I no longer wish to talk about design
Extract of a conversation between Philippe Starck and Pierre Doze, Paris, December 2002. Exerpt from the book 'Starck by Starck'.
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Duty
As a producer, I'd be ashamed to find myself satisfied by mere production. If, designing a toothbrush, I thought of nothing but the toothbrush, I'd be dumb or venal. I try to be neither: that's the duty I recognise. I have to think of the mouth this brush will enter; I have to acquaint myself with its owner. I need to know the kind of society that has given rise to this life. I need to acquaint myself with the species of animal that created this civilisation.
On the species level, we find broad outlines, major obstacles, dead-ends and challenges. It's beyond my power to sweep them away, but the sight of them at least aids comprehension. On longer contemplation, I can come back down the ladder, and grasp why the plan is thus and not contrariwise. In everything I produce, I try to apply this procedure.
Idleness
Dreaming is a form of action. Idleness is a form of action. The idle man stares at the sky and sees what constitutes our eternal ceiling. The sky is one of the things that constructs us, one of our constants. But it is not what people believe. What we see no longer is: the moon's image takes eight seconds to reach us, the sun's three minutes. The stars, and the sun in particular, are incessantly in movement. In the image of stars located 12 million light-years away, we may see bodies that have long since ceased to exist. What constructs and in part defines us may therefore have already ceased to exist. This is a considerable shock.
On the basis of a rudimentary acquaintance with physical chemistry - everything around us is reducible to diferent assemblages of the same molecules or combinations of atoms - we come to the simple conclusion that there is little enough that is solid or eternal.
Ours is an endless shipwreck. Like children paddling to keep their heads above water, we need to catch hold of something that floats.
The only thing that I find real, tangible, and quantifiable is the "electric" relations between humans. This is of course still more striking when the relation is one of physical love. Now my gaze no longer lingers on the visible, it discerns only the tubes by which we are connected, individual to individual. These are links of different qualities, resistance, porosity and elasticity.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Duty
As a producer, I'd be ashamed to find myself satisfied by mere production. If, designing a toothbrush, I thought of nothing but the toothbrush, I'd be dumb or venal. I try to be neither: that's the duty I recognise. I have to think of the mouth this brush will enter; I have to acquaint myself with its owner. I need to know the kind of society that has given rise to this life. I need to acquaint myself with the species of animal that created this civilisation.
On the species level, we find broad outlines, major obstacles, dead-ends and challenges. It's beyond my power to sweep them away, but the sight of them at least aids comprehension. On longer contemplation, I can come back down the ladder, and grasp why the plan is thus and not contrariwise. In everything I produce, I try to apply this procedure.
Idleness
Dreaming is a form of action. Idleness is a form of action. The idle man stares at the sky and sees what constitutes our eternal ceiling. The sky is one of the things that constructs us, one of our constants. But it is not what people believe. What we see no longer is: the moon's image takes eight seconds to reach us, the sun's three minutes. The stars, and the sun in particular, are incessantly in movement. In the image of stars located 12 million light-years away, we may see bodies that have long since ceased to exist. What constructs and in part defines us may therefore have already ceased to exist. This is a considerable shock.
On the basis of a rudimentary acquaintance with physical chemistry - everything around us is reducible to diferent assemblages of the same molecules or combinations of atoms - we come to the simple conclusion that there is little enough that is solid or eternal.
Ours is an endless shipwreck. Like children paddling to keep their heads above water, we need to catch hold of something that floats.
The only thing that I find real, tangible, and quantifiable is the "electric" relations between humans. This is of course still more striking when the relation is one of physical love. Now my gaze no longer lingers on the visible, it discerns only the tubes by which we are connected, individual to individual. These are links of different qualities, resistance, porosity and elasticity.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Starck by Starck
Flexicover, 19.6 x 25.8 cm (7.7 x 10.2 in.), 576 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
It's a bird... it's a plane... it's Superstarck!
Asahi Beer Hall, Tokyo 1990. Photos: Alberto Venzago