Moving to a new environment can be challenging for a student, so prioritizing lighting, character, and comfort is key.
What would a contemporary dorm lamp look like?
Moving to a new environment can be challenging for a student, so prioritizing lighting, character, and comfort is key.
Not So Cuckoo A series of interactive objects that reimagine the traditional German cuckoo clock with playful, ironic, and unsettling twists. Each piece exaggerates sound, scale, and behavior to explore the tension between routine and disruption in how we experience time.
12 Weeks | Spring 2025 | Cultural Research | Storytelling | Concept Development | Individual Project
Made In Berlin: Proof that even punctuality can be annoying.
More Than a Clock
More Than a Clock
More Than a Clock
The cuckoo clock led me to explore its history and symbolism. As a German cultural icon, it is both a precise tool of routine and a playful object filled with humor, ritual, and absurdity.
Cuckoo Clock Origins
Originating in southwestern Germany in the 1630s, cuckoo clocks combine intricate woodcarving and mechanical craftsmanship with their iconic call, functioning as both timekeepers and decorative objects rooted in tradition.
My goal is to reinterpret the cuckoo clock through playful iterations that highlight its humor, exaggeration, and emotional extremes.
Not So Neat Beginnings
Ideas Gone Wild
Ideas Gone Wild
Ideas Gone Wild
Exploring German culture and daily rituals opened up many playful directions. Instead of perfecting one object, I embraced iteration through exaggeration and irony, narrowing the work down to five core ideas.
Not So Neat Beginnings
01 - Just Hanging Around
A hanging ivy plant blends in quietly among others. Hidden within the leaves, a small bird waits, turning a familiar symbol of calm into something unexpectedly wrong.
02 - When the Walls Breath
A traditional German cuckoo-clock house opens and closes in silence, breathing slowly. Instead of a small bird, a much larger one presses against the opening, only partially revealed, making the house feel too small for what it contains.
03 - You Snooze, You Lose
Five cartoonish birds sit beside a digital clock. Pressing one to snooze the alarm produces a harsh screech, shifting a lighthearted aesthetic into something slightly darker.
04 - A Chirp too Many
Shaped like a Berlin apartment (Plattenban), every two minutes it chirps from one window, then another, and another, until the building erupts in chaotic birdsong, a playful echo of modern interruptions and over-alerted lives.
04 - Subtle Seconds
A minimal form referencing a cuckoo clock offers little information about time. Every five minutes, its quiet surface is abruptly interrupted by a projected explosion and sound, creating a sharp contrast between visual restraint and sudden disruption.
