Core77

The ripple effect, embodied in a table for tea

By Rain Noe - September 9, 2010

in Object Culture

Designers Jeonghwa Seo and Hanna Chung's Design Academy Eindhoven grad project is the Ripple Effect Tea Table, surfaced with actual water. The idea is to emphasize the concept that Easterners are generally aware that their actions have ramifications on the larger society as a whole; thus lifting or interacting with your floating saucer here will clearly demonstrate the ripple effect.

I think the concept is beautiful, even as I lament the fact that it wouldn't go over in most Western cultures, or at least in America; and I'm not talking about the impracticality of the water top vis-a-vis our need to have the Blackberry constantly on hand, I'm talking about the passive-aggressive miniature tidal battles that would occur if this thing was in, say, my own household.

via design boom

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Kit

14 years ago

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I saw this project in their exhibition in Eindhoven. The picture are great but the real work is greater!
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Ryan

14 years ago

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I had to read this a few times before I commented. The idea that westerners can't grasp the idea "that their actions have ramifications on the larger society" is not accurate. I lived in Asia for a few years and truly enjoyed experiencing the culture and the people, yet it is not the picture of zen that some envision. I experienced the good and the bad. The greed and the generosity. Every culture in this wide world that we live in has pros and cons, good people and bad people. I am not American, however I am tired of people taking shots at an easy target and generalizing an entire population. The designers who created this beautiful and thoughtful table should be very proud of their work, but they should also open their minds to the actual world that we live in. I would recommend that the creators step out of the bubble in which they live and truly experience this big beautiful world. Perhaps it will make their work even better.
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Energ8t

14 years ago

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Very cool and cleverly insightful use of materials to illustrate an important idea.
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Jacob Negron

14 years ago

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Seriously? China is using up its resources as quickly as it can mine them, not to mention subjugating several minority groups at a time, and Japan is a major contributor to overfishing. Freaking EVERYONE wants blackberries, and being too pretentious to stop wallowing in liberal guilt doesn't change the fact that a well-attuned parochial ideal is neither achievable on a societal level nor a uniquely Eastern concept.

Great design though. Also, growing up as a kid in Japan, I would completely have engaged in teacup-ripple battles.
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