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It is about a Way-of-Being


THE WHITE BENCH


Double consciousness of seating
Volatility of material, resonance of environment, and creativity of mankind
DESIGN: Public Bench
PROJECT TYPE: Academic (Collaboration with Joey Farrell)
MEDIUM: Plaster, Wood
DIMENSION: ~W56” x D28” x H18”
DATE: Spring 2022






The White Bench is an environment-adapting bench fully covered with plaster for use of 1-3 people. It is used to be sit, lean, and in ways decided by the audience.  The White Bench explores and expresses the concept of Double Consciousness of an object, which means that an artifact is usually a supportive element in a societal environment, but its potential of being the master of environment is considerable. 

In this design, seating becomes its own master of the time in the environment, and when people use it, people become the master of the time. Insight of material volatility, human resonance, and shi(environment flow) is developed and supported to the concept of Double Consciousness.






Shi - the flow of the Washington Square park 
By and for people, artifact, and their surrounding

Shi, a philosophical concept in Chinese aesthetics, is the arrangement of forces in a situation so that their immanent potential can manifest themselves. It’s often translated as potential, tendency, force, or power which are partial meanings of a complex concept.

The White Bench emphasize the concept of Shi and materialize it by its characteristic and the surrounding environment: Washington Square Park. The material of plaster allows the natural tendencies of plaster to prevail rather than minimizing “imperfections” with the existence of drips, fragility, and ease of texturing.

The White Bench also emphasize itself as the Shi epitome of the park by its form extraction of the shape of a part of the park’s walkway; the bench carefully consider the sitting position and interaction it can offer to the audience, making the audience to sense the Shi of the bench. 





The Volatility of plaster
Creativity of people
Shi of environment
and Resonance of allJust like the characteristic of material plaster, the color of white is extremely volatile through man-made and natural influences. However, the White Bench sees these changes as memory of usage, observation, and existence rather than a definition of being dirty, old, or unwanted. 

The constantly changing form of the White Bench represents as the people’s interaction and environment’s effects, and all of these tell the notion of time that happened and is happening on the White Bench. Hence, people in the scene need to react with the change brought by volatility.

At the same time, Plaster only need simple polish to retrieve its white and pureness, but is it necessary to renew it? Some things are quick to be broke down but breaking it down change nothing of its existence. 






Sometimes we know not the process but the end. The object will become used, but the process of it is random. We never know what people and nature will do to it. Though the end has been set, the charming part is the unknown of process.




By the use of pure plaster, the White Bench reveals its contrast to the city by its color, texture, and Shi, presenting a sense of alienness which indicates the resonance that’s rare to happen in a city. And most critically, people resonate with it in their own way.

Looking closer, the surface texture evokes the emotion, Shi, and mood with more detail and exquisiteness; Looking farther, the White Bench’s material and color present a huge contrast to the environment, giving a sense of unreality and self-presence.

When people use it, they are around the White Bench. When there is no man, White Bench is the man of environment. Its Shi carries on and beyond and the White Bench will express itself with a sense of its own, strong and deep in the city.
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