Looking at Objects

After her training as architect, Tamar Shafrir studied at Contextual Design, where she developed foremost her researching and writing talents. For her graduation project Looking at Objects she developed new ways of viewing the “categorical distinction between humans and objects, a complacent ignorance of how mechanical or logistical processes are enacted within objects (i.e. blackboxing), and a blindness to the meanings of familiar objects from our own culture. To counteract these biases and blind spots, I suggest a methodology for both design analysis and design inquiry. Ultimately, the methodology enables the designer to encounter mundane things in unusual ways, acting as a purposeful form of exoticism for really looking at objects. This research about a methodology implies the possibility of using it in generative ways. Could it be applied to new fields in which the archetype has not yet developed? More importantly, can this methodology be a tool for designers in a world that is increasingly formed and informed by non-physical matter?”

“The idea of neutrality must be continuously challenged, even in objects that seem devoid of an ideology. Has design become a Narcissus enraptured with its own image?”

After her graduation, Shafrir continued as a researcher and writer. Together with Joseph Grima she set up Space Caviar, for which she initiated various projects in many international settings, and she worked as a researcher at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. In 2018 she was Acting co-head of the programme Design Curating and Writing at DAE (together with Agata Jaworska). Ever since, Shafrir works as researcher, writer, and lecturer at various international schools.