Duos that Define Comfort
Shicong Sheng
There is very much alikeness between what I refer to as comfort and the universally understood “comfort zone”— a place where one finds a sense of peace and satisfaction. The reason why I don’t take the latter as my brand is of its inherently implied negativity. Instead, I believe that “comfort” stands on a neutral ground. Comfort stands for a part of our values. It sets up a baseline where we store our precious pieces of past that make us who we believe we truly are so that we can come back to it later.
Our comfort speaks of who we are and its dual nature lives within us, reflecting a significant part of our struggles with our humanity. Duality is comfort’s nature. Ultimately, through the lens of comfort’s dual nature, we get to question our values and understand ourselves better as human beings.
Duo 1: Given Control & Control Taken Away
Comfort Grasp is a gamified website that constantly generates questions relating to user’s mental comfort and corresponding visual results based on the response, ultimately creating a virtual comfort zone.
Duo 2: Glitter & Void
Inspiring Glittery Void is a flyer collection inspired by the resemblance between buying underpromised, underdelivered commodified “comfort” and placebo effect/ sugarcoat. Ultimately, they both are merely glorified nothing.
Duo 3: Individual Comfort and Collective Comfort
“Carcinization” is an example of convergent evolution in which a crustacean evolves into a crab-like form from a non-crab-like form: essentially, a process of fitting in a new body for survival, a sacrifice of individual comfort for a greater collective one. (Photograph by Maria Gracia Echeverria)Duo 4: Internal Comfort & External Projection
We tend to project internal comfort outward onto material subjects such as pets and plants, even though usually what objectively exists does not match up to our subjective belief; We seem to be happy with such self-deception and one-way communication where essentially, we are comforted by no other but our idea.Duo 5: Commodified Comfort & Homemade Comfort
Many of us seem to have an almost blind faith in “if something is labeled with a price, it must work.” I want to question whether it is necessary to pay a significant amount of subscription fee just for a “certified” source of comfort while comfort is never clearly promised. Therefore, I created this homemade yoga tutorial session video.A promotional short commercial video for Unlimited Style Meditation Session.
