Functional Relief

In the Winter of 2009 I took an experimental class at the University of Michigan through the then brand-new UARTS department. The class was advertised to me from a friend as "this INSANE thing where you meet a bunch of teachers from all over the school and then Steve Rush gives some lectures and then you MAKE stuff." I was immediately excited because, of all the professors I had at the school, Steve Rush was the on I constantly saw throwing sticks into the spokes of the University's metaphoric bicycle, and they let him teach a brand-new freaked-out class called, get this "CREATIVE PROCESS."

so stoked.

Needless to say I jumped on board (despite that classes 9am Friday meeting time) and had a blast. We spent the first few weeks getting our hands wet in a bunch of left-field disciplines such as paper folding and drum circles. Eventually the time came for use to pick out final project topics out of a paper bag (!!!) then were told not to think about the topic, AT ALL, for "a while." Of course, I got "profit" written on a dollar bill folded like a little sailboat. Of course. Ugh. So, like I was told, I put it on the back-burner and got back to rotoscoping and legos.

A little while later I sold a friend an album of mine on cassette and, much to his dismay, the tape was blank. The duplicator had failed leaving a totally blank tape, which apparently wasn't worth his $5. This may, or may not, have been how I got the idea for Functional Relief.

Functional Relief is the name of a website I designed. It's purpose is to sell my art. However, it's pretty bad at that purpose. This is on purpose. Of course.

My process of creating art is transparent. I take a functioning object and split it into two new object: a functional object and an aesthetic object. I then try to sell the two. Of the two, one must be more valuable, but which? Let's face it, art is cheap nowadays. You can log onto Etsy and buy paintings off schizophrenics for pennies. The functional object holds the key to the value of the object, this I decided that it is worth more. Also, since the point of the project was to make a profit, If I sell both objects I make back slightly more what the original object cost me. Otherwise, I lost money.

Back to the website, it's a mess. All the buttons are hidden. Easter eggs are everywhere. You wont get through the first page unless you are an A.D.D. mess. My main market is impulse buyers. I don't plan on anybody with any sense to them buying my art/products. Get real.


CHECK OUT FUNCTIONAL RELIEF HERE