2013
The first book, I: Decoding Perfection, explores what perfection means and designers’ pursuit of it; the second book, II: Controlling Edition, investigates how such obsession manifests in practice; while the final book, III: Embracing Dissatisfaction, explores coming to terms with the discomfort of never achieving perfection.
The overall project is titled Ø, a mathematical symbol for “the empty set” (a set containing no elements). The connection is deliberately metaphorical. Perfection is a concept recognised by designers, yet there isn’t a universally agreed definition of what “perfect” is. We can pursue it, measure ourselves against it, and endlessly revise our works, but the goal remains subjective and impossible to definitively pin down.
Ø therefore represents the absence of a fixed definition at the centre of the concept of perfection, while the ambiguity of the symbol reflects the uncertainty encountered throughout the research. Which, ironically, makes Ø an appropriately imperfect symbol for a project on perfection.
Undergraduate-work, Research, Interview, Experiment, Writing