Makiko Higashi

Today’s commercial design standards grow increasingly preoccupied with promoting 'efficiency' and functionality to satisfy the tastes of a fast-paced, disposable society. Consumers are reduced to a passive role, conditioned to simplified design responses. I consider this 'efficient' approach to be a systemic ethical dilemma, prompting the slow demise of our collective cultural, traditional and spiritual legacy.

My aim is to incorporate more sustainable design concepts that engage both user and object in a more meaningful and memorable exchange.

The aspect of how this 'inefficient' exchange can survive within an efficient function is explored through the daily life object, the door lock. This creates an evolving relationship between user and object by highlighting the subconscious process of learning and eventually memorising the feeling of turning a key in our daily lives. The user is more challenged in utilising this product at first, but through the interactive process needed to get used it, an even more efficient result is promised at the end. The engagement required by users makes them feel more human and enhances the human relationship to it. This product can be in an alternative present.