Pillow bacchanal
University of Michigan // Undergraduate Thesis
Pillow Bacchanal is a series of super-scale outdoor furniture, imaging a pastoral organic future inspired by the lifestyle depicted in bacchanalia. The project investigates unusual methods of interactions with non rigid structures, and how those objects slump and rest alongside one another. Beginning with a simple pillow, a series of contortions and changes were made to create appendages and crevasses in the vein of a creature, inviting activities like resting and climbing. Starfish became a key inspiration after studying the way the congregate and lounge amongst one another on the ocean floor. Pillow Bacchanal looks to recreate that sense of carefree rest while inviting others to relax in symbiosis.
As these objects began to take form they seemingly became inseparable. This scene seeks to showcase the feeling of unabashed carefree openness within both the occupants and the pillows. Imagining a utopic meadow in which people live without preconceptions and inorganic barriers.
Inspiration for some of the structure within the pillows came from the network of nerves and organs within starfish. Specifically how liquids move through their body, and the spiny texture of their skin.
Systems like springs, foam and fabrics were imagined as a means of both comfort and as a structure. In this sense these objects aren’t so disimilar from standard furniture. These existing internal workings helped create boundries of existability for these “creatures.”
sleeper section