ARPÍA CHAIR
Workshop
What does it mean to design for otherness? Design tends to use the norm as a way to mass-(re)produce, creating through (and for) standardized "universal" identity models and making invisible all those who do not obey these standards. In other words, everythingt is designed for apollos and venuses (white people with very specific gender roles, in which apollos stand above venuses) and tritons, harpies, panottis, arachnes, reapers or jellyfish (and a long etcetera) are expected to adapt to these roles. In the framework of the workshop 'Dissident Forms' we explore (a)normality in design through the hacking of commonly used objects adapted to mythological characters of dissident identities.
The harpies seem originally to have been wind spirits (personifications of the destructive nature of wind). Their name means "snatchers" or "swift robbers" and they steal food from their victims while they are eating and carry evildoers (especially those who have killed their families) to the Erinyes. When a person suddenly disappeared from the Earth, it was said that he had been carried off by the harpies. Thus, they carried off the daughters of king Pandareus and gave them as servants to the Erinyes. In this form they were agents of punishment who abducted people and tortured them on their way to Tartarus. They were vicious, cruel and violent.
Arpia Chair performance
Arpía Chair wandering in Las Ramblas
Exhibition of the workshop
Two Arpías using the chair
