Beauty Quality and Time by Lucas Pinheiro

RESEARCH BOOK ABOUT BOB CASEMERE COLLECTOR AND RESTORER OF OLD MOTORBIKES

Lucas TEIXEIRA | STEFANIA VULPI | VaLéRY OVERHOFF Research class 1d | 2012

INDEX

I. Research Proposal 1. Research domain

a. mindmap b. research domain

1 2

2. Problem formulation

a. Objective of research b. Main question

3 4

3. Sub-questions

4. Accountability research methods

5. Operationalization of concepts

a. Acts/ Activities b. Artefacts c. Ideas

II. Research Proposal 1. Observation 2. Interview 3. Photo-elicitation

12 33 41

III. Analysis 1. Analysis sub-questions 2. Analysis main question: general conclusion research

55 57

IV. DESIGN 1. IDEAS 2. CONCEPT 3. SKETCHES 4. FINAL DESIGN

V. APPENDIX

61 62 63 67

RESEARCH PRoPOSAL

RESEARCH DOMAIN

MINDMAP 1

The world of collectors is a very interesting field to research for many reasons. First of all it has to do with human psyche and behaviour and it reveals way of thinking and perceiving the world which are often different from the average. Beside this, it’s very much about objects themselves and the special relation that the collectors feel towards them. It’s exactly this last point that makes this research very exciting for a designer, since his/ her role and work is to think about objects, to create them or improve exhisting ones and therefore to think about the connection that these things will have with human beings. In the process of looking for a collector we met a man called Bob. We got to know about him through a different collector that we found; he told us a bit about this man Bob and he kindly arranged for us a meeting with him. After half-an-hour we were in a cafè sitting with Bob and getting to know him a bit better. First of all, as we already knew, he’s a collector. He is a lover of many kind of old design objects like radios, cameras and bikes, but his main interest is old motorcycles; when he finds one, he restores it until it works and he tries to stay as true as possible to the original piece. Beside this he’s an artist. Or at least this is what he says. He likes traditional drawing and mostly dislikes contemporary art. He has a singular lifestyle - working from midnigh to 6 a.m and getting up at 3 p.m - and he seems quite poor, although he lives in a beautiful old monumental house in Kleine Berg. He’s a very kind person and has a very critical view and world and society, although this doesn’t make him look grumpy or unfriendly at all. As soon as we started discussing with him about what he does, what he likes and why, we all got really fascinated by his personality and his ideas. He showed us his collection of all kind of things - from pin boxes to 18th century organs - but as we knew his biggest interest lies on motorcycles and bikes and everything that could be related to it. They main feature that gathers all these different objects together in a whole collection is one: their old design. While observing his beautiful collection that reflected years in which we never lived, we started wondering why does he like old objects so much. Most of them are not as handy and practical as the new ones. They belong to an era that is gone since quite a long time and most of the people wouldn’t even consider buying or owning them anymore, since their value relative to their function is barely comparable to new technologies. We focused all these thoughts in one main question: Why does he prefer old objects and old objects rather than modern ones?

Stefania Vulpi

PROBLEM FORMULATION

OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH Bob is a very intriguing person and his affection to old objects makes us curious about the reason of it. Is he just a fan of the aesthetic of these products or is collecting just a way to go back in a time that he loved more than nowadays, maybe a way to live his live more confortably in his own idealistic world? Is it a passion or an obsession? It happens quite often that a collector is interested in objects from the past, but not so often it happens that he or she dislikes completely the new generation of them. The second main point is that we admire the fact that he’s an “active” collector. He doesn’t just buy or get the stuff that he likes and accumulate it in his room until he has no free space. He works on the objects he loves, he brings theam back to life. We wonder why. Why spending so much time and effort in recreating something that most of the people already forgot or ar just goin to thing is rubbish. Does he do it just to kill his time? Maybe for pure love towards these objects? And especially, how does he manage to collect them and work on them if he poor and weak as he seems? And apart from this, what does he do in the rest of his time? What did he do before? How influent and important is collecting in his life? There are all things that we don’t know yet and that we’re really looking forward to find out.

WHY DOES BOB, COLLECTOR AND RESTORER OF OLD MOTORcYCLES, PREFER OLD OBJECTS RATHER THAN MODERN ONES? 4

SUB-QUESTIONS

1. Which kind of activities(2) are related to Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection of old objects? 2. Which kind of objects are connected to Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection? 3. Which kind of ideas(3) does Bob have regarding old objects and design?

SUB-SUB-QUESTIONS Activities 1. why does he prefer to work during the night? 2. why does he restore the objects? 3. what is his method of working on them? 4. how much time does he dedicate to this activity? 5. which places are needed to practice his activity? Objects 1. how is his collection arranged? 2. why does he collect this kind of objects? 3. what makes an object valuable for him? (shape, form, year, function, design, emotional value) 4. what are his criteria in choosing one object/ motorbike? 5. why does he want to own things?! 6. why are some objects more important to collect than others? Ideas 1. how important are these objects for him? 2. what does he think about contemporary design? 3. how does he perceive his own will to collect? 4. what does he think about other ways collecting and collectors? 5. why is he so attached to the past?

ACCOUNTABILITY OF RESEARCH METHODS

During the research the following methods of collecting data are used:

PHOTO-ELICITATION

observation

INTERVIEW

The photo- elicitation allows to get to know Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enviroment and lifestyle directly from his point of view. The observation allows to collect informations and impressions on Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviour and actions and based on these elements, to interpretate the informations gathered. The interview allows to approach Bob directly through questions and answers in order to get to know better his opinion and knowledge.

OPERATIONALIZATION OF CONCEPTS

(1) Modern related to the present, characterized by using the most modern techniques or materials, denoting the form of language thats is currently used. (2) Activities things that he does that are related to his collection, ex: restoring, preserving, organizing. Actions connected with the existence of objects. (3) Ideas his personal impressions and opinions about his collection, the things he stands for and believes in, his critic view.

RESEARCH: COLLECTING

DATA

OBSERVATION

Observation n.1 - Stefania Vulpi

TIME

The observation took place on Tuesday the 5th June 2012. I met the subject around 21.00 and had a short talk. The observation took place from 21.30 to 22.30 c.ca.

SPATIAL PLANNING The space where the main activities take place are two rooms in Bob’s house, located in Kleine Berg 34a in the city of Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Working Room The room measures 3 m in depth and 4,5 m in width c.ca. It has many shelves along walls at the sides of the entrance. All the shelves are filled with tool of all kinds, paint, pigments, wax, glue, gloves and objects which the subject is working on. All the tools are stored in gropus a personal and rational order, even though it doesn’t look tidy at all. Attached to wall in front of the entrance door there is a working desk with a low light on top of it. At its left there is an old stereo from which listens to radio while working. Close to tha table there are also two chairs: an office one and a very little and low one that the collector uses when he has to work on objects on the ground. The rest of the space is almost entrirely occupied by all kinds of stuff: a big amount of old frames of any size, piles of drawings and papers, and many objects waiting to be restored that are too big to be put on shelves.

Collection Room This room is quite big instead. It measures around 75-80 m2 and contains most of Bob’s collection. There are shelves and showcases covering almost all the walls - all the small objects of the collection are locked in there gathered in groups. Most of them are related to the world of cyclism and motorbikes - motors, helmets, glasses, brakes, models, pictures, old tools - but there are also other groups of objects which don’t belong to this world, such as radios, LPs and really small analog cameras. A big amount of space in the room is taken by three rows of old bikes and motorcycles, one of them is in the middle and the other two are each one next to a wall of the room. All the bikes are usually covered with big plastic sheets to protect them from dust and from water from the ceiling, which apparently is licking. Everything in the room is placed in a systematic way, divided in categories, conserved and kept in good state.

ARTIFACTS INVENTORY Collection Room - bikes - motorcycles - radios - cameras - motorbike goggles

(30) (10) (16) (13) (22)

- motors ( 7) - oil cans (24) - brakes ( 8) - helmets (11) - posters (26) - pictures (30 c.ca) - tin toys - medals - LPs - fishing rope wheels - a gramophone - old pin boxes - bike pumps - mannequin dressed up like motorbikr driver - helmet and motorbike goggles - light brown leather jacket - laurel chain around the neck - medal around the neck

Working Room It was not possible to count all of the items that where in the room, therefore I write a list of the groups of objects that I noticed - plyers - scissors - brushes - clamps - pens - pencils - pigments - paint for models - cutters - saws - drills - screwdrivers - english keys - wax cans - hammers - various glue bottles - terpetine bottle - Stereo - tape rolls - drawings - frames

ACTOR Bob Casèmer is 58 years old man who lives in the city of Eindhoven. He’s a collector of old design objects, and his main interest is focused on bikes and motorbikes. He ‘s not very tall to be a dutch man, he has greyish short hair and ice blue eyes. He’s a smiling person and willing to share and talk a lot with other people, expecially young people. He has a strong desease which makes him look way older than he is and it also makes him weaker, therefore he cannot work too much anymore on the new objects he wants to restore. When he’s speaking his voice is quite low and calm, but as long as he start talking about things that he especially loves he gets immedeately excited and gives more empathy to what he’s saying. He often says very passionately “oh my God!” and “so beautiful!”. When I met him for the observation he was wearing: - black trousers - dark shoes - black elastic band around his hips with the logo of Triumph printed on it - white and blue-striped thin cotton sweater - dark grey blazer - navy blue sailor hat (he wears it all the time)

ACTIVITIES - Bob enters quite sowly in his working room, trying walk in the very narrow space that is left among all the thing he accumulated in there. - Shows me some things around the room, how he organized his space, all his tools and some objects he’s working on. - Puts his old thick glasses on. - Sits on his chair and takes an old black bikelight with a shape of a parallelogram. - Observes the bikelight closer and under the better light over the table, holding it carefully and turning it around in his hands. - Opens the lid on the back of the lightbox to have a look at the old batteries that are still in there. - Closes it again. - Takes cotton towel and starts scrubbing slowly and delicately the object with it. - Blows a bit on the bikelight. - Takes a black felt tip marker and colors over the scratched parts of the black paint. - Waits until the ink dries out and starts scrubbing the bikelight eith the towel again. - Looks over his table and around the space right next to his desk - he seems to be looking for something. - Takes a piece of carved wood and shows it to me. - Shows me how is it made and which kind of tools does he use for this kind of work. - Looks around again.

- Takes a rusted piace of a fender and hold with his thumbs and medium fingers. - Points delicately at the point where the fender is rusted and the layer of paint is gone. - Scrubs the fender with the towel. - Takes a can of back pigment and a screwdriver. - Dips the top of the screwdriver in the black pigment ans puts it on the ruster detail that he found previously. - Takes a small brush and starts spreading the black pigment on the spot with very fast but controlled brushstrokes. “you can also use terpentine and shoe polish” - Looks at it closer and starts brushing again. - Stops and looks at it again, silently. - Puts the fender piece away. - Takes his glasses off and holds them in his left hand. - Turns to me and starts talking about different ways and tricks of restoring. - Turns back to the table. - Looks around - seems to be examinating the space and the situation. - Finds an old short wooden plank and takes it. - Puts his glasses on and looks at it very close. - He takes a can with dark brown beewax and places it next to the wooden piece. - Takes the screwdriver and cleans the black pigment away from the tip on the towel. - Dips the screwdriver in the beewax in order to take a little amount of it and spreads it on the wooden piece. - Starts scrubbing the wax on the surface of the wooden plank with the towel. - Looks at it and keeps on working, repeating the same actions. - Takes another can containg some other king of paste for wood. - Cleans the screwdriver from the wax on the towel. - Repeats the actions he did with the wax, this time with the other kind of paste. - He stops and cleans his hands on the same towel. - Takes the wooden plank and looks at it, especially at the different results from wax and the other paste, examinating accurately under the light. - Says something about the difference of colour between the two results. - Starts working on it again for a few minutes more. - Stops and turns to me. - Tells me that he’s going to show me some beautiful exaples from his collection. END OF OBSERVATION

Observation n.2 - Lucas Pinheiro Teixeira Observation Report of Bob, collector of motorbikes 1 - Workshop Room (3mx4,5m)

2 - Time Monday, the 4th of June of 2012, from 9:00 P.M until 12:00 P.M.

3 - Spacial Planning It is in the very center of Eindhoven, at Kleine Berg, that Bob’s workshop room is located, integrated in the atic of his place, a historical building of 2 stories and a livable. This room is filled in with the tools he uses to restore his collection. This tools, paints and other materials are scatered all over the room and seam to be organized into groups of objects that serve different activities as painting, sanding, polishing, hamering, etc... The vast majority of this stools is organized on shelves from the different existing closets, and some of them are hanging on the wall. The materials are mainly lyinng on the floor or in big open containers (like open boxes filled in with long sticks of wood going out of their limits). Bobs most used tools are placed all around his working table, which is facing the only window of the room. Small tools are hanging on the wall just by the table, as well as some images (technical drawings, ornamental drawings and pictures of women that seam to be from the 50’s) and hand-written pieces of paper (like small notes, lists and rows of numbers). Just by the table stands his office chair, which can’t be moved freely due to the huge amount of materials and tools that take a significant amout of the rooms space. Two stools lye near by the chair despite there seams to be no place for two more people to sit there comfortably. Walking in the room is very difficult which makes it very likely for someone to stumble. The only track that can be done easily is from the working table until the room’s door.

4 - Artefacts List Due to the amount of tools and materials existing inside this room it was not possible to make a detailed list of all items present in the room. Bob estimated that he has more than 5 thousand tools only in that room, so I chose to do a list of the kind of objects present in the room.

· hamering tools · screw drivers · plyers · rulers and measuring equipment · scissors · compasses · cutters · pins · brushes · drills · drilling machine · glues · saws · protective glasses · knifes · wires · liquid containters · klamps · coloured paint · polishes · waxes · chemical products · masks · tissues · pieces of fabric · office chair · wood stool · smaller wood stool · frames · wood planks · wood sticks · metal tubes · metal sheets · metal wire · plastic blocks

· vent · vynil player · stereo speakers · inventarium of materials · materials samples · paper sheets · carton · easel/table. · closet with shelves · closet with shelves (2) · closet with shelves (3) · closet with shelves for small containters of paint · shelves for tools · working table · table protection · box for painting works · fluorescent lamp · directing lamp · basket · house plan · trash bin · drawings · notes · notebooks · motor of a motorbike · helmet · pencils · pens · permanet ink pens · latex gloves · matches · lighters · soldering machine · glue gun

5 - Actors Bob Casemér is a 58 years old artist fascinate by quality and beauty. He works at the house he lives in, a historical building located in the center of Eindhoven. His physical condition seams debilitated, what makes him look way older than he actually is. His hair is grey and his face features are sharp and strong. He wears glasses when he needs to work or to read. His waist is surrounded by a piece of cloth used as a protection or motorbikes, and it is actually one from his favorite brand (triumph). He was wearing the same dark blue blazer he used all the times we met him, as well as his dark classic trousers and shoes. Another thing he always seams to carry around is his navy hat. Together with his outfit, his way of moving (and stumbling a bit) makes him look like an old sailor. He talks like old men do, is sure of what he says and about what he knows. His critic spirit is a recurrent appearance in his talks and also verbal expressions like “oh my god, quality” and “very beautiful”. He usually works at night on his drawings and restoring (from midnight until 6:00 A.M). During the afternoons after he wakes up he often goes to one of the cafés by his house and haves a coffee or a tea.

6 - Restoring Activity Bob starts restoring an old portable lamp that is still working but that has some worn out paint. First he examins the object carefully while sitting on his office chair, in front of his table and illuminated by a fluorescent light tube. He gathers the tools he needs and after using them puts them back into their places. He keeps an old cloth on his lap to clean or rub his hands, and with the same cloth he polishes. To restore de old lamp he used a permanet black ink pen and applied it in the damaged parts. After a few seconds he rubbed the cloth on the zone he applied the ink. This was a very fast restoring process. It took less than 5 minutes to be finished.The next restore we were able to observe was the painting of an old part of a bike. This time instead of permanet ink, he used shoe polish and the same cloth to polish it after applying it with a screw diver tip and evenly spread it with the brush. We also had the opportunity to see him restoring some planks of wood. The method was quite similar and equally fast. The main difference was the product applied, this time a paint with some ammoniac. After applying it with the tip of the screw driver he spreaded it with the old piece of fabric.

7 -Activity in detail - welcomes Stefania, Valèry and me in his workshop. - smiles. - holds his hands on his back and swings back and forth. - scratches his face. - stands still, with his hands behind his back, listening to Stefania. - looks around to his collection. - hands in the face (talking about babies). - keeps on repeating the expressions “very beautiful”, “oh my god, quality” with a noticeable enthusiasm. - scratches his wrists. - cleaned the space in order to star restoring a lamp. - grabs his glasses from his jacket pocket and holds them in his hands. - puts his glasses and starts examining the old lamp. - points to the worn out parts and uses a permanent ink pen to restore the original black. - picks a piece of fabric (old line cloth) and runs his hands with it. - hits on the lamp to make it turn on. - starts polishing the lamps black painted metal with the piece of fabric passing it back and forth gently. - rubs his hands to his trousers, as if he was drying them. - pics a screw driver and uses it to apply some shoe polish in an old bike piece. - picks a big long brush as well and uses it to apply the posh evenly. - uses the fabric to finish it, running it in the surface carefully, again, sliding it back and forth. - runs his hands together, they appear dirty. - puts the shoe polish back in his place. - he keeps his blazer on, even while working with dirty tools and liquids. - his legs are crossed and that allows him to work with the objects on his lap on a higher position. - puts his finger in his mouse after using the shoe polish. - holds his glasses on his hands in order to look us in the eyes while he talks. - plays with the glasses in his hands while he talks. - puts them on again in order to work. - picks a piece of wood. - prepares to use the same piece of cloth to restore the wood. - touches his nose with the back part of his finger. - when asked, says he always works with his hat one. - smells the paint that contains ammoniac. - uses the screw driver once more to put the paint on the wood, he does it vigorosly like it is trying hard to apply as much paint as it is in the tip of the screw driver. - uses the same piece of fabric to spread it on the surface. - relates the smell of the products with is disease (too much iron in his blood). - grabs the dirty cloth in his right hand.

- cleans his hands to the dirty piece of fabric. - scratches his mouth again. - put his tools back in the shelves. - gets up. - walks to the collection room. - limps on his left leg. - shows us the result of some of his restoring works. - points to small details and even imperfections. - describes the processes, and tells how difficult and painful it is. - â&#x20AC;&#x153;cuddlesâ&#x20AC;? the objects he restored. - turns of the lights of the room. - takes his glasses out to look us in the eyes. - leads us to the way out. - gives each of us a handshake.

- END OF OBSERVATION

INTERVIEW

Location: Café Bommel, Kleine Berg Eindhoven Time: 22:30 - 23:30 Actors: Stefania Vulpi, Lucas Pinheiro Teixeira, Valery Overhoff, Bob Casemière

Bob: Sometimes it’s very difficult for me to answer the questions, but I will try. Yes? Valery: If you don’t want to answer some questions, you don’t have to. Bob: I will always try to answer your questions (laughs) Stefania: So... I start? Lucas: Yeah you start. Stefania: So it’s all about your collection and the purpose of what’s behind it. So my first sent… question is: “With what exactly did you start collecting?” “And at which age?” Lucas: “Or when?” Bob: When I...I started when I think after my 10th birthday with collecting things but there was not ‘eh’ not a special thing I collected. Just I tried to collect nice things. Cheap. I did sometimes collect things that I found and I painted it again and made it a bit more beautiful. All kinds of things actually. It had to do with beauty but if there was something that I liked and I didn’t had much money. I had pocket money* (*allowance) two gulden fifty, that was about one euro. And then with that small amount of money I collected all kinds of cheap things and ‘eh’ I put it in my bedroom and trying to collect very nice things and I could get for the moment at that age and for that money. Lucas: But did you remember... “What was the first thing, do you have any idea of the first thing you collected?” Bob: No Lucas: No ok. Bob: It was just what you need as a child. When you’re 10 years old and then you see nice things. Lucas: So it was around when you were 10 when you started seeing things that were beautiful... Bob: Yes And it started already before that of course. When there was Santa Clause I was very happy with nice gifts. I, I really cried when I wasn’t satisfied with a gift. Valery: When you were not satisfied? Bob: Yeah, of course it started much earlier but really collect things that was when I very

young, 10 years. Lucas: So do you know, “What made you keep collecting?” Bob: I think that’s when you want to... you need to eat good food, it’s the same. You want to... you need to...give your... ehm... how do you call that... you want to give food to your greed. Yeah it’s not greed. It’s the wrong word. Of course. But you’re looking for beauty and gather as much beauty around you and you see a lot of beauty and beautiful things but you also want to have it… And to hold it. To say that’s mine and I can look at it as long as I want to. Yeah. Stefania: So it’s a mainly about possessing, like having the… Bob: It’s keeping the beauty, keeping the beauty. It’s not … it’s actually not or something like that it’s seeing the beauty of something and wanting to have it because you like it and you have it and you want to share it and be with it all the time. Sometimes I walk in the jungle of old motorcycles and I still see , 50 years old motorcycles and I can see and say My god this is a beauty and then my brains begin to start to think is there a possibility to get that normally it’s not for sale it’s all . It’s all the nice most beautiful things people keep for themselves. Of course and not always that you can buy it but if you can buy it than it’s a very high price. And of course more people like it and can see the beauty of it, of the thing. If you... everything you possess for some people it’s the end of eh that they the story. But not for me. If I buy a very nice thing. For instance the microscope (* a Leica microscope) and I think it’s so beautiful and really every day I look at it and I like to look at it because it gives me pleasure. Pleasure to look at nice things. Yes, that’s very important. Stefania: You’re collecting these things that are old so their mainly not used any more, mostly. Do you there’s also like the win of saving them, like from being thrown away or... Bob: No…ehm… no If really people want to throw away and I see the beauty of them I will warn them not to throw them away because of yeah... But it’s not all that’s beauty to collect because it’s also rarity or the el… elderly the age. Sometimes... I bought a bike from 1936 and it’s still there. That bicycle saw the Second World War. Four years before the Second World War. If that bicycle could talk… It says something about the time. And I like it I it very much. That’s something different than beauty. Yeah it’s also a very important factor for me to collect old things that are still there. That survived time. Yes, it’s also interesting. Yes the beauty... the age is important and the rarity, these things are very important too. Valery: But you “Do make some sort of a selection in what you collect?” Because, you say for instant, yeah I only collect beautiful things, but for instant their… Bob: No, not always, also old things Valery: yes of course but their also Bob: For instance the bicycle there, it’s warn out, it’s not that nice bicycle, but I like it. Valery: So how do you decide to collect the bicycles for instance, you have selections. You have like motorcycles and bikes, and packaging of objects and matches so there must have been a point where you thought I’m going to expand this collection, because I like these bikes, so you would collect more bikes? Bob: That has to do with the elderly and the beauty. Yeah. It’s just like a... a disease. It’s like. Collecting is like something in your brain. Some people see these things and other

people don’t. They just walk away from it or don’t see it at all. Yeah. It’s a kind of virus inside it’s. There was a television program from the other side of the world... it was from Cambodja (*Cambodia) or something. Well it was the complete other side of the world well there was a guy in Cambodja and he collected bicycles. I saw the pictures and I see the same bikes as I see in my museum. Very strange, very strange... Stefania: yes that’s crazy But for example like, it happens that you just find an object beautiful and you never collected and from that point you just decided to start a new collection? Bob: yes, yes yes that’s but my principle collection is motorcycles. That’s the first thing I search for. Stefania; Ok. Lucas: “Why are some objects more important to collect than others?” For example the motorcycles they are more important to you. Bob: old motorcycles are still usable. You can ride them, that’s very interesting. For instance an old camera is still usable. And that’s interesting. The same with radio and old pickup, lamps and all these things. Yes an old bicycle you can ride, old motorcycles are very important because the technical is completely different from what they build today. It gives a completely different sound also and that’s the sound what I like. I immediately can hear if I stand here before my door and there is an old motorcycle I hear it coming towards me and I immediately hear that it’s an old motorcycle. It’s very strange it has a special sound that I like. I saw these motorcycles, I began to collect them I like them, of course, at first glaze but there’s also the sound with it. Yeah extra. Yes. If you go to the veteran races with old motorcycles it’s really exiting. Actually I think it’s more in a way more exciting than modern types of race motorcycles because you see a lot of other different things, other . The same if you go to a modern museum if you go to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam you see the whole period of paintings and so on , and in van Abbe (*Eindhoven) you see modern paintings. I prefer to see the whole history, every art and everything. It’s still like Beethoven and Mozart. Yes -?- we like old Ferrari’s its like too. And Bugatti. For the design point of view for cars the 1930’s were the top. Lucas: So and do you think..“How much time do you dedicate to your activity, the restoring part?” Do you have any idea? Bob: I don’t know not so much more than the old days because I’m worn out now . Every day one hour. Plus or more. Lucas: And “What places do you do it?” At the workroom? Bob: yeah on the workroom table, objects. Valery: “And where do you restore your motorcycles?” Bob: in the corridor, it’s a little bit difficult, difficult to work in this small corridor. Yes, yeah. I don’t have a complete workshop with materials. Sometimes I have to when I do a job on a motorcycle I have to walk ten times the stairs up and down. It’s not good. Stefania:”When did you start your activity of restoring?” Bob: When I was I think 18 or 19. No, it was 16; I already started to make things a lot of things. Stefania:”And how did you start it? Because did you learn yourself or did you research?” Bob: Yes, I learned it myself. Completely autodidact. Stefania: And how did you used to do it?

Bob: I was good with my hands. It started on school when I was good with drawing and hand. Working with my hands. Stefania: but for instant when you found a piece you wanted to restore, what was the process, how did you restore it? Did you do research about the object or... about how to fix. Bob: Yes. Research yes, it’s very important. That comes by its time; you start with the easy thing. I started collect when I was very young and then sometimes I found parts of an object and then I repainted it. very easy very simple way of. Yeah I found a rusty old piece of metal and then I start to paint it and then I put it in my room. Lucas: that was a bathroom you told us? Bob: No I put it in my room it was an object I liked. It was a nice object. And it was worth nothing at all but for me as a child, 10 11, 12 years old it started. That’s how it started. To collect everything I could get at that age. But it’s still the same. Lucas: “Is that why you restore the objects?” is it pleasure for you? Bob: yeah, it’s also about beauty. You can see it, if it’s not good. Why? You don’t know it’s just in your brain. And then you see I’m going to make it better. And that’s how it starts, very simple. And then more and more difficult the older you get. It’s how I earned. I didn’t have school anything at all. Lucas: “Why do you want to own things?” Bob: It is all about beauty. You see it and you can say “it is not good”, it is in your brain, and you can’t avoid making it better. And that is how it starts. Very simple, very simple and then it gets more and more difficult the older you get The more difficult. That is how I learned, I didn’t have school, no art school, no design school, no restoring school, nothing at all, yes? Everything, I did everything myself. Valery: “Why do you restore the objects?” You can see it is very nice, if you have something that is not good, it is very nice to get it right, that is okay, yes? To make it good, yes? And I always thought a lot in my life, I added a lot, not without my name things that are not ok that are completely ruined, very old things and cheap things, and I make good again. Nobody sees it. Lucas: “You told us before that you prefer to work at night? Why so?” At the evening, at the night I do drawing. It is more quiet and especially in the city the later it gets you don’t see people on the street anymore and everything is quiet, relaxing, relax, relaxing. You can seat down, it is very quiet, and that is my time. It is nice to work and everyone is sleeping, and you are still up, you are still awake working late. And you get the idea “I’m still busy” that is… that is… that is not good, it is better to work by day, ya… I’m always busy, always busy, I don’t waste time, I don’t waste time. I go to my mother 2 or 3 hours, that is not a waste of time for me, I do it every day. Besides that I work a lot, I work 16 hours a day, I’m busy 16 hours a day, I don’t look television, that is a waste of time, for me at least if someone wants to look at television or watch the football that’s ok for me but not for me, I like to do as much as I can. That is very important, I have some talent, I really want to do something with it. I see a lot of artists ruining themselves drinking, using drugs and so on. It seems to be normal to do drugs and to drink. I know it is very attractive, when I was… I’m drawing and working and it is very effective to use alcohol to soften things, especially when you are drawing, sitting there on your own, yes? I’m for 6 hours with a piece of paper and a pencil, without anyone around you, all on

I’m for 6 hours with a piece of paper and a pencil, without anyone around you, all on your own, working there, you have to have a lot of discipline, “oh it is very nice to draw like that”, “No! Oh my God”, no of course not. Everyone wants to look at the movie, look television and nice program and not work, sitting there for 6 hours behind a piece of paper, ridiculous! You have to have a lot of strength and when you drink it is easy, but now I don’t drink anymore so I have to have a lot of discipline to do your job every day, even on the weekends, don’t spoil the weekends, it is very important, to go on, to fight! Yes! What for I don’t know! For the best! For the best! Try to be a good human being also, really, at a certain moment you really have the problems… at a certain moment things turn out good, your mind is always trying to be in the good thing, to choose the good road, choose always the good, for in your life but also for the work you do, always do your best. Stefania: “How important are the objects or the collection for you?” Bob: My collection is a hobby for me and it’s… to, the collection is for enjoying myself because I like it. But actually it is nothing, it is fake of course, but you have to… your life is a little bit fake, at a certain moment you die and everything comes to an end. But on the time that you’re alive I think it is still important to be your best, to enjoy these things, yeah… Fool yourself, it sounds very strange but yes! Yeah sorry, I have to say something from the bible, your life goes up, dumps, goes up and disappears as nothing. That is to say it is nothing but still you have to be your best, maybe there is a goal for it, I don’t know, I feel good when I am fighting and doing my best in everything I do, but I have problems, a lot of problems, a lot of pollution and so on, and it is not very nice to think about, but if you fight, you fight, you fight, you will find the solution, that is what I believe in? Lucas: “Do you think, as an artist, that you are fascinated by objects also because you understand how hard their creators need to work to do them?” Bob: Yes, yes! But collectors are not artist, but they still have the same disease. (Laughs) I know a guy, you have to see him, and for me he has the most beautiful museum here in Eindhoven. For me, I’m an artist, then a musician, then a restorer and then there is my collection, on the forth place. I played guitar, flamenco and also organ, accordion, it was a little bit difficult because of my hands. That guys the collector, I mentioned, it is in this first place, the first place. And then you see the work of a real collector, it is incredible, it is not the guy who has much money, it has just has me, I don’t have that much money and I gather this things with a small amount of money and he is the top. He is better than me… better, you don’t say better, he has… he has more attention to his collection. Stefania: “What do you think about other people’s collections?” Bob: You see that guys, is incredible! He is the top in Eindhoven. There is a guy who collects old pre-war stereo, music, high fidelity stuff from before the war. So that is an interesting thing. And he says he has the old stuff, the amplifiers with tubes and so on and he says it is much better than the modern stuff. And I heard it and I… he has the same speakers that I have, not the marble, the inside speakers itself, I think he his right. He has a recording from Henry Belafonte 1957 and if you hear that, it is incredible, as if you were sitting there live! Yes! And it is all old stuff, amplifiers with tubes, yes… Valery: “What is your fascination with old objects? Do you think everything is better from the past?” Bob: No, definitely not. But the products were made with more attention, yes, yes. And you can see it… if you know the history you know that a certain moment the quality is

getting down, down down down. For instance some bicycle, there was a bicycle maker here in Holland, it was Vongers, Vongers, Vongers it was the same, the quality was so high that the English bicycle was the highest quality bicycle that were made in the world, but after 1920, after the first world war there was more competition and they needed to make more bicycles and the quality was getting down, down, down, down, down. And you can see it in the bicycle on my museum, my new bicycle, very bicycle, has not the quality of the bike of 1920. And you see 1920, 1940 and you see a difference in quality, the quality is less, less, less… yes…yes… And the you can see how we got that, they wanted more profit so they tried to make cheaper, plastic things, normally they were metal made, they used plastic. More cheap. Sometimes you are amazed by the quality they handle. Lucas: And “What about if the products from the present would have this quality again, would you love them as well?” Bob: Y…es, yes. Nice modern design, why not? There are still amazing products, ya, things that I don’t like that much. If you see bicycles carbon stuff, carbon fiber, yes, sometimes I like very much, but for me Italian bicycles (referring to Stefania) Bianchi (Stefania approves the pronunciation of the word), Bianchi, but what I don’t like is, I like Bianchi bikes made in Italy, now it is Biachi made in Taiwan or in India, design in Italy and made in China, That is what I don’t like, I like when a Leica, you know the Leica camera? Made in Germany, I prefer that… Leica was made in Canada afterwards but I prefer Leica Made in Germany. I like the Triumph motorbike made in England, the Harley Davidson made in America, and I like the Thunder guitar, made in America, not in Japan or china. That is important. I want Coca-Cola not Pepsi Cola. I want Levi Strauss not other kind of strange. So for me it is very important! Valery: “So is a big part of you collection European then? European manufactured?” Bob: mhmh...yes, yes... Lucas: so do you also buy them because they’re European and made here... Stefania: ...or because they belong to a specific tradition, like Italian tradition in design... Bob: yes, yes! Lucas: so it’s authentic, you only buy authentic... Bob: yes, yes. I... this has something a little bit to do with my family and the war, that has to do with Japan and Germany, that was in the past... but I’m not very keen on Japanese or German stuff, but that’s something... it has to do with my family and that’s something else... I still have a Leica, a German Leica camera and Leica lights microscope and it’s very very high quality stuff... beautiful! Lucas: I was thinking that it would be very interesting for us to know... “How would you like the future design to be?” The future design world... do you have any requests? (Laughs) What would you like us to change in the world, as designers? Bob: if I look to the future I think it’s... important that you look at the old things, how they are made and the quality I mentioned and I hope that in the future they use good quality materials...but yeah, it’s a little bit difficult because, a good piece of wood is... yeah a little bit difficult... yeah I hope in some products the high quality will come back, yes that... the only thing that I can say is... try to make things as beautiful as possible, as they did in the old days. I have a book now: designs from the 1850 until the 1911 and on the 1st World War and

some kind of... well, designs from that time look like as they are just intuitionally made, just yeah they’re yeah all a little bit schoolish and you have to do it like this and in the old days is more like, yeah they followed just their feelings and they followed more their intuition and worked according to that..Yeah some things look so simple but... and it looks as if they’re just made like that and that just out of a drawing they make the product. no, well there must be a drawing, maybe, but sometimes it looks like it’s just built like that and I hope if you make nice things, yes, that you handle nice quality stuff...mmmh and... yeah... Stefania: I have...Bob: ... but I hope it continues in a good way and I sad to you: you have to work very hard, and think really a lot, think a lot! If you want to make nice things, really, you have to go for it. And in the end I think you will succeed, yes, at a certain moment. I think there are no limitations to what you do. If you think you get a boarder maybe you can get above that by working very hard and think very good and see a lot of beauty around you to get a good notice of what’s going on in the design world. Stefania: I just have a personal question... “The fact that you decided let’s say to collect all these all things and gather them around you... could it be also a sign of kind of nostalgic feeling for a past that is not here anymore?” Bob: yes. yes, also (confirms very committedly) Stefania: so...it’s a little bit to feel... Bob: yeah but it’s all these things I said, it’s beauty it’s the age and the romance, yes there’s a lot of factors, not only beauty, there are a lot of things, but beauty yeah it’s very important and what’s beauty? Mmh an old bicycle 1936 in original conditions, yeah is that beauty? No it’s not real beauty Stefania: it’s the feeling maybe... Bob: yes, the emotion, its emotion Valery: “isn’t also because maybe these object that you collect, they’re very B: high quality so probably they will last longer than us, right? Bob: yes, yes Valery: they’re sort of..mmh what’s the word... Bob: yes, I want to make... Stefania: long-lastingValery: everlasting maybe... Bob: and yeah and also I’m still... these says everything has to go fast... sometimes you know they have to make a television and after 3 years, 4 years it has to be over. They want you to buy a new television and that’s... and my idea is that to make something that is for eternity...that’s why I make my drawings like that, and I make them framed like that...they have very solid frames, not easily breakable. That’s why my organ, I built...I used it a lot but it’s yeah its very solid, it’s for the eternity...I hope. yeah that’s very important too. I think especially in these days.. But you will find out, if you’re going to design something you’re going to be maybe in the process and find that you have to make something that is not really reliable. Yeah and that’s a little bit a pity..yeah that’s a price if you wanna ... if you wanna make a bike that lasts forever... Valery: we have a good Dutch saying for that: “goed koop is duur koop” Stefania: how is it?

(Valery and Bob start to discuss about what was the correct version of the saying - “goed koop is duur koop”, “duur koop is goed koop”...) Bob: yeah ok...yeah yeah yeah, if you buy something that’s very expensive in the end you will get a profit. Valery: yeah, and the other way around.. Stefania: oh ok... Valery: yeah I think that’s a good ending (Valery, Lucas, Stefania and Bob burst into laugh all together) Stefania: Thank you Lucas: Thanks Valery: Thank you very much!

Photo-Elicitation

Among the pictures Bob took for us, he also selected an old picture of himself around the age of 8 years old. While talking about the photos he used this one to refer to the age he started collecting.

Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s living room is entirely furnished with antique objects from the 17th century to Art Deco period. Although these objects are very valuable he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t consider any of them more important than his matorbikes collection. He decided to furnish his living room this way because he considers this as the best way to honor the age of the house he lives in.

These are two of the best objects handmade by Bob. The wooden machine at the left was developed in order to play a melody carved on a very old metallic disc that Bob got as a present when he was a kid. He invented the mechanism and the pipes structure based on the disc. The white box at the right is a cover that Bob made by hand with marble from Carrara (one of the finest typologies of marble available) to protect the wooden instrument. On one side he carved the latin expression “DEODATUM AD DEI GLORIAM”, which means “gifted by God’s glory”. He chose this sentence beacuse he thinks that talent comes from God and he’s grateful for that.

Bob is also a music player. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s able to play guitar, piano, organ, harmonica and accordion. Some pieces of his collection for the living room are therefore very old musical instruments that he found, bought and restored in order to be able to play them.

These two marble speakers are one of the many creations of Bob. The stainless steel tubes spread the high notes better and the design is based on the ancient greek temples.

This is one of Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourites artworks. Besides his activity of collecting he is an artist and a drawer. All his drawings are the result of his talent and of many hours of work (6 per day).

A hyperrealistic drawing made by Bob.

This artwork from Bob is very meaningful. He made this drawing i honor to his nephew who died in a motorbike accident. In the drawing is full of symbolisms refefred to his nephews life: he sits on a motorbike (one of his biggest passion), the landscape reminds of a typical italian countryside (he loved Italy), there are 13 crows flying next to him (reference to the misfortune of his death) and in front of them there is a splendid peacock, symbol of life and beauty. There is also a tiny river that from the peacock next to him moves towards the horizon, pointing to a big tree (symbol of eternal life) .

This is the attic in which Bob has gathered his whole collection. This very big space is filled with a big amount of bikes and motorbikes, there are shelves and showacases along almost the whole length of the walls and poster covering the rest of the surface.

This is a shelf entirely dedicated to radios. Bob places radios as one of the top 5 most important objects in his collection. One of the things he appreciates the most about radios is that they can still function.

One of Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite bikes.

ANALYSIS

Analysis of the sub-Questions

1. What kind of activities are related to Bob’s collection of old objects? Out of the observations it’s clear that Bob’s main activity concerning his collection is restoring the pieces he gets. We could see that in his workshop room he has all kinds of tools needed to work on any kind of objects, in order to fix them, polish them or restore them. The interview shows that his choice for the objects (therefore for his collection) is stricly connected to the leisure activites that Bob Casemèr use to practice. The collection of motorbikes, for example, comes from his passion for riding them; the cameras are connected to his love for photography, the old guitars from his interest in playing musical instruments and especially flamenco guitar. The connection with the activities he likes is very relevant in the choice of the object and the following restoration becomes essential in order to finally use the objects. 2. What kind of objects are related to Bob’s collection? Out of the observation we came to the conclusion that we could divide the objects realted to Bob’s collection in two main cathegories:

a) the objects he collects b) the tools he uses for his restoring activity

The first group includes all the pieces of Bob’s collections which, as we got to know through the photo-elicitation, are conserved in the last floor of Bob’s house divided by groups exposed in a specific order. The second group includes all the tools that Bob owns in order to practice his activity of restoring. The observation showed that of each tool he owns more than one piece, creating in this way a collection of groups of tools Although the considerably high amount of items didn’t allow us to count the exact number of each group of objects, we considered proper to gather all of them in two lists, each one for one of the previously mentioned cathegories:

A) Collected objects bikes (30) motorcycles (10) radios (16) cameras (13) motorbike goggles (22) motors ( 7) oil cans (24) brakes ( 8) helmets (11) posters (26) pictures (30 c.ca) tin toys medals LPs fishing rope wheels a gramophone old pin boxes bike pumps mannequin dressed up like motorbike driver

plyers scissors brushes clamps pens pencils pigments paint for models cutters saws drills screwdrivers english keys wax cans hammers various glue bottles terpetine bottle tape rolls frames

B) Restoring tools

3. What kind of ideas are related to Bob’s collection of old objects? The interview was very useful to make us understand that Bob’s collection of old objects converts in one main principle: Bob’s conception of beauty. He considers the object in terms of quality of design, materials, production and functionality and he choses his objects following these criteria. As we could learn from our talk with Bob, the age and the story that the object brings along with itself is also a very important element. Quoting his words from the interview: “ [...] I bought a bike from 1936 and it’s still there. That bicyle saw the second world war. Four years before the second world war. If that bicycle could talk… It says something about the time. And I like it I it very much. That’s something different than beauty. Yeah it’s also a very important factor for me to collect old things that are still there. That survived time. “ As an answer to our questions about contemporary design, he remarked once more the importance of quality in design, materials and production in order to make a high level product and make it become authentic. In the interview he explained that he thinks that nowadays the design of product is more oriented to practicalness rather than aesthetic principles. Our conclusion out of the answers we got is that cherishing and enhancing the beauty of these objects is the main principle that brings Bob to collect and restore.

Analysis of the MAIN QUESTION

Main question: why does Bob - collector and restorer - prefer old objects rather than modern ones? From our interview we can conclude that Bob is interested in these objects for the following reasons: -

Beauty of the design Focus and attention for the product High quality of materials Historical value

Beauty Bob told us that he started collecting what he found were beautiful objects ever since he was a child. There is a lot of pleasure for him by looking and cherishing the object. More than the feeeling of owning itself. Surrounding himself with beauty and also sharing the beauty is very important to him as we found out in the interview. His attraction to those objects follows many criteria such as the design and quality, but it has also to do with the feeling of a moment, in which he sees the object and he litlerally falls in love with it. he sets the acquirement of that object as main goal until he manages to get it (microscope for ex.) “You’re looking for beauty and gather as much beauty around you and you see a lot of beauty and beautiful things but you also want to have it... And hold it. To say ‘that’s mine and I can look at it for as long as I want to“.

Focus and attention for the product Bob speaks about this when he is talking about how things in the past were more intuitively made from scratch with a lot of focus. He considers that designers from the old times were moved by their heart and feeling, alike artists. Their dedication to projects was more specified and focused, with designers that were specialized in doing some kind of objects.

His convictions disapprove the motto “form follows function” once he believes that the beauty is an important part of the design that modern design does not care that much about. This attention for the products can be seen ultimately in the details that were, in his opinion, more thought through in the design process (aesthetics, feel/tactility, sounds). Bob finds very important the origin of the product and the unique special characteristics that come alng with this factor. He believes that through these element an object can acquire its own authenticity, in strong connection from its provenience.

High quality of materials Quality is one of the main reasons why Bob prefers old objects. According to Bob products were in the past made with a lot more attention and use of higher/ better use of material than present. In his view, this has a great impact on the end product once you can fell the quality once using them. The quality is also related to durability and that is something that he rely cherishes about. Part of his collection is not restored precisely due to the quality of the products that were made to last a long lifetime. By lasting long objects can tell the something about the era they were designed for a longer period and that is intrinsically related to their Historical Value.

Historical Value The historical value is one of the characteristics that distinguish old objects from modern/ contemporary ones. This adds importance to the object and embeds in it part of the time in which it live in. By means of style, shape, quality and conservation state of a product it is possible to understand something about it. Objects that tell stories are significant to Bob once they can carry the past inside their contours and evoke memories and feelings. Bob believes that only with time objects can become intangible, dismiss their function as their main purpose of existence and become witnesses of the past. According to Bob the fact that some objects survive through years of changing trends and aesthetic tastes, gives them an added value and confirms their outstanding role. There’s a bit of nostalgic feeling in Bob’s activity of collecting. The idea that so many things and principles of beauty are gone with the time is a big concern for Bob. Most of the people just forgot about these objects, doesn’t know anymore how to recognize and appreciate them or even save them and conserve them. Bob collects also for this reason, to surround himself of objects that recreate an era that has passed but that according to him is better than the current one, whose objects don’t fit his taste and opinions about design and quality.

DESIGN

IDEAS

Our design process starts with the analysis of the collected data. By doing so we spotted some problems related to Bob and his activity of restoring, which we thought could be resolved by a design. After brainstorming we came to the following conclusion: restoring is an activity that requires the use of many tools and Bob probably already has all kind of tools necessary to any kind of action. But by observing him while working we realized that he developed his own way to use some of them, giving a different function than the one theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re supposed to have. For example while restoring, he often used a screwdriver to pick a little amount of wax and spread it on a wooden surface or used the permanent ink felt tip pen to cover some rusted spots.

CONCEPT

Considering that he deeply values the quality and beauty of the objects that surround him, we thought about bringing these two core features to the tools he uses, redesigning them according to his needs and taste. We decided to focus on some hand-tools, which are the ones he presumibly uses more often - the screwdriver (used to take and spread any kind of paste), the felt tip pen (used to cover stains), the cloth (used to clean/polish), his glasses (worn to observe in detail). Inspired by these already exhisting tools and by the function that he gives to them for his work, we decided to create a new set of tools. Each of them is thought according to all the informations that we gathered along our observation. Our goal is therefore to design something than is connected with his main activity, workflow and personal aesthetical taste. Our final result consists of four designs:

pen with two tips on both extremities

brush to clean objects in detail

tool to pick and apply paste

small magnifying glass

Sketches 1

Sketches 2

Sketches 3

Sketches 4

Final design

The set of tools that we designed for Bob is intended to bring the beauty and quality of the objects he collects to the place he restores them. All the tools have a common structure made out of turned polished maple and details in machined stainless steel. The two cuts at the edge of each of them makes them more elegant and makes them feel more comfortable once being used. Covering the surface/plane created by this cuts there is high-quality stainless steel, a touch meant to make each of the tools look more pleasant and at the same time robust. As an added feature an engraving with the logo ‘beauty quality and time’ would be placed in the metallic part of the tool.

The marker was designed to enhance the precision and speed of covering stained and worn out

THE MARKER

spots. One of its tips as an ultra-light shaped sponge and a reservoir to pick, contain and apply the ink. The other tip is a big sponge that works as a reservoir as well. Both tips can be filled by dipping the tool in a permanent ink bottle, which assures that the tool active life can be enlarged.

THE BRUSH

The cleaning brush is inspired by the shape of an old broom. By positioning the hairs of the brush widely (fan style) it is possible to make a brush that can be used horizontally for taking big amounts of dust or vertically to access hidden areas and holes.

The shape of the spatule suggests the contours of a spoon and a spatula. This because it’s function

THE SPATULA

is to contain and spread the material evenly on a surface. By rounding the shape of the spatula it becomes a way more precise and delicate tool, with which applying wax or varnish is easy and safe for the piece to be restored.

The magnifying glass is both a tool and a symbol. It evokes Bob’s attention for details and elevates

THE MAGNIFYING GLASS

the act of restoring. This symbolic tool can be used to help with precise work as fixing a little engine

Final design - MAterials

stainless steel frame felt - tip MARTa HAIR CRYSTAL

POLISHED MAPLE

stainless steel

SPonge-tip

Final design - Details

Appendix

RESEARCH DOMAIN: ROGERS COLLECTION OF PIG HEADS

It was in a comic books store that we met Roger. While we were hoping that he could indicate us some of his clients that might be collectors of toys or books, it turn out that Roger himself was a collector and soon we realized that his collecting spirit was a great part of him. Against all our expectations we found out that this man collects things that have nothing to do with comic books or the characters of its books. His collections, show the true sprit of collectionism - finding interest in every kind of collective of products. From mechanical pig heads, to limited editions of dutch design pottery, his collection shows clearly his pleasure in gathering families of things that gain meaning by being together. I found that fascinating, the ability to give value to objects by associating them to others that share with them the same principle of shape, function or concept. Unfortunately we had a very limited access to his collection once he considers that it is not organized properly in order to be shown. Even though, we were able to see some of them scattered along his store and feel his enthusiasm for this pieces. In the middle of his vast collection of things, one thing stood out: a pigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head that was hanging on the wall. When asked about this head Roger explained us that it was mechanical and that it was possible to control its mouth and some other facial features. This object appeared completely out of its context from my point of view, and that made me very eager to know more about his story. As part of his shop, this object played a decorative roll, as the rest of his collection that is scattered around, they bring to the store the spirit of collectionism of its clients. His will to share was so that he told us several stories about his collection, and how intangible objects can be. It was talking about his collection of commemorative coins that he expressed more clearly the idea that the value of the objects cannot be translated into money to a collector. The value is a consequence of the desire to bring a new member to the collection and this same desire took years to be controlled rationally by him. Another thing that got my attention was his wide knowledge about the many other collectors in Eindhoven. Excited about sharing that with us, he rushed to the basement of his store to get a book about this collections and collectors. His excitement about collecting made me interest in him and the objects he gathers once I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand why they are so fascinating. Their unsurreal character (common to the imaginar of comicbooks) is in a way seducive by their uselessness. That led me to the question: Why does Roger, collector and owner of a comicbook store, finds objects like mechanical pig heads fascinating, and how do they connect with the comicbooks world?

Lucas Pinheiro Teixeira

OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH

The objective of my research is understanding the relation between Rogers activity as the owner of a comicbook store and his collection of mechanical pig heads, which he partly includes in his store. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always been fascinated by the way people can relate to objects and then create strong bonds with them. By investigating the way Roger sees his collection I hope to understand what makes an object special, despite is function, shape or character. The strange character of the things he collects also made it fascinating for me to strive to understand the value that unexpected things can have, and how they can play a role within a commercial space like a comicbook store. My objective of research is to understand the importance of objects for our mental well being, and how does the spirit of collecting shape your life.

MINDMAP