purple plushy catwalk

inverting domestic ritual in the era of pandemics

The swiveling office chair is a chair which employs a central leg and pivot system, enabling the seat to rotate 360 degrees to the right or left. Many modern iterations of this chair also incorporate a gas lift which allows the seat to raise or lower, building in a factor of comfort and customization for the user. These physical elements characterize the chair as the “swiveling office” type. First conceived by Thomas Jefferson, the swiveling office chair has been used to symbolize work and production since its inception and is often paired with a work surface. Through its involvement with presumed rituals such as attending classes, checking emails, reading text, writing essays, making calls, etc., the swiveling office chair acts as a stage in which the user performs these rituals. Further, it allows the user to slip into the head space of the worker.

This exploration considers the swiveling office chair a performance space for work, which has historically had masculine implications in the domestic realm. The proposed furniture object, the purple plushy catwalk, inverts those preconceived notions of work and masculinity by creating an object which allows one to perform femininity in a leisurely manner.

project information
location: my bedroom
date: 2021
type: research, furniture

credits
project team: jacob t. middleton

recognition
UTSOA Design Excellence winner