Original Object: Tea Candle (brown, cinnamon-spice scented)
Original characteristics & properties: wax portion is round, symmetrical and smoothly shaped, in line with the candle holder. Able to be lit. Pleasantly scented (cinnamon spice)
Original emotions & associations: warmth, comfort, romance, happiness, positive ambience, mesmerizing soft light, home, fire (and thus potential).
New Object: Wax model of a whimsical poo, shaped from the wax from the candle, in the candle base (still cinnamon-spice scented)
New characteristics & properties: wax portion more organic/asymmetrically shaped (into pyramidal poo pile shape). No longer follows shape of the candle holder but sits in it. More fragile. Not able to be lit. Still pleasantly scented.
New emotions & associations: disgust, mischievousness, bathroom, harsh light (as found in a bathroom), finished/done (no potential).
About:
I had a hoard of very positive associations and emotions with the scented tea candle, which evoked home, romance, and happiness. I wanted to break that positive emotional association as much as was possible, within the medium of the object. Because of its form factor (roundish, and brown), a mischievous voice in the back of my head suggested that I try to shape it into the shape of a whimsical poo, which was inspired by whimsical toys I’d seen in Japan [similar example image also attached].
Because of my high level of negative associations and disgust with actual poo, I felt that this was a strongly negative association such that resembling it (even a small amount) would conjure some degree of disgust or negative emotion in the viewer. Furthermore, there was an interesting tension that is created because the smell is still that of the original candle. So if you interacted with the new object long enough and smelled the wax, you would be driven to want to smell it because of the scent and have positive associations, which clashes with your sight (glistening brown turd) and also what you expect the smell to be because of the visual.
Thus, the changing of the shape from candle to poo already creates an uncomfortableness, which is then heightened by the discordant smell that was not changed. As I talked about, it was even hard for me to bring it to my nose to try to smell it (because of the mental image of what that act would be if the poo was real).
In terms of audience feedback, I was one of the last people to present in the class so there wasn’t time for much in-depth interaction with the audience. Lisa mentioned mischievousness in relation to poo, which I definitely felt when I was making it. So I supplemented by asking more peers outside of the class to give feedback. The feedback was that the poo was quite realistic looking, and people had the proper associations with poo I’d imagined. Also people tended to have similar associations with the original candle to my own (if not as many associations, still positive – warmth and fire and soft light was predominant). In addition to the normal associations with poo that they had, it was interesting to hear that for the candle they associated with “potential”, because the wick can be lit, so the candle had potential to become something, whereas the poo did not (was already final state). This was a change in association beyond what I had thought of. Also some people associated bathrooms with harsh fluorescent light, and they associated the candle with soft pleasant light, which was another reversal of association to add to the reversals I had planned. Due to this feedback I think the changing and reversing of the associations was successful.