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Still

by 

Ran Peled

About Design track

Mentor — 

Itay Ohaly

Animation of a flat disk made of veneer and Tyvek that responds to humidity and self-morphs into a flower-like 3d object, and then flattens back when it dries out

Contemplation object: A flat disk made of coupled veneer and Tyvek sheets cyclicly self-morphs into a flower-like 3d object in response to moisture, and returns to original flat form when drying. Actual motion in real life is slow, requiring lingering and patience to be enjoyed

"We owe the cultural achievements of humanity to deep, contemplative attention. Culture presumes an environment in which deep attention is possible". Byung-Chul Han, the Burnout Society

From Futurism that worships speed and flirts with fascism, through consumer capitalism, to the explosion of information in the internet and social media that require us to swipe non-stop, we seem to have lost the ability to pause and observe. 

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues that the ability to linger and contain boredom is necessary for deep contemplation, broad thinking and the development of creative ideas. He writes that our lifestyle, characterized by hectic transitions between different subjects, does not represent progress, but regression. 

In the works before us, hybrid geometric-botanic objects are engaged in a slow dance of self-motion generated by humidity changes in their environment, inviting the observer to take a break, if only for a few minutes.

The transformations are reversible and cyclic, echoing the cyclicality of nature – high and low tide, day and night, summer and winter, rainy and dry years, warm and ice ages.

 

Real versus accelerated time, natural versus artificial, random versus designed, scientific versus poetic – the objects embody the tensions in our lives, and call upon us to pause and turn our gaze and attention to them. 

Can we still stop?

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Ran Peled

Ran is a designer active in the fields of sustainability and the state of mankind in the digital age. He holds an M.Des in industrial design from Bezalel. His work was presented at the 2023 Arts and Design Biennale in Tel Aviv, as part of the Bezalel graduates incubator. A software engineer and architect, Ran holds a BSc. in physics and computer science from Bar-Ilan University. He has nearly 40 years of software development experience, from before and through the internet revolution. He is chief architect at MyHeritage, a company providing tools for genealogical research.

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