Manny - The Sofa: Neotenic Design

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”Humans are subconsciously impacted by big eyes, rounds heads, chubby cheeks and soft forms. When we are confronted with these qualities, a part of the brain called Amygdala, will release a wave of nurturing and protective emotions, which tells us we are now dealing with a child and should behave ourselves accordingly. This phenomenon is called neoteny.”

 

Our brain can be tricked into releasing the same emotions, whatever we are dealing with a small child, a cute cartoon or even a table or a sofa, with the same visual qualities. My motivation for working with the concept of neoteny, is that I think it’s interesting to investigate whether I can use an evolutionary phenomenon to create a furniture with an intention towards its user.

 

I have been working with neotenic design on a conceptual level, meaning I want to affect the user of my furniture to feel the effect of neoteny. My choice of target group is men and the problem being how the modern society can make it hard for some men to show their emotions, because the stereotypical perception of masculinity stands in contrast to vulnerability. There is an inhabited vulnerability lying in the aesthetic of neotenic design through the association to the small child and I will use this to create a dialogue. My concept is a furniture created for two people and when they are sitting together they will be subconsciously affected to be vulnerable towards each other and share their thoughts.

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The textile is sponsored by Kvadrat.