Sunday, October 11, 2009
Pencil Face and its Concerns.
I will be the first to admit it. This short film was scary.
Dandy Dwarves’ surreal short Pencil Face seems at first glance to be a very innocent interpretation of the powers of creativity. A deeper evaluation of the film, however, reveals Dwarves’ critique on society.
A girl, ordinary in human wants and desires, stumbles upon an extraordinary pencil… with a (creepy) face. Or perhaps the girl is extraordinarily small and she stumbles upon an ordinary pencil (with a creepy face).
Either way, the girl takes hold of the pencil and draws simple icons of her desires- a cake, a kite. These icons spring to life as reality.
This short film is incredibly applicable to the designer, viewing the design process as an idea resulting in a physical product. As the designer it is easy to assume that you are always in control. We assume that we know when to improve and when to step back and stop. When the girl, satisfied by the products of her previous “designs”, seeks to draw a lollipop, she is presented instead with a black spiraling hole, which ultimately consumes her, literally (or figuratively, but because this is a surreal film… we’ll agree upon literally). Dwarves seems to comment on the importance of realizing that design can be dangerous. As we seek to improve every moment of life with plasma TVs and treadmill machines we are moving further and further away from enjoying what is real- nature’s designs. Nature, which originally was our inspiration for design, has now become forgotten and obsolete. Although it is natural for humans to create and improve, it is just as natural for humans to become obsessed with materialism and quantity. We are given the responsibility of not desiring too much, and thus not overdesigning.
3:50 PM by jamie.