The social shelves project
About
The social shelf project is a two-fold investigation. First it aims to re-visit the mundane
space most individuals interact with on a daily basis: the shelf. In turn, with a new
acquired understanding of that space, it invites, you, the reader, to re-think your
relationship to objects both as potential users and makers.
N.B. This object is purposely referred to as social shelf and not simply ‘bookshelf’ or
‘shelf’, as the object under study does not only function as a space for books or other
artefacts, but also as a physical trope for social structures and community building.
This project is a world-building experiment. Using non-human perspectives it attempts to
redefine what material thinking—broadly understood as the encounter of practice and
theory in artistic and design fields—can mean to anyone in and outside of those fields.
We, social shelves will talk to you, the reader, directly. Together we will investigate the
following question: How can a better understanding of socialised objects1 create
opportunities to affect the social design of tomorrow?
As part of the original case study for this theoretical investigation, material experiments
take place in parallel to the writing process.2 One month after the other, between 2022
and 2023 five social shelves have been prototyped, built, and trialled across different
locations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
2