The Origin of Species

“Are God and Nature then in strife, That nature lends such evil dreams?

So careful of the type she seems, So careless with the single life.

So careful of the type? But no, From Scarped Cliff and quarried stone,

She cries a thousand types are gone, I care for nothing all shall go.”

 

The poet Lord Alfred Tennyson in this passage from the poem ‘In memoriam’  expressed fears, anxiety and cosmic despair, when confronted with the idea that life on earth is the outcome of an unsupervised process of change and necessity. For him evolution was a troubling idea, for if the earth could be seen to exhibit continual change, then it was entirely possible that some day man would disappear from the face of the earth, and if man disappeared then love, art, religion and everything else that man alone shares would disappear likewise.

To this day Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution continues to challenge the old conventions of the meaning of life. God made us the story goes, and put us here for a special reason. Humans are not just animals, humans have spirits or souls and only humans can survive death. The theory of evolution does away with all these ideas, undermining the claims of many religions. It leaves no room for god, the soul or life after death. Therefore, it could be argued our lives are in fact a mixture of life choices, free will, pre-destiny and determinism that drive us towards our inevitable end.

Taking inspiration from this philosophical approach, I became engaged with the central argument of Darwin’s theory that suggests the sheer fertility of nature creates a struggle for existence. In any such struggle those lucky enough to survive must have profitable peculiarities, that Darwin described as  Fortuitous Novelties.

We think with the objects we love, we love the objects we think with…

When designing I have always taken an interest in the particular characteristics of objects, and as a collector of objects, I often value unremarkable things that despite this, come to acquire a certain mysterious provenance over time. The collections held in grand cultural establishments are celebrated in society as symbolic references and indicators of our culture, but I would argue, that it is ephemera that truly indicates our collective lives and speak of our times.

 

Image: Michael Hughes Souvenirs.

My interest in celebrating things that may initially appear mundane, lies in the power of everyday objects and to the importance of design in manipulating and changing our perceptions. I believe the character of these objects of no particular parentage is often more appealing than the character of more pedigree objects, where the ego of the designer has replaced some of the usefulness and the ability to fit into everyday surroundings. The value of the banal object is to remind us that in the real world an object relies on its long-term usefulness for survival.

Why are things the way they are – and could they change?

Fortuitous Novelties Seedpods

A little about Darren Browett, this blog and my work Fortuitous Novelties…

My professional background as a Technical Tutor in Three Dimensional Design at Loughborough University and previously at Staffordshire University, is concerned with the specialisms of working with Wood and Plastics materials, this has been the basis of my career for 16 years since my graduation.

Additionally, I  completed a Masters in Three Dimensional Design at Manchester Metropolitan University in September 2010.

Ultimate Collapsible, RAPIDO!

If you carry an umbrella, have Venetian blinds on your windows or have ever sat in a deck chair, you’ve experienced the category of objects that are Collapsibles. I am an avid collector of these collapsible objects and I celebrate their genius spacesaving designs, both past and present, that are foldable, expandable, retractable, inflatable, and stackable. The ingenuity of man-made collapsibles inspires creativity, and their brilliance lies in the application of a significant design principle used in our daily life; the economy of space and the economy of transportation. In my opinion the ultimate collapsible in this respect is the wonderful and delightful Rapido…

From the seed of an idea…

News on developments from the Fortuitous Novelties Seedpods Project.

I have recently been exploring the legacy of the earlier work I developed and critically looking to how it moves forward. Returning to work within the NHS and with the exemplary Occupational Therapists has enabled close collaboration in a more embedded way.

Thinking through Making

 I take time to look at materials, processes and technologies to understand why and how they are harnessed in particular ways by designers, but more importantly to understand the values that we place on them, not only in their visual and tactile properties but also the cultural associations they hold. An icon of this approach is the theoretician Enzo Mari who came to design via the world of art as a fervent critic of Consumerism. As an ideological contributor to the debates surrounding design for the last fifty years he has become renowned for his mantra, “Good design for everybody at affordable prices’.

Central to Mari’s beliefs is that design, rather than simply being an expression of others values should develop its own ideology. Much of his work can be considered from this viewpoint, as a sort of critical design exercise where understanding is reached through experiment that can be best described as ‘Thinking through Making’.

You are a Nomad

We know ‘change’ is a paradox, as it is the one thing of which we can be truly certain. As change happens everyday in all our surroundings we endure by continuously adapting ourselves, and our belongings to our situation. In nature species rely on dynamic modification in form and size in order to reproduce, feed or protect themselves. The capacity to adapt is essential to continued survival. And so it is in our ‘man made’ artificial world. As practical experience shows us, many organisations that fail to adjust to ever changing business environments tend to disappear.

Back in 1973, Victor Papanek and James Henessey had already prophesised the necessity for greater movement of people, suggesting that through our changing lifestyles we are all becoming nomadic. I delight in their book ‘Nomadic Furniture’ in which they have attempted to fill a void by designing furniture that can be built yourself, bought or adapted by being easily constructed, but which also folds, stacks, inflates or knocks down, or else is disposable whilst being ecologically responsible.

Why are things the way they are?

Of designed objects I have always questioned;

Why are things the way they are – and, could they change?

When designing I have always taken an interest in the particular characteristics of objects, centred around methods of manufacture and the ways that things are put together, and as a collector of objects, I often value insubstantial things that come to acquire a certain mysterious provenance over time. The collections held in grand cultural establishments come to be celebrated in society as symbolic references and indicators of our culture, but I would argue that it is ephemera that truly indicates our collective lives and speak of our times. My interest in celebrating things that may initially appear banal and mundane, lies in the power of these everyday objects and to the importance of design in manipulating and changing our perceptions.

I have a particular interest for objects without an author, those anonymously conceived objects of both the distant and more recent past we appreciate for their powerful enigmatic appeal as a ‘thing’ and also how useful it is. Anonymous artefacts of the distant past are often ‘anonymous’ purely because the personality of the craftsperson was not commonly attached to the object, as the concept of their labour was not held in high esteem regardless of the craftsmanship of their work. After all, the work of a wheelwright to make a wheel of exceptional quality was still just a wheel…

Reclaiming Simplicity, Thrift and Utility

I recently found a copy  “Box Furniture” by Louise Brigham, an American early 20th century designer/teacher who was a pioneering champion of the use of recycled materials in furniture design.

The book published in 1909 contains plans of her designs for building furniture entirely out of packing crates, a how-to manual for a target audience of modestly skilled working-class householders.

Upholding Noble Design

A noble design tradition includes Windsor chairs, the Shakers and the Mini, where the appearance is born of utter pragmatism, and style merely comes as a by-product of its context, its use and its making. All have come to take a place our hearts in ways that go beyond the merely visual and rational. We believe each is an excellent example of how design can give greater emotional meaning and give our daily reality more depth.