John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

industrial context. Most of the objects in the database belong in the ‘Entry-
Adoption’ or ‘Adaptation’ stages.
Figure 35: ‘Bonechaise’, 2006. Joris Laarman
An example of a work that illustrates the ‘Appropriation-Invention’ stage would
be Joris Laarman’s ‘Bonechaise’ (Figure 35) produced for the New York gallery
Barry Friedman Ltd. and Dutch design collective Droog. Laarman worked with
General Motors Engineering Europe (Opel) to use proprietary digital tools that
mimic the growth patterns of bones that was originally developed for optimising
car parts (to increase the strength of the part and a more efficient use of
materials). The object derived from this process is cast in clear polyurethane
resin. This project makes use of computer-based design tools that were
developed for use in industry but it represents a shift in order of magnitude of
the application of the technologies beyond their conventional industrial
purpose.
The artifacts produced at the ‘Appropriation-Invention’ stage can be considered
experimental in nature, with the objects having been made purposely to exploit
the specific technologies used. The practitioners that are actively investigating
and exploiting computer-based technologies at this stage of integration can be
defined by their use of computer-based design and fabrication technologies.
They are able to achieve innovation in terms of the conceptual design process
and by the types of designed objects produced. New situations beyond single
disciplinary domains are more likely to be explored at this stage.
The final subcategory of the ‘sophistication’ of an object is the level to which
computer-based design and fabrication technologies have been used to create
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