Chair Avatars
This is a display area for my spare chairs - my various Twitter avatars.
Why Chairs?
Chairs symbolize social interaction. They invite you to sit down and stay a while; take a load off. You're probably sitting right now. We sit down to digest news. We sit to think. We sit to be social. You might say chairs are the first social media. Okay, you wouldn't but let's pretend.
Some beautiful chairs are painful to sit on (talkin' to you Frank Lloyd Wright, and owners of Indian restaurants everywhere). Many comfy chairs can look quite ugly. Chairs can fit with all situations - from thrones to bean-bags. Lawn chairs say "relax, enjoy the weather." Kitchen chairs say "have a bite." Dentists' chairs say "sit down and scream a while."
As an early user of Twitter in '07, I began to explore a dynamic avatar idea – it was always easy to identify my feed based on the avatar's subject matter, but the actual image changed often. If you followed me and my meanderings, I hope you found the conversation fun and/or thoughtful. Pull up a chair.
The avatar history is captured below...
Jul 29, 2013
Superleggera Chair
Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti left a big mark on design and architecture through the mid-century period of the 1900's. While his wing-back chair design is perhaps more commonly known, his 'super-light' chair is interesting as well. Ponti comes out of the Milan area - born, raised and trained. His influence goes beyond his creations, as he founded and guided the pivotal Domus magazine through most of its existence as well.The Superleggera which emerges in 1951 is a feat of engineering as well as design. It's thinned down to almost nothing and uses triangular-cross-sectioned elements. was marketed based on its extreme light weight. The seat is of woven rush.
Invariably the ads showed a child or a woman suspending a chair with ease. One assumes women often were helplessly marooned among immovable chairs in that period. The basic style of the chair is said to be common in the fishing villages like Chiavari, which is directly south of Milan on the Mediterranean.
