Joseph Ellwood's new collection establishes a new aesthetic, designed to reflect the needs and technologies of our
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GOOD SESSIONS engages a full support for the launch of the new collection from Six Dots Design Studio, purposing a new way of accessing furniture/collectible design engaging prices... |
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We believe that this new epoch is one of technological freedom and environmental responsibility. The furniture of today shows no expression of the technology we have, nor does it really embrace or honestly predict how pieces should be made in the future so as to minimise the environmental impact they cause. What does furniture look like with the constraint of environmental enlightenment but the aesthetic freedom that the digitisation of manufacturing brings? What is the aesthetic of our generation? The generation that we exist within experiences life as no generation before it has. We are able to communicate with anyone and engage with anything at any time. This is an exceptional privilege; it means we can express and discover ourselves whatever ourselves may be. Finding who we are, however, may be just as much a struggle as it is a pleasure. In a world of endless possibility, endless defining of self, of goals of culture, of clothes, of environment, how do we decide who we are and who we want to be? The facing of this question is difficult and confusing, yet often demanded of our social groups and our online communities. It is not an easy question to answer, nor is it binary, the answer will change and evolve with time and circumstance. Confronted with indecision, many of us find in ourselves a desire for a ‘simpler’ time. What was it like in the 90’s? What was it like when you didn't have to present yourself and your beliefs to everyone all the time? What was it like to live without knowing everything all the time? Was it liberating? Was it free? |
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Hanging Rail, 180x40x110cm, 6.1kg |
Modesty Screen, 180x95x50cm, 14.2kg
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Compounded onto this, we have been driven to a perpetual state of existential dread; if it's not the perpetual pummelling of the monstrosity that is contemporary capitalism, it's the threat of a killer virus across the entire globe, not to mention the constant threat of environmental collapse. As furniture designers, we recognise that furniture has played almost no role in the aesthetic expression of our thoughts, fears and hopes. We believe, however, that it should. Furniture today is boring. Craft and truly contemporary work is exorbitantly and alientatlingly expensive. Mass produced pieces are stuck in a mid century fantasy. Furniture defines the spaces we exist within, furniture is our environment. Furniture is where we sit, eat, talk and express ourselves. Furniture is a vessel for engaging with others. That vessel should be as much an expression of who we are as the shoes on our feet or the words out of our mouths. |
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This collection is an aesthetic born of three things: A desire to make hand made, locally designed, small batch furniture price accessible.
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Every piece in the collection is laser-cut aluminium. It is assembled through a series of half lap joints that all slot together. This manufacturing technique is designed so that we can order varying quantities of pieces, at a reasonable and consistent price and keep the labour in each piece relatively low, making the product more affordable. To learn more about the philosophy of this studio on craft, please refer to our written work ‘a manifesto for the furniture of the future.’ Aluminium is an endlessly recyclable metal. Aluminium is also now able to be made using ceramic anodes and zero-carbon electricity. The entire collection is made of flat pieces or tubes. At the end of the life of the furniture, they can be easily disassembled and the pieces reused. Alternatively, the flat pieces of sheet can be cut into small components. The aluminium is left completely raw, this means it can easily be melted down and recycled without impurity. Aluminium does not corrode, especially the 5083 grade used in this collection, which means the collection can be left outdoors for years without any change to its recyclability. This proposes that aluminium is one of the materials of the future.
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Mirror, 147x50x30cm, 12.3kg
Chair, 52x50x75cm, 3.5kg |
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Using a laser or cnc machine, we can cut any shape our minds can imagine, without a change to the machinability. We are not constrained. With formatic constraint removed, we are left with a completely open question of what that form could be. This enables the shapes to be purely expressive of us and our beliefs. We want this collection to open a discussion about the aesthetic of anxious indecision and existential dread. Physically, this manifests to an aesthetic that takes a traditional form and distorts it, this wobbly, hand drawn form is perhaps a reference to youth and naivety, perhaps a reference to the nervous shakes of a panic attack- perhaps a nod to the bizarreness of 90’s postmodernism. The lines are intended to be whimsical, they are intended to be joyful because if there is anything our generation has learnt in the past 5 years it is that people, joy and love are more important than anything. There is nothing worse than restricting your lived existence to pure function, there is nothing worse than a plain white wall. You never know when your time is up, so why get ready using an Ikea vanity and an Amazon hanging rail when you can express yourself through a squiggly chair and an oversized triptych mirror. |
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Table/Desk, 190x93x75cm, 27.4kg
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