its about time
INSTALLATION BY PADMAJA AT EXPERIMENTA DESIGN, LISBON 9TH SEPTEMBER-11 NOVEMBER 2009
HAND CRAFTED LAPTOPS
The theme of the 5th edition of EXPERIMENTA DESIGN launches an in-depth analysis on the subject of time. Focusing primarily on the flows and mechanisms of acceleration and fragmentation, it then surveys its impacts across contemporary society, which manifest themselves at all levels: the development of objects and devices that heighten the capacities of the human being, the growing mobility of both individuals and information, the redesign of the space where collective life unfolds, changes in communication processes and the appearance of new structures and languages, or in other words, innovation.
EVERYONE MATTERS
This reflection is the departure point for a debate on the current uses of time and Man-made devices to manage and master it, with the purpose of improving his performance as well as its transforming action over his surroundings.
PILLS KILL
Speed and acceleration, key aspects of the theme, underpin an incursion into a broader context, as Experimenta Design Lisbon 2009 looks at social, economic and cultural dimensions. Ever-growing competitiveness in the face of intense competition, emerging markets, the development of new technologies and processes connected to innovation networks will also be explored in light of time-related phenomena: expansion, condensation and manipulation.For Experimenta design 2009, Padmaja has made a collection of handcrafted wooden laptops that captures fleeting objects of mass consumption of the 21st century, allowing for reflection on the colossal power of the image and the role of new mythology in our society.
HANDCRAFTED LAPTOPS-PROFILE
The laptop is a metaphorical frame of our ‘Fast’, ‘time-less’ and ‘consumerist’ world and Kaantha embroidery is a representative screen of the ‘slow’, the ‘recycled’, the ‘remade’, the ‘inexpensive’ and the ‘precious seconds’. She has put together the two to create objects that are a comment on and at the same time question the state of the world today.
CLOTHES FACTORY
Handcrafted out of wood and recycled textiles these laptops will juxtapose many opposites and represent a dialectic relation between past and present, slow and fast, hand made and hi tech, recycled and disposable, less and more.
ELEMENTS
This will be a set of 5 laptops each of which will carry a separate message on the keypad and on the screen.The screen itself is hand embroidered and quilted on multiple layers of recycled fabric with kaantha motifs representing objects of mass phenomena like fast fashion [clothes], mobile phones, electronic gadgets, tablets/medicines that occur on a global scale. The back of the wooden screen will have the cutout of Zero through which the reverse side of the kaantha can also be viewed as if it were the circuit board for the laptop. Along the edges of the frame one would also be able to see fine raw edges of layers of fabrics used in making the kaantha. Representing in a way the many layers of hidden meanings. The keypad too is made out of recycled cloth embroidered with unusual keys carrying a relevant message drawn from traditional wisdom. The embroidery threads and hand needles will be used to suggest wires and USB ports.
LAP-TOP
The idea is to capture the spirit of the time and analyze its contradictions by creating objects that generate meaning and suggest deviations, short circuits, and contrasts.