me chair

The philosopher John Locke considered identity to consist of continuity of consciousness. This concept is described by philosopher Alain de Botton as our character (our values, inclinations and temperament) being recognisable over time as the same person; that identity does not depend on bodily survival, or the survival of memory.

 

A major value of mine is environmental stewardship - which incorporates ideas around energy flows, matter cycles, functionality, minimising waste/non-renewable resource use, and considering embodied energy. I contemplated presenting the chair unaltered, to maintain the longevity and not impact the recyclability of the chair at the end of its life. However, I still wanted to be able to ride my bike to the presentation. I rode home from university holding the chair, and considering my values of play and whimsy, and of meeting silly challenges with silly and awkward solutions, I enjoyed the ridiculousness of the task, but felt that any further riding around holding the chair would not add any additional whimsy to my life.

 

I considered making a harness so that the chair could be worn like a backpack while cycling. I value resourcefulness, and enjoy colour, both of which could be satisfied via this solution. But it might also mean using another resource to create something that I don’t believe would have a use beyond the presentation, given that it’s a chair I have no interest in keeping. Thus, this solution did not seem compatible with my value of judicious resource use.

 

I decided to subtract a part. As the monobloc chair is made as a single piece, by subtracting one part, I have subtracted the chair.

 

But where did I subtract it to? I value the power of community to collectively solve problems, maximise resourcefulness, and improve wellbeing through kindness. If I don’t need the chair, and someone else does, and if I have needs that someone else may meet, then a net gain in functionality and environmental stewardship may be achieved simply by making the connections to facilitate the distribution of resources according to need, and subsequently giving things away, and asking for what I need.

 

While we could say that the white monobloc chair has been donated to a community sustainability group, which I came into contact with as a result of posting a call out on the Rough Trade group on facebook, it could also be said, as one member of the Coburg Good Karma Network put it: “You have already transformed the chair. As a function of your post the chair has been elevated into something that is neither material nor can be owned by any one person but is now the hub connecting together a small community of members who share a creative endeavour.”

 

Alain de Botton says, “if we think that who we are is to a large degree about our values and characteristic loves and hates, then we are, in a sense, granted a kind of immortality, simply through the fact that these will continue to live on in our species as a whole, lodged here and there, outside of their present home”, and perhaps, in a similar way, this white chair embodies me - the values infused into my interpretation of the project living on in the community and represented by the chair’s perceived absence.