This Project was for a class called “Other Fits” taught by
Stratton Coffman
We were told to pick an object or concept and purposely break down its interpretations. We were meant to fit, retrofit, and “counter-fit” the objects and readings - taking with them lessons about the act of fitting in a design sense. Logistical Fit, Moral Fit, Algorithmic Fit, etc. we took to each fold of the experience on our search for new meaning and further comprehension of simple or underrated items. I initially chose the foot - deeply psychologically rich in symbolism, our root connection to the ground, something steeped in fetishization. I made the deviation to the shoe not as an intentional distancing from the foot, but as a further abstraction of something that can stand on its own and even give proxy readings of feet without their presence. A delving into shoes reimagined to “fit” a narrative.
The assignment was to create a pamphlet or other piece of writing that proposed your “Counter-Fit” and in this, I decided to parody a famous set of comics, MAD Comics, and hybridize that approach with a shoe magazine, in a way to both satirize the shoe industry slightly and make use of the plethora of shoe puns out there. I chose different categories with various meanings attached to them, like “The Goody Two Shoes” meant to denote shoes that served a double purpose of assisting the wearer post or during wear, whether that be a power bank or a blast of perfumed air to assist the smelly among us. (There was some subversion at play as well, as with the St(a/o)mper, you defy the expectations of leaving shoes at the door by bringing a piece of the shoe (the stamp) into the house with you. “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop” regards stackability and pressure, as the foot presses into the shoe, what can the shoe do to either provide for the foot or assist passively while the activity takes place? “Shaking in Your Boots” is a section that deals with the pliability of shoes towards everyday activity, whether that be changing their appearance post-pedicure, or literally becoming speakers or a seat for the wearer, essentially “shaking up” the configuration of what is expected out of shoes. “Putting Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes” is the section dedicated to the idea of having shoes specifically crafted to assist in a job you don’t necessarily do normally, shoes that assist in massaging others or in laying carpet or even tilling soil, each task being addressed and even possibly made easier purely by wearing the shoes. The last section “Finding the Achilles Heel” was just meant to be poking fun at the practicality of shoes and their purpose while also giving one last homage to MAD with a comic, these shoes as all of the previous pairs are meant to be fun, and funny, with people getting enjoyment out of seeing the concepts and finding them just crazy enough to possibly work. Below are the pictures of the “exhibition” we held for the “counter-fits” with the shoes being placed in a configuration of coming and going, placed in directional lines as a jumble with the proposed shoes sprinkled throughout made with foamcore as inserts.
