Warren Street, Columbus, IN and is also somewhat abandoned, thereby creating a compelling context for the rescued couches. Exploring the couches in the space became the overriding idea for AMID/IUCA+D Couch4920. While taking apart and “dissecting” the couches led to some interesting ideas as a kind of couch “innerspace”, the surrounding space of the warehouse created a more contextual exploration.
At one point, rather than putting a spotlight on the couches, we began to project images onto the couch as a faster, more dynamic way to explore the possibilities. The projections of images onto the couch and the surrounding warehouse reflect a range of potential ideas rather than developing a particular concept. We typically wanted to find a way that something of the couch remained as an underlying presence as the surface “bleeds” across the topography of the couch and surrounding space. The draping of fabric on the couch creates a whole new range of contours in which the image also is draped. In each case, there is a kind of materiality, fluidity and structural character particular to each fabric and image so that the image might be completely distorted and abstracted or remain clear and on the surface of the couch. The projections we typically find most compelling are ones in which the surrounding space, the underlying form of the couch, the draped fabric and the draped image are interacting to create different interpretations between each relationship. When the images convey simultaneously a place to sit, a street to walk down and room to exit, a spatial and contextual richness inhabits the couch.
The next critical context for us became the place we were going to use to work on the couches. It is a warehouse at 4920 Warren Street, Columbus, IN and is also somewhat abandoned, thereby creating a compelling context for the rescued couches. Exploring the couches in the space became the overriding idea for AMID/IUCA+D Couch4920. While taking apart and “dissecting” the couches led to some interesting ideas as a kind of couch “innerspace”, the surrounding space of the warehouse created a more contextual exploration.
At one point, rather than putting a spotlight on the couches, we began to project images onto the couch as a faster, more dynamic way to explore the possibilities. The projections of images onto the couch and the surrounding warehouse reflect a range of potential ideas rather than developing a particular concept. We typically wanted to find a way that something of the couch remained as an underlying presence as the surface “bleeds” across the topography of the couch and surrounding space. The draping of fabric on the couch creates a whole new range of contours in which the image also is draped. In each case, there is a kind of materiality, fluidity and structural character particular to each fabric and image so that the image might be completely distorted and abstracted or remain clear and on the surface of the couch. The projections we typically find most compelling are ones in which the surrounding space, the underlying form of the couch, the draped fabric and the draped image are interacting to create different interpretations between each relationship. When the images convey simultaneously a place to sit, a street to walk down and room to exit, a spatial and contextual richness inhabits the couch.
