Haotong Li

In this oversaturated world, people use consumption as a means for filling up personal emptiness and loneliness. Everyday objects are easily consumed, discarded to the street, and regarded as disposable, therefore, becoming invisible. At the same time, everyday behaviour of the user is normalised. Is this how we want to relate to the things around us?

Bodily experience and awareness is usually overlooked in the design of everyday objects. See through the body, Listen through the skin is an experimental project in bringing contact improvisation and somatics into design. It explores how people relate to their surroundings through their sense of movement rather than rely on taken-for-granted experience and product manuals. It questions the visual and result-oriented patterns of behaviour that arise from mainstream market-driven design.

The body is an active thinker, personalised interactions, emotions and imaginations are thus created, and the connection between people and objects becomes stronger.

Through a dance improvisation workshop, co-organised between the designer and dancer Wenxuan Lu, abandoned chairs were danced around. The products, therefore, captured opportunities and inspirations from this workshop. A series of undefined objects made of abandoned chairs and latex were designed to bring new dialogues into everyday objects and users.