DETACH

After having grown up in a small village in the German countryside it was more than a culture shock when I first arrived in San Francisco, the world’s tech hub. People bumped into me on the street while staring on their shiny screens. At dinner parties, food and activities would be documented with smartphones and shared with the social network outside the dining table. The dinner conversation seemed secondary. The same technology however, is enabling me to feel less far away from my friends and family in Germany.

Thinking about this paradox and dynamic effect of technology – creating distance where there was proximity and creating proximity where there was distance – inspired me to build this art piece.

With the functionality of a table, a place for human interaction, this large iPhone has changed its purpose to bring people together whereas it is so often blamed to drive people apart. Therefore, this out of the ordinary coffee table is used to enable us to see this object differently. It gathers people around it due to its familiarity but for a redefined purpose, which is to interact with it and others on a strictly human level. Disconnect to reconnect.

Maple, walnut veneered plywood, resin 48 x 23 x 18´