Forrest Whitcomb

Throughout our lives, we wrestle with the concept of authenticity — of self, of culture, and of our constructed environment. Even in our present ironic and cynical age, the desire to be authentic remains a symbolic construct that continues to have cultural value in how we understand ourselves and our pasts. The objects that make up our material culture represent this plight; progressive attempts to be “authentically” original and innovative are matched equally by a desire to reconnect with the “authentic” past through the revitalization or production of tradition. Oftentimes, the same objects that were at one stage innovative reemerge at a later date as traditional symbols that oppose change and innovation. My project, Essence of Change, seeks to explore relationships between innovation and traditions in Western product design through the framework of chairs, a taxonomy of artifacts that has been historically used to illustrate and evoke design styles and movements. An ongoing research project, Essence of Change interrogates the lifecycle of objects in our constructed environment, from their innovative beginnings to their subsequently traditioned and abstracted iterations. https://fozzest.github.io/essenceOfChange/