Context / recontext

Context is comprised of many interconnected and omnipresent aspects. As a result context has the potential to be understood in a preconceived manner. A danger lies in context being almost innate, in that it has the potential to be simply accepted without being truly understood or perhaps even recognized. This can result in a benign missed opportunity or something more pungent. Adolf Loos describes those who are not aware of their surroundings are "Those who take the urn for a chamber pot and those who mistake the chamber pot for an urn."1;A table and chair were selected as a starting point. As a result of analyzing the context and history of the chair in relation to the table, a full-scale Chable, unifies the two, and recontextualizes their relation. This is due to the reversal of the normalized relation of the chair facing the table. In the Chable, the chair faces away from the table. This experiment surrounding the chair in relation to the table (chair to table) lead to further studies of the table surface in relation to the body (surface to body) as well as the interaction and relationship between inhabitants (body to body). These studies then lead to a full-scale construction of 32 chairs supporting 7 table surfaces installed in Crobsy Hall room 152 (CB152), at the University at Buffalo South Campus, in Buffalo, New York during the month of December, 2008.;The basis of these experiments lies in the reversal of normalized relationships and the questioning of notions of use and misuse. It is through recontextualization that human interactions with one another and the built environment can be reassessed. In questioning normalized and existing relationships, interactions can be choreographed.;1Groenendijk, Paul. Adolf Loos, huis voor Josephine Baker=Adolf Loos, house for Josephine Baker/Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 1985. p.10.