Working side by side with the subconscious

February 2, 2015

Images of current work in progress including various jigs I have made for my Verpozen chairs

I love the play between the conscious and unconscious minds in the creative moment

Josh Waitzkin

I’ve been slowly becoming more aware of how useful it can be to give the subconscious tasks to work on.

Over Christmas a relative described doing crossword puzzles in the evening, going to sleep, waking up the next morning and without any effort being able to solve a bunch of the challenging puzzles which were unsolvable the night before.

A week or so later I was listening to an interview with Chess Master Josh Waitzkin (read an interview with him here) who described something similar, he would give his subconscious questions to work on at the end of his working day and first thing the next morning he would spend half an hour writing. He also explained that he wouldn’t ask the question just before going to sleep because he found that he started consciously thinking about it, which obviously defeats the point.

So I started to experiment, at the end of the working day i wrote down a question at the top of a blank piece of paper, I kept it very specific in relation to a tricky problem I was trying to solve. I wrote:

“What is the best way to make a jig for cutting curved angles on a curved board?”

The next morning, when I went back to workshop, I found my self simply making the desired jig (photographed above). What was interesting was that I was making it with noticeably greater attention to detail than I would normally make a jig like this and the solutions that I came up with were not ones that I’d consciously thought about before.

The other thing I noticed was that I was more present with my family in the evening. Somehow just trusting that my subconscious was dealing with problem meant that I could be more relaxed during my time off.

Chair design for aligning the spine

January 16, 2015

I first came across the idea of Constructive Rest when reading about the semi-supine position in the Alexander technique. Imogen Regone explains that:

“Constructive Rest is a way of lying down in a semi-supine position (on the back with the knees bent, and feet flat on the floor) that promotes good spinal alignment and release of excess tension. […] Lying down in Constructive Rest is one of the quickest and simplest ways to restore our natural shape, and can be invaluable for people suffering from neck or back pain.”

This exercise is effective at helping the spine to realign itself by releasing muscular tension and allowing the back to decompress. It affirms the idea that the back is able to naturally correct itself when allowed to do so.

I personally have found this exercise effective so I was fascinated when I came across the same idea in relation to chair design in Galen Cranz’s book The Chair: Rethinking culture, body and design. One of Cranz’s favourite chairs is the Red and Blue Rietveld chair designed in 1919. She explains the chair is generally not viewed as comfortable but rather admired conceptually for its clarity. Why then does she find it so comfortable?

I think the answer lies in the similarity between the semi-supine exercise and the position encouraged by the Rietveld chair. It’s actually the same position, just tilted at a different angle. Despite the Rietveld chair not being horizontal it’s significant backward tilt means that gravity is pulling the sitters back towards the flat surface of the chair back. This has the combined effect of taking some of the weight off the back, allowing the spine to decompress, and encouraging the shoulders and the rib cage to open up against the flat surface.

In addition to this the angle of the person’s upper leg in relation to their back is the same in the semi-supine position as it is for the user of the Rietveld chair. This angle (roughly 100 degrees) helps the lower back to align itself to the flat surface of the floor and the chair back.

Rietveld actually designed his chair with this in mind, his idea was that the chair could be used to tone the body in relaxing and playful way after a hard days work.

Image no. 2 of a Rietveld Chair in Gemeentemuuseum Den Haag photo credit: Marianne de Wit via photopin cc

Hans Wegner’s 4 stages of chair design

January 9, 2015

As we enter the new year I wanted to start thinking about my creative process more and enter a new spirit of research and enquiry which I’d like to share. As I have been commissioned to make four new Verpozen chairs, my thoughts turn to seating and posture, which in turn leads me to looking at some great designers. I am so impressed by the Scandinavian legendary designer Hans Wegner, and found the book Hans J Wegner by Jens Bernsen an invaluable resource in learning more about the process that he used to make his chairs. They are as follows:

1. Sketching ideas
Wegner always started with rough sketches of an idea, leaving details and technical precision till later. He sketched the chair from the front, the side and the top.

2. Small model
Based on his sketches he made small models which were 5 times smaller than the full-size chair. Always using the same material for the model as he intended for the chair he made them with detailed precision. This meant that photographs of these models would give a very good impression of what the final full-size piece would look like. This process also helped him understand future production issues for making the full-size chair.

3. Full-size chair
He would then make a full-size chair, which he would tweak until it was just right. This is the point where all the detail would be resolved to the point of precision, with a chair small adjustments could have a big impact on comfort for the user. This stage could involve making multiple versions, or redoing parts. He believed it was important to do this stage cheaply and quickly because if it was expensive and time consuming he would be less likely to make the effort to do it again if there was anything that needed to be changed.

4. Full-scale drawings
The final stage of the process involved doing full-size drawings of the chair. These drawings needed to be completely accurate and full-scale so that the craftsmen would have all the information they needed to make the chair.

Image number 4 photo credit: Peter Guthrie via photopin cc