He elegido la taza del váter para mi proyecto fin de curso online, «Tangible Things: Discovering History Through Artworks, Artifacts, Scientific Specimens, and the Stuff Around You«, de la Universidad de Harvard. El inodoro es claramente un objeto tangible y ademas posee un claro valor simbolico. De entrada, es un signo del avance de la civilización y también de la ingeniería civil y las obras públicas de saneamiento. Pero nos encontramos con un dato demoledor: en América Latina y el Caribe apenas un cuarto de la población disfruta de un retrete y un adecuado sistema de saneamiento.
A continuación les paso mi argumentación a la universidad que justifica mi elección y los puntos en los que pretendo concentrarme. Disculpen mi inglés:
I’m not trying to be provocative with the choice of my toilet bowl. At least not in the manner artist Marcel Duchamp did in 1917 or musician Frank Zappa, when he posed nude for an iconic photo sitting on one with his pants down (1976). Zappa did it again when he posed seated nude, this time playing an acoustic guitar or talking on the phone (there are other photos where he’s holding toilet paper placed on a table).
Toilet bowls are common tangible things that touch different issues: its manufacturing; the diverse materials used for its different parts; the technology and design evolution involved in their production; the sanitary reasons and meanings; its impact on society because it’s not an isolated item that can work for itself, it needs an infrastructure.
Mines (we have two) are the old Victoria model of Roca, a Spanish company that’s the world market leader in its field.
- Evolution of the toilet bowl and different models
- How and why the flushing system changed over the years?
- Did design come first, or design was adapted to needs?
- Brands, manufacturers and their marketing
- How Spanish co. Roca became the world’s market share leader?
- Aspects of manufacturing: materials, brands, factories, robotization, standardization
- Municipal requirements and infrastructure needs
- Sanitation as an issue of modern life.
- A toilet bowl as symbol of civilization and comfort after being one of provocation
El Mundano 