Assignment “commoning” an object

In class you had worked on thinking ways of making the object you had chosen more “common.” Some of you probably realized your object wasn’t so interesting/inspiring/suited to the task. So work with either the same object, or a NEW object which you choose (based on what you have learned from the first try).

Think about the object and its design and use. How could it be held or used “in common.” That is, in what ways could the object be shared, made for multi users; have its ownership redistributed; have itself, in a material way, redistributed. If you can imagine it becoming very exclusive (for only one special user for instance, or useable only by members of a class, club, lineage, etc), then perhaps you will be aided in thinking about the opposite, how it can be understood/used/seen/ as a common object.

In technological terms one can think of open source software, or Wikki information systems.

Consult the previous post about the common (more pictures have been added).

Either work directly with your object, changing it sculpturally in some way, or make a drawing of your proposed object. Please make your drawing larger than 12″ x 12″ preferably more like 24″ x 24″ or even bigger. When we draw too small we tend to get rather precious and even nervous about what we are doing. You can make many versions of your drawing, a sketch, then another sketch, then something more final.