Take Something Apart

The Object

A metal (Aluminium most likely) Fan

The process of deconstruction

tools used:

Long screwdriver, normal screwdriver, and needle nosed plyers

Material index

Arranging the parts

Reflection

In total, this assignment has demonstrated to me the level of complexity that goes into manufacturing and assembling a product. Something as simple as a desk fan houses small mechanisms and design choices that have been described to me, but have never physically seen, let alone deconstruct them. The motor of the mechanism was the most interesting part, as the axle that rotated the fan blades operated with what appears to be some sort of magnetic set up with a copper coil housing. I never would’ve expected something like that from a simple desk fan, it makes me wonder about all the complexities I’ve missed in the objects I’ve used or seen thrown out. As all these objects occupy space, with an intentional design constructed by a designer of some sort. Within Stephen Kern’s work titled The Culture of Time and Space Kern quotes Einstein’s statement from 1916, “We entirely shun the vague word of ‘space’, of which, we must honestly acknowledge, we cannot form the slightest conception and we replace it with ‘motion relative to a practically rigid body of reference”. Essentially, I think this means when you try to determine what space is, you can really only consider it in relation to an object or “reference”. Which is an interesting thought, as the complexity of space is something the designer of this fan had to consider. The housing around the fan’s revolving mechanism is dome-like, but when opened up was incredibly spacious in terms of interior components. It makes me wonder, at what point does a design choice become too much of an obstruction to the space around the object, and when is there not enough space for the interior?

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