Audiovisual – Motion Graphics
Editorial
Photography
Change of function
Repurposed objects
Two million years ago, the first men began using chipped stones for cutting and smashing, marking the creation of one of the first tools designed to satisfy their basic needs.
Introduction
The toolmakers had been remade by their own tools. For in using clubs and flints, their hands had developed a dexterity found nowhere else in the animal kingdom, permitting them to make still better tools, which in turn had developed their limbs and brains yet further. It was an accelerating, cumulative process; and at its end was Man. Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968, p.48.
In the material world we live in today, we have an increasingly definite idea about the function of the objects we use every day. We associate a particular shape with a function and we expect the object to perform the task for which it was designed. However, there are situations in which an object is subjected, temporarily or permanently, to a change in function by its user. One may take a cushion to kill a mosquito, a polystyrene box to make a flowerpot, a key to remove the wax from an ear. Examples can be predictable or totally unexpected. Therefore, this section seeks to collect, categorise and analyse these changes of function to better understand them. This theme has been my great passion for years, and through this work, I aim to attain a level of theorisation that would, in my opinion, allow a better understanding, rather creative, of the material world.
Themes
Categories of repurposing
There are countless examples of repurposed objects in both popular culture and everyday life. This leads me to define categories that, when well-referenced, reveal how easily objects can be redirected and associated with themes such as sexual pleasure, health and well-being, violence, memories, and more.
1. Sexual pleasure
I have always found sexual pleasure a rather intriguing and surprising theme as when, for example, I read that a military collector got a WWII artillery shell stuck in his rectum ‘per accident’ (Ladbible news, 2021). The Instagram post ends by saying that ‘while the bomb was disarmed and designed to penetrate tanks, it seems in this case it had a different target’. Bananas and courgettes are usually more usual in the collective imaginary, but probably any phallic-shaped object could penetrate men and women considering the item’s length, diameter and material as well as the inches that the user’s rectum can stretch. In this sense, pornographic videos suggest a world full of possibilities that will disconcert any theorist. While men and women may look for objects to be penetrated with and feel pleasure, men can also look for objects to penetrate as when the main protagonist Jim Levenstein explore sexual possibilities with a freshly baked pie in the iconic scene of American Pie (1999). All this resourcefulness at the service of sexual pleasure may have given ideas to sex toys makers although at the end anyone is free to explore their sexuality and fantasies as desired.
Frame of American Pie (1999)
Baloo in 'The Jungle Book' (1967)
Wall corner used to release back pain (left) and the silicone massager (right)
2. Health and well-being
2.1 Tension points (2022)
Walls do not just carry the weight of the house, we also use them as a support either for ourselves or for other objects. Brandes et al., 2008, p.144
One day, my wife bought a silicone pink cone with a rounded triangular shape. She explained me that it could be stuck on the wall or on the floor to massage trigger points of my back or foot as a muscle release. As I often use walls corners to massage my back, she thought that such product would replace my unconventional use of the wall. However, the pink cone would constantly fell at each of my intents to stick it on our walls, because of the paint but also the pressure I would put on it, which soon made it useless. In Brandes et al's book cited earlier, we understand that if designers would better observe how people use objects and spaces of their surrounding environments, they would better design in order to attend the needs manifested in such observations. When looking at that pink cone massager, I just thought that some designer must have seen someone like me releasing back tensions with a wall corner, and had this brilliant idea to respond to that need with a manufactured item. Nice try. Walls corners will definitely be difficult to be replaced. Baloo, from The Jungle Book (1967) already taught us some time ago that a big scratch call could be taken care by a tree.
Places
Where to find more repurposed objects?
1. The prison
The prison is the first interesting place to study the repurposing of objects as a need. Prisoners are prohibited many items from the outside world and it is fascinating to analyse the inventiveness that may occur into the walls of a prison as the function of some objects may change. At the moment, my unique source of information are movies and series but, although they are fictions, the directors and actors were well aware of this repurposing situation. Prison Break (2005 – 2017) or Oz (1997 – 2003) depict at many occasions the metamorphosis of everyday objects into weapons or tools used to escape, usually small and hidden from other inmates and guards. In A man escaped (1956) by Robert Bresson, the protagonist uses a stolen metal spoon as a chisel to remove wooden parts of the door to see what happens outside and ultimately escape from the cell. It is even more evident in The hole (1960) by Jacques Becker or Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) by John Frankenheimer, where a series of objects are reused to escape in the former or to take care of birds with the limited resources available in the latter. Inventiveness do not necessarily come when the bottom of a bottle is used as a drinker for birds, which may seem an idea easy to come up with, but when people go beyond by, for instance, using a sock to warm up such bird. There is a continuum of inventiveness that can be understood by degrees, and it is often these surprising ideas that the audience expects when watching a movie or series on prison escapes. That can also happen when reading a book as when Stefan Zweig’s narrator in A game of chess (1943) plays chess in his cell with crumbs of bread. It would be fascinating to study the prison as a real case study rather than through fictionised narratives, to then classify the type of objects repurposed and design, for example, a pedagogical handbook for prison staff.
Tools & Objects
One object may have different functions
1. Bones and stones
When rewatching Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), there is this memorable scene in which Moonwatcher discovers the bone as a tool, and as a weapon, using it to smash things out and killing prays or enemies, implying a decisive step in human evolution and the emergence of new form of intelligence. From there, I read Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, written the same year, where he elaborates extensively on such scene, explaining how tools will not only transform the way man-apes live, but also shape the way they evolve as a species (pp.32–33):
The tools they had been programmed to use were simple enough, yet they could change this world and make the man-apes its masters. The most primitive was the hand-held stone, that multiplied manyfold the power of a blow. Then there was the bone club, that lengthened the reach and could provide a buffer against the fangs or claws of angry animals. With these weapons, the limitless food that roamed the savannas was theirs to take.
But they needed other aids, for their teeth and nails could not readily dismember anything larger than a rabbit, Luckily, Nature had provided the perfect tools, requiring only the wit to pick them up; First there was a crude but very efficient knife or saw, of a model that would serve well for the next three million years. It was simply the lower jawbone of an antelope, with the teeth still in place; there would be no substantial improvement until the coming of steel. Then there was an awl or dagger in the form of a gazelle horn, and finally a scraping tool made from the complete jaw of almost any small animal. The stone club, the toothed saw, the horn dagger, the bone scraper - these were the marvelous inventions which the man-apes needed in order to survive. Soon they would recognize them for the symbols of power that they were, but many months must pass before their clumsy fingers had acquired the skill - or the will - to use them. Perhaps, given time, they might by their own efforts have come to the awesome and brilliant concept of using natural weapons as artificial tools. But the odds were all against them, and even now there were endless opportunities for failure in the ages that lay ahead. The man-apes had been given their first chance. There would be no second one; the future was, very literally, in their own hands.
2. The key
I remember the moment I realised that my father used a key as a swab to clean his ears. There was one in particular he preferred, the living room key, because it was thinner and longer than the others. According to him, a key was more effective than a swab, though he was slightly more careful when handling it, given some of its sharper edges. We all know that a key’s primary function is to open a door, but what if we suddenly used it to cut something, like a knife, or as a letter opener? Would that be surprising? Probably not. And what if I used a set of keys to create a sound that my family’s dogs would associate with going to the park? The degree of surprise would be less than using it as a swab, yet the key's function still shifts away from opening a door.
Needs
One sole need can be satisfied
with a range of different objects
In Marnie (1964), by Alfred Hitchcock, Sean Connery’s character discovers Marnie’s pills and asks her: “Where did you get these things?” He implies that she could use them to take her own life, and then continues, “Heights, ropes, ovens, even plastic bags. Yeah, of course you can. You can also find, at your convenience. The world’s full of alternatives.” This scene highlights how the tragic impulse to end one’s life can manifest through everyday objects; some more common, some unexpected. A few minutes later, the characters engage in a word-association game, linking one word to multiple meanings, which immediately brought to my mind the Cluedo board game I played as a child, where even a candlestick could become a murder weapon, or how Dobby, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), hurts himself with a bottle, a wardrobe or even a lamp. Strange parallels.
What if someone has a sudden need to write or draw, like the map sketched on a mirror in Patton (1970), or a few notes Cruz writes down on a napkin in Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (2021)? Sometimes it is less impulsive and more habitual, as in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (2003), where the old monk repeatedly used his cat’s tail to trace characters on the wooden floor of his floating temple. Writing is one of those fundamental needs where repurposing objects feels almost natural. Covering one’s head is another, when protecting from the rain with a plastic bag as in the Russian documentary Hush! (2003), or from the sun with a leaf, as in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). More recently, while rewatching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), I noticed how Indi lights up some Italian catacombs using a bone as a torch. It would probably make sense to compile a list of everyday needs solved by unexpected objects as seen, for instance, in films and documentaries.
Artists/Designers
One person or movement may repurpose different objects
1. Fountain, 1917
The day Marcel Duchamp presented an ordinary porcelain urinal to an art exhibition, he intentionally transformed an object meant to be pissed in into a work of art. Its shape remained unchanged, its position was reoriented to 90 degrees, but its function and meaning were totally redefined: no longer to be used, but to be seen, no longer ordinary, but extraordinary. Its aura changed. Then, it is quite fascinating to discover that decades later, several performance artists, including Pierre Pinoncelli, urinated into Fountain’s replicas, as if their act not only carried forward Duchamp’s legacy of artistic provocations, but also, in an ironic twist, restored the sculpture to its original function.
Books and Theories
Wider theoretical debates
These books include Uta Brandes, Sonja Stich and Miriam Wender’s Design by use, Jencks and Silver’s Adhocism, Jane Fulton-Suri’s Thoughtless acts, to the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour or more alternative publications.
1. The Use of Books
In The use of Books (L’Uso di Libri, 2016), Matthias Hübner and Brad Downey document with photographs the different uses of books. In their introduction, they make an analogy with how words can be given new meanings through use and perform different tasks. If we can use the same words in a way and in another completely different, the same could happen with any object and why not books? As the authors put it, “Not all books are holy. Some fill holes. Some bridge gaps, some balance objects, hide things, make good kindling.” The pages that follow are satirical and imaginative as they show books in unexpected situations. Scenes are created and it becomes interesting to analyse them in categories: (1) what the book replaces (2) what function it entails (3) the main reasons for using a book (4) the context of its use (5) the degree of viability for such scene to happen based on ergonomics and (6) the number of books needed to carry such action. The following table is an attempt to classify such data.
2. Telling about society, Howard, S. Becker, 2007, p.70
In late 2024, I was re-reading Becker's book and even if it largely discusses how different ways of telling about society exist beyond the conventions of the sociological field, he also delves into the tension between makers and users of these representations:
So? The work of making representations is divided among makes and users. The work that makers do is there for users to use. What makers don't do, users must do. They may not all know enough to do what the makers want and require, they may know how to do it but not do it consciously, or they may do it differently. When they do it in their own way, they may well produce results different from what the makers had in mind. Different worlds of representation making divide the work quite differently. What seems inescapably the work of the makers in one world–labeling the rows and columns of the analytic table, for instance– becomes the ordinary work of users in the world of documentary photography. Every kind of representation offers the possibility, and probably the fact, of a different way of dividing up the work, with consequences for the look of what's made and for the fact of what's made of it.
3. Fantasy, Bruno Munari, 1977, p.22
From a design perspective, Munari in his books and Tati in films like Mon Oncle and Playtime are masters at exploring the associations between ideas through the shape and function of objects and spaces. In Fantasia, Munari describes this mental process by showing how anyone can perceive a thorn as a sharp object, recognise its ability to prick, and ultimately envision it as a potential weapon.
Operations of Intelligence
> A thorn in nature (visual observation).
> The thorn pierces from the pointed end (tactile observation).
> All sharp things prick (deduction, verification).
> Sharp things can cause injury (elaboration).
> A sharp weapon (invention): the point is used to wound.
Methods
A framework for analysing
repurposing situations
Repurposed objects can be analysed through different methods, many of which involve degrees of transformation on different continuums. These include:
(1) Duration of repurposing, from (i) momentary to (ii) permanent.
Example: A polystyrene box becomes a permanent planter when it holds plants for years, whereas a book temporarily used to elevate a laptop retains its original purpose and will return to being read once removed from the pile.
(2) Intentionality of repurposing, from (i) non-intentional to (ii) deliberate.
Example: Walking in the shade of a building’s roof unintentionally is different than sewing old t-shirts together to make a parasol.
(3) Time required for repurposing from (i) seconds, (ii) minutes, (iii) hours, or (iv) days. Example: Repurposing a key as an ear swab takes seconds, but also using it as such will only take seconds, while even if it takes seconds to repurpose a ceramic cup into a pen holder, it could stay as one for years.
(4) Degree of modification
(i) no visible change (object remains entirely recognisable),
(ii) partial transformation (original form and function are still recognisable), or
(iii) complete transformation (original form and function are no longer recognisable).
(5) Origin of the object: Where does it come from?
Examples: From (i) personal belongings, (ii) discarded elements, (iii) nature, etc.
(6) Context of repurposing: Who or what drives the change?
Examples: From (i) self-initiated to (ii) external forces
(7) Cause of repurposing: What motivates the transformation? Which need does it fulfil? Is it driven by necessity, creativity, or constraint?
(8) Consequence of repurposing: How does altering the object’s function affect its surroundings, sustainability, or cultural perception?
Beijing examples
Non-intentional design
Guanzhuang street (2020)
Brandes et al. (2009, p.10) define Non-Intentional Design as ‘the everyday re-design of the designed world’. It is ‘the user’s motivation to use an object for a purpose other than that for which it was professionally intended’ (ibid, p.12). NID shows what people do spontaneously with objects when facing a situational problem. In 2020, as a design researcher, I decided to investigate my street, observing and taking pictures of what I could see that would fit that definition as, for example, a bicycle basket transformed into a wastepaper basket, lampposts and walls as advertising hoarding, trees and railings as mop holders, power cables and fences as clothes rail, etc. At times, different solutions arise to solve the same problem, as when mops dry on different supports; or the same element has different uses to offer, as when trees are used as bins to hold mops, to stretch muscles, etc. Therefore, the non-intentional use of mundane objects can be observed in Guanzhuang street through the following selection of images. Where there is people, there will be Non-Intentional Design.
