Alex Cashmore

Department: Contextual Design
Website: www.alexcashmore.com

SOME THINGS I’VE MADE

I’m suspicious of the cliche hipster craft movement in today’s design world, employing notions of authenticity to promote overpriced goods. The products of this counterculture to globalised mass production reference social, cultural and political ideologies but they tend to lack sincerity. They say more about the ego of the designer than anything else. Through a series of performances and material investigations I challenge myself to make products that connect the user to their pre-existence as just material. For this, I use familiar tools and materials in new and unexpected combinations. I don’t present a DIY kit or Ikea style flat pack objects, which just need assembly. I want the user to empathise with the most basic properties of their possessions; these are simply materials, connections and the tools to make them. I propose a way of making things that is one part craft, one part innovation, two parts adventure. Partly me, partly you.