Instrumentality

Portable heated
Vintage stand
Hair dryer

Simulates the feeling of blowing fresh desert air through the hair, creating unique biomes and ecosystems.

“All you needed back then was a blow dryer and a dream.” – Taylor Dayne

Intricate brass
Antique patina
Evocative power

The magic lantern, as an object, is not merely a historical artifact but a sensory experience.

“The affective life is the ground of all experience.” – Michel Henry

Intricate interplay
Revealing glimpse
Power to shape

The spiritual dimension transcends the immediate and the tangible.

“The aesthetic man is the man who lives for the moment, for the immediate pleasure, for the thrill of the present.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Argus Model C3
Coupled rangefinder
Flash synchronization

Introduced in 1939 selling for $25, this was the most full-featured US camera in its price range and enjoyed a 27-year production run.

“It was American-made and around the mid-sixties Japanese cameras invaded the marketplace and the C3 was discontinued.” – Kevin Raber

Constant motion
Connects shores
Traverse interplay

This juxtaposition of the permanent and the ephemeral mirrors the human condition, where our lives are marked by both stability and uncertainty.

“The world, as the space of human action, is always in flux, always undergoing a process of transformation.” – Hannah Arendt

Contemplation
Passive objects
Active participants

Aesthetic experience is a form of inquiry, a process of exploration and discovery.

“The aesthetic experience, like any other form of experience, is a transaction between the organism and its environment.” – John Dewey

Long seat
Simultaneous
Multiple potential

Decorative arts aim to design and manufacture objects that are both beautiful and functional.

“There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands.” – O’Henry

Fleeting moments
Dynamic interplay
Presence absence

In the realm of aesthetic experience the tangible world dissolves into the fluid currents of perception.

“Duration is the form which our consciousness takes when it is turned back upon itself.” – Henri Bergson

Powerful flow
Materiality constraints
Potential transformation

Tools can be used to shape the world around us, to bring life to barren land, and to quench the thirst of the human spirit.

“The will to power is the will to create one’s own values. It is the will to become what one is not yet.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Low-value
Denomination
Transaction

America’s first nickel coins actually had a face value of three cents.

“Gamblers love coins so much, game manufacturers replicate the sound of coins dropping into the payout tray, even when no coins are involved!” – Scott Roeben