The Royal College of Art in London has a new art project for display by students of the Industrial Design Engineering and Interaction Design department. Namely: furniture. But not just any type of furniture, it,s furniture that is made for the purpose “specifically when playing the PSP”, according to the RC of A website.
The exhibit will give attendees a chance to try out the furniture for themselves. Don,t forget to bring your PSP along. What inspired this project? The Royal College of Art students said, “The cocoon-like nature of the furniture is related to the experience of playing games on the PSP. Initial inspiration came from observing group play at a barbecue: when still light in the early evening, a group of players put their coats over their heads to create shade and see the PSP’s screen better. Despite not being able to see each other at all, they continued to happily taunt, insult and otherwise interact with each other as is the norm throughout the course of a game. Later on, we observed people huddled together during play, adopting statue-like poses and postures – some sitting, some standing, some leaning – largely unaware of the party going on around them.”
While the idea of furniture for a handheld may seem a little on the fringe, it appears that the design of the PSP has drawn the attention of the artistically minded. Will furniture manufacturers such as “Thomasville” jump on the PSP furniture bandwagon? Will we see PSP sofas and chairs? Is there a PSP bed in our future? How about a PSP desk and table? Probably not, but it,s nice to know that the PSP was picked for a college design project. One thing for sure, it sure beats the heck out of writing a term paper.
The exhibit will run from December 2nd to December 10th in jolly old London, England at the Royal College of Art. Remember to charge your PSP. It,s a long flight.
