Design for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times

Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby and Michael Anastassiades' "Design for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times" is a collection of prescription products. They reflect emotions such as the fear of a nuclear holocaust or of the unknown (including alien invasion and abduction). Up until recently, the world of design has chosen to ignore such fears, but the project asks a series of questions: What if we engaged with fear and anxiety in a rational way, even if those fears seem irrational?

The Hide Away Furniture pieces, blocky shapes made out of parquet so that they blend into the floor, feature a secret panel to access a one-person hiding place. Their interior is lined with felt to muffle sounds. One is shaped to accommodate a reclining figure, in another, the paranoid incumbent lies with their hands behind their head and feet in the air. The third is roughly coffin-shaped. The positions encourage the occupant to feel in control, the opposite of a fetal position that would make them feel like a victim.

The Huggable Atomic Mushrooms are soft toys shaped like nuclear explosions , enabling those of us with a phobia of world destruction to literally embrace our fears. Like treatments for phobias they come in different sizes to allow for gradual exposure.

Part of the Design for Thought exhibition, Pop Noir selection at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, through 31/01/2006.