ON/OFF Stool: An Experiment in Jamming-Based Joinery
2021
Jamming is the process through which granules of a given material are put under vacuum. This produces a large amount of friction between granules, which causes the material to transition from behaving like a fluid to behaving like a solid. The ON/OFF Stool takes advantage of this phenomenon. Grains of rice are placed in a balloon, wooden legs are inserted and a vacuum is pulled. The balloon filled with rice serves as both the seat and the joinery for the stool.