‘What would happen if our machines and production systems stopped?’ This question informed Celéstine Peuchot’s project ‘Inert Domestic System’. The idea that society could come to a standstill was once far-fetched, but the pandemic has exposed the fragility of our manufacturing supply chains and forced us to rethink how things are made.
With this project, the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate explores the manufacturing processes behind objects that fill our domestic spaces, highlighting the tensions and relations between techniques and aesthetics in mass production and craft manufacturing. The result is a series of objects imagined as the elements of a fictional production chain that has inexplicably come to a halt. Challenging preconceptions about how things are made and used, ‘Inert Domestic System’ sets out to demonstrate that artisanal and industrial manufacturing are less at odds with each other than often perceived. The six furniture pieces each consist of hand-made ceramic with a blue glaze developed exclusively for this project; glass neon tubes shaped directly on the object; acrylic elements; and aluminium structures that grow around them.
Peuchot’s project explores how industrial production techniques can adapt and take note from the artisanal manufacturing methods. She has developed her formal aesthetic through a constant search for materials and the links they create in our daily spaces. Combining design and art, her imagined domestic scenarios challenge our habits of tomorrow. §
