EXCHANGE # 8.2 (plus: new blog look and some announcements)

Hello reader,

Here’s a little update on the evolution of this little project that Jordan and I have been working on (for two years now!!!).

As Jordan mentioned in his most recent post, We took an extended break from our usual back and forth over the Fall, because during that time I was in Madison with him. I was there as an artist in residence at UW Madison, and we took that time back in each other’s company to develop what seems like our most refined effort, a set of interlocking, flat-packable, three legged stools. This project got us thinking about functional objects, which we are both equally obsessed with, and how they fit into our current individual and collaborative practices. The stool project yielded a great result (have a look at the video to see the prototype), and got us thinking about the future of our collaborative effort.

Following my return to Portland, we started the exchange back up, with Jordan sending me a great little package as seen in “Exchange #8“. My response to that prompt, as shown below, represents the new direction that this project will be taking. Moving forward, Each exchange will begin as it always has: with a hodgepodge of found, prepared, made, collected, and/or broken objects or parts. The next step though, has changed dramatically. Our new mission, upon receiving a Flat Rate package prompt, will be to create a utilitarian, functional object from the provided materials. The resulting object will still be a hodgepodge of materials, processes, and techniques, but will be a truly unique functional piece when completed.

These simple outcomes will be for sale on this blog, as one-of-a-kind works, for a very affordable price. objects can be special ordered as well, but no two will be alike, as each product represents our response to the materials and each other’s actions. Our goal is to make strange, unique, truly functional objects that are affordable and fun to create. We will still spend no more than 5 hours each on the various iterations, and none of the other parameters of the project will change. We will likely each make modifications until one or the other of us claims a project “done”. It will then be posted here with a Paypal link.

We hope you like these simple functional reactions to material and context as much as we do. They are fun to make and we want to put them into the world as truly useable products.

 

And now, without further Ado, Exchange #8.2…

So, Jordan’s initial package contained these elements…

That weird kaleidoscopic face collage was an excellent random addition and was just loosely stuck under the string that held the box together.

After pondering my supplied materials for a while, I got to work creating a portable stool, using the foam and drawer box as a seat, a set of turned legs threaded into the underside, and making it all fit nicely into its original box, which I disassembled and re-taped using some industrial strength Gorilla tape. The whole thing has a strap and fits right back into itself the way it arrived. I upholstered the seat using some upholstery remnants I had in my studio, and sent it back to Jordan, who will be putting a couple of finishing touches on before it goes up for sale.

Thanks for reading.

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Stay tuned for more updates and for the final iteration of exchange #8

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