Things that are Valued by Chia-Hsing Ho

My natural draw to the vintage elements led me toward the research of vintage things and how can they be reuse again, the most important to add value to them. By visiting markets, car-boot and jumble sales, I slowly accumulated vintage items for both building the color palette and knitting. When I took a closer look into things I have, I found out that there seems to have a pattern of singularity within: they are all winding around circles. It echoes my main theory – the retreat of vintage objects, take unwanted things back to the consumption loop again.

My studio practice is focus on finding the new ways to work with yarns and textiles has led me toward the research of vintage things and how can they be reused again, the most important to add value to them. I slowly accumulated vintage items for both building the color palette and knitting. There seems to be a pattern of singularity within: they are all winding around circles. It echoes my main theory – the retreat of vintage objects, take unwanted things back to the consumption loop again.

In a parallel line I aim to investigate the lives of textile after they have been donate to charity shops. As finding the solution for those tons of textile waste becomes crucial, through research, the clothes donated to charity shops will provide an answer to the problem.

Each and every section of Ted gave me new perspectives of what is a better and sustainable design. Among Ted Ten, Design for recycling and upcycling is probably the most applicable method to treat the used goods I focusing on.

However, I am aware that even recycling has its different levels and grades. Recycling at product level forced me to look at the upcycling in my practice --- do I consider the recycling process and the durability of things I make? Or do I simply just create a landfill waste again?

When Ted Ten move onto its final chapter --- Design Activist, lecturer Otto von Busch explained his idea of designer being activist and for him every designer is activist, because they have the ability to change how people live.   

As a result being a designer maybe means that we can pre-design how customers are going to use the product, and even more, we can design a product that encourage people to repair them instead of throwing them away.

In the end, Ted Ten seems to enlighten the blind spot I came along doing my project, and also helps me tightly knit my studio practice and research, I’m looking forward to see the result of TED Reading Group will develop to a database for people that include sustainability in their work, to share information of the latest technologies or design thinking.


chiaho2@gmail.com