NEST:
The Cotton-Candy Post-Apocalypse
for ‘POST-CORPOREAL, POST-THETIC’ STUDIO
SEPT-DEC 2022
NEST is a concept wearable piece designed to extend a body’s capabilities within a hypothetical setting of near-future industrial overflow. Rooted in urban decay and its liberating effect on human behavior, the first prototype merged classically-apocalyptic materials into a simple wearable weave. The goal was to increase a wearer’s engagement with the theorized world by carrying limitless tools in its loops, or by being unwoven and used to climb, rappel, and explore the degrading space.
The final piece combines these abilities with updated, contemporary industrial trends: brightly-colored plastics and permanent “forever chemical” coatings. Crafted from backpacks, totes, and outdoor products, NEST’s final form answers a revised ‘junk drawer’ scenario, in which we resume our habit of collecting tools alongside sentimental, non-functional items. NEST is born from, this not-so-fictional future: a world of wandering, accumulating nomads, the new hunter-gatherers of the Cotton-Candy Post-Apocalypse. ▨
I.
THE SITE: ABANDONED RAILWAY WAREHOUSE
POST-THETIC DEFINITION:
A Post-thetic is an extension of the body that employs industrial materials as both an enhancement of capability or preparedness, and a symbolic gesture.
Through weaving and unweaving, the post-thetic changes its form potential, both invoking and allowing a user to navigate collapsing industrial spaces by embracing the narrative of a near-future, accumulative, ‘junk-drawer’ lifestyle. ▨
II.
THE PROTOTYPE: CLASSIC POST-INDUSTRY
IIi.
THE FINAL: COTTON-CANDY POST-APOCALYPSE
M M X X I I