Lataa ilmaiseksi

for now, the study chair which, especially if you work on the computer
for a bit longer, is very unpleasant. ( Janne 05 311-321)
Janne uses the term “chain reaction” for those types of actions that often characterise
dwelling activities. Most famously, the philosopher Denis Diderot has
focused on the notion of a design-intensive chain reaction in an essay in which
he describes receiving a tobacco coat as a gift, an elegant item that outshined
everything else in his study and that subsequently forced him to replace nearly
everything in his study, resulting a room where nothing felt familiar (Diderot
1769). Grant McCracken coined the term “Diderot unity” to refer to a set of
designs that the builder of the set thinks constitute a whole and into which
something can intrude and even shatter the unity (McCracken 1988). The unity
shattering chain reactions described here are less dramatic. Instead of a complete
change, only a partial change would be required. However, the partial
change is out of the question because it would mean not having a renovation,
pets or children, for example, or it is not seen worth making, at least not just
now since one prefers to do something else. Like Olavi explained the offending
humidifier:
6 D E S I G N L I M B O
239
O: the meaning of life is not in taking care of a parquet; there are other
activities. (Olavi 05 336)
Ruptures in the curating of a home are interesting because they make it evident
that curating home is not just about furnishing home with designed items. The
notion of curating points out that for most of us, domestic recreation does not
stem solely from aesthetic perfection. A home is often curated as a comfortable
place for the children and pets, for example, and when that is the case,
households often make compromises. Furnishing an apartment according
to the household’s standards can, of course, be central in the home’s moral
economy and the household is not making any compromises. Such homes are
motivated to remove any obstacles that prevent the household to dwell with
design the way they want to. Willingness to make compromises seems to be
more common, though, which, again, implies that household identities do not
easily shatter in front of imperfect design.