Industrial Fragility is a series of 5 common household objects: a coffee mug, a fan, a landline phone, an alarm clock, and a stereo amplifier; each of them is beatifully flawed by design.

Developed and designed in collaboration with Cesar Harada

1. Coffee Mug

The coffe mug has a missing section at the bottom, making it impossible to place it on a flat surface. It can only stand on edges.

2&3. Alarm Clock, Amplifier

The amplifier slowly retracts its volume knob while it is not being used. If it is forgotten for too long the volume will be stuck at the last position it was used.

The alarm clock sufffers from isomnia problems. We have to make sure to put it to sleep once it served its simple function of waking us up in the morning; most importantly, we also have to wake it up before going to bed. Failure to do so will ruin the sleep cycle of the clock.

4. Telephone

The landline phone has short memory; if left unused it gradually reshuffles the numbers corresponding to each key, leaving us the caring act of finding the correct positions again.

5. Desk Fan

The desk fan has one dangerous peculiarity; the balance is completely wrong and the fan stands upright only when the blades are spinning and creating a sufficient push to keep it stable. Not a real problem unless we carelessly shut it down without gently accompaigning it in its original posotion. Oh, to make everything a bit more dramtic, the blades are molded in plaster.

Making of...

The following is a short edit of some clips we shot while tinkering with our victims, edited by project's co-creator Cesar Harada .

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A short narration of the project by Cesar. It feels quite home-made, but it's a pleasure to watch. Thanks Cesar!