Noud Sleumer is a conceptual designer whose role is to critique ‘the act of making’. Within self-initiated and explorative projects his focus is trained on methods of deconstruction and reduction. Simplicity is the tool that underlies these approaches and enables Sleumer to create new playgrounds of creativity, in which we can collectively re-examine our relationship to man-made matter.
Gerrit Rietveld saw his Red-Blue Chair as the ending point in his way of thinking. He reduced the chair to the most functional shape. Although, with this ‘de-sign methodology’ the Red-Blue chair is the starting-point of the design process.
The de-sign methodology is based on the removal of components and thereby the function. The Red-Blue Chair exists out of 17 components. In every design, according to the de-sign methodology, one more part is taken away from the original chair.
The outcome of the method is 16 new designs, whereby not only something is removed: the function changed as well.
By changing the function, the designer is forced to make a new composition out of the incomplete chair. The removal of components creates a new playground where creativity sets in. By this creativity, a new function will be given to the leftover components.
In this series of objects the removed components are displayed next to
the new compositions.
