Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of the distancing effect through utilitarian objects. This body of work consists of three boxes, all designed to hold various utilitarian objects related to the acts of preparing and consuming food. Viewed together, they represent a "tea service" that seeks to generate the distancing effect for the user. The distancing effect is a term coined by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht to describe the critical perspective he sought to elicit from his audience.1 Applied broadly to art forms outside theater, it refers to any experience that confronts expectation with reality. I have adopted the mechanism of surprise, or revelation, found in the distancing effect, and have applied it to my work, exploring the relationship between two-dimensional versus three-dimensional perception, between two different tactile qualities of a single material (brass), and between two different materials (wood and iron).

1 Brecht, Bertolt, and John Willett. Brecht on Theatre; the Development of an Aesthetic. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964. Print.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Furniture design--Themes, motives; Furniture design--Technique; Boxes--Design

Publication Date

5-15-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Furniture Design (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School for American Crafts (CIAS)

Advisor

Rich Tannen

Advisor/Committee Member

Andy Buck

Advisor/Committee Member

Sarah Thompson

Comments

A physical copy is available from RIT's Wallace Library at NK2260 .B662 2014

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

WOOD-MFA

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