precedent | opportunity chair

The office furniture design company, Herman Miller, challenged a number of different designers to reinterpret the Charles and Ray Eames chair in honor of Charles Eames’ 100th birthday. A project that emerged from this pursuit was the Opportunity Chair. For the gallery installation, the seat and back were removed from the chair to make the statement that the world is in need and to solve these problems one should stand rather than sit. On-line, the chair is virtually divided into puzzle pieces representing current world issues such as Zero Waste, Food Supply, and Gender Equality. When you click on the puzzle pieces that make up the chair you are then presented with YouTube videos where participants pledge to work to change this world issue. This project takes away the comfort of the chair to call attention to the uncomfortable realities of problems that need to be solved today.

This project uses the construct of the chair to motivate change, interaction, and mobilization. In addition, the project links the physical chair with the ideas gathered from the Powers of Ten video to YouTube home video pledges.