1 I think that the position of a series of works that resulted from the project titled Prototypes, to which Tateye belongs as well, is somewhere between art and design, although, personally, I see them more as artefacts which use design codes in order to express my personal opinion about important social issues. The objects from the Prototypes project are designed for a hypothetical “hyper-capitalist” society ruled by unscrupulous economy in which those objects have a ruthless function, no matter what that function actually is, in order to satisfy any consumer need. To a certain limit, Tataye establishes an ironic relationship with design, humans and society. Having in mind that functionality is the very basis of any design, and an object like Tateye lacks functionality or surpasses the adequacy of consumer health protection, it actually functions as an art object.
2 The very name Prototypes explains that we are dealing with a rudimentary phase of potential products or objects that have not yet become real objects. “Prototypes” from this project are used to test a product, speculate about its function and consequences it can have on people and the society in general. While on the one hand the design of this object seduces the observer with its appearance, on the other it has a very scary function. Although we know that in our contemporary society there are rules, which should protect us from such objects, my intention is to instigate thinking whether it is a pity we cannot use that object and whether we are really protected by the application of those rules. “Prototypes” from this art project are actually testing our society and us and in that process we are actually becoming “prototypes”.
In order to design this kind of objects, we first need to create and design a social order where they can exist and only after that it is possible to start with designing an object. By using this approach, we are taking a few steps further, towards the avant-garde in the military sense of the word, since this term has been initially used for any military unit positioned in front of the most of military formations (avantguarde, avant = in front of, guarde = guard, advance-post, headway). By imagining or theorizing such objects, we are passing through intellectually dangerous landscapes that will no longer have to be passed in reality, if that does not serve any purpose.
3 As we have explained before, the works that resulted from this project are somewhere between art and design. In between frontiers there is usually “no man’s land” and if we are to use that term in the military sense, “no-man’s land” is a piece of land in-between trenches or defined positions of two confronted armies – it is a territory without a natural shield that neither side wishes to permanently occupy because, by doing so, it will be leaving its human forces unprotected. We all understand that it is very difficult to make money on such a territory. Of course, today it is becoming more and more acceptable to mix various disciplines and create new hybrid forms of expression – my goal and my hope is to see those frontiers more crossed in the future. My personal background is intertwined with various experiences from the worlds of design, advertising and art.