Implosion: Furniture as a Bridge between Mind, Body and Digital Matter

Baudrillard used the term ‘Implosion’ to refer to the process whereby simulation and reality collapse and become the same, so that there is no longer any distinction between the two. This is one of many philosophical explorations of the continuity between the mind and body. This project explores this relationship through the construction of furniture as a means of transporting oneself into the digital realm. The design of the chair responds to the psychophysical laws that connect mental and physical events under their descriptions. The merging of opposing digital and physical realities operates through an attempt to emulate the movement, structure, and feel of virtual seating. Standardised objects and mass-produced furniture contradict the bespoke, boundless nature of design in the digital realm. These views on the relationship between mind and matter, as well as between subject and chair, contrasts with current dogma relating to the mind–body problem.