Unexpected Object Part 2
For my unexpected object, I chose a brown ceramic bowl. The bowl is from IKEA and is regular-sized, about 5.5 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches deep. Typical associations with bowls are that they’re used to hold cereal, soup, and other foods, both hot and cold. They are also often associated with a feeling of comfort in the home, including cooking, happiness, and family. One might also think of bowls as associated with relaxation and healing when they’re filled with hot chicken noodle soup. These associations were echoed by the class when I presented the bowl to them and asked people to call out associations that came to mind.
In a more abstract sense, bowls are typically used to hold or contain physical items. For my manipulated object, I wanted to contrast this typical sense and demonstrate how an object can be used in a different context for a different purpose without having to manipulate it in any material way. Just like most people, I love music and love making playlists on Spotify. But perhaps not like everyone, I have been a copyeditor for a music publication, I have run my own music blog, I have created music, and I have experience being a DJ. I often find myself ‘DJing’ parties or gatherings by playing music on my phone. However, not all places have a proper stereo through which to play music, and the volume of my phone is often not enough to overcome the volume of conversation. This situation is where a bowl has served me well many times before. My trick is to place my phone inside the bowl, shifting the bowl’s utility from a container of physical things to a projector of non-physical things – that is, sound waves. In this way, I have thus transformed an ordinary bowl into an unexpected acoustic amplifier. It is like having a miniature amphitheater in your kitchen. Who needs an expensive sound system, anyway? In a real bind, even a plastic Solo© cup can be used in place of the hardier ceramic bowl, though with lesser effect.
When I demonstrated this new use for the common bowl in class, I could tell that many students were surprised. The raised eyebrows and open mouths of some students indicated to me they had never seen such a thing. I could tell by the upturned mouth corners and smiling eyes on the faces of others that they had clearly seen, or even used, this exact trick before, but were still surprised to be seeing it again in a classroom setting. I would guess that both kinds of surprise were possible because I had, not 15 seconds before, just asked everyone to put into their minds the things they normally associated with bowls. To this point, I think that this kind of explicit mental or physical priming followed by immediate juxtaposition is an effective measure for inducing maximum surprise. I would also imagine that many students in the class would now associate bowls with music, phones, Spotify, parties, dancing, talking, laughter, smiling, and friends. Several students told me after class that they were, indeed, surprised by my ‘stereo bowl,’ so I would confidently say that my intended effect was achieved.