The Waiting Test.

Part of taking Hank's class is a lesson in patience. Patience with research. Patience with ideas. Patience in waiting...actually, patience IS waiting. My teammates and I have been patient with Hank this morning as we sit on the steps of school under the orange shine of telephone posts. It's 7am. Class starts at 5:30am. Hank is not here and his voice mailbox is full. Now is the time to take action. A few of us have begun talking about a book we're reading, WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Conner. We've discussed our chairs and the background stories that have inspired them. It's clear who cares about this class. So far, there's 3 of us...3 out of 10. Sure, we've only done 100 sketches, haven't really gotten into project 2 (out of 4, and we have 7 weeks left); but those sketches had no meaning. In fact, there was so much emptiness in our sketches that only ONE person actually showed them. It's a lesson in patience.

You probably have some preconceived notion of our Chair Design project. Whatever that may be, throw it away. It boils down to this. Research a design movement, in my case the Swiss International Style of the 50's and 60's, study it, soak it in, establish relationships and discover motives and principles for that movement during that historical period of time. Somewhere in that discussion, make a connection between them and you. This connection becomes a story, with a central concept, that is then embodied through the design of a chair. Ponder this next time you sit down on what was conceived as "a chair." It's a lesson in patience.