As a person who just moved into a fully furnished apartment, I was presented with a plethora of rudimentary household items. Since most of the household items are not something I own, I never found the necessity to customize them. Despite that, in this assignment, I have chosen to analyze and customize my refrigerator. I chose this item because I enjoy cooking and the refrigerator has become my most used household item in my apartment. I use my refrigerator at least five times a day and more frequently when cooking. I mainly use my refrigerator as a means to stock up food and keep my leftovers. I think that the refrigerator is often underappreciated in most households because refrigerators are one of the basic items found in a standard house.
I began by analyzing the unique traits and characteristics of my refrigerator and made a list of its important features. Despite not being able to disassemble my refrigerator and potentially destroying the internals, I decided to just further examine the details of my refrigerator. Afterward, I summarized the list to only include the most essential details of the refrigerator. The list is as follows:
- It is a two-door General Electrics refrigerator.
- Its surface is made of brushed steel and magnetic.
- Its handle is vertical and follows the brushed steel construction the door
- The upper portion of the refrigerator is reserved for the freezer
- Its interiors are colored white and appear to be made of a glossy finish
For the remix portion of the assignment, I chose to customize the outer doors of my refrigerator. To fill up the blank canvas of space in my refrigerator doors, I used several magnets and clips to display some of my recipes, pictures, and magnetic trinket souvenirs. Afterward, I used the remaining clips to hold some of my face coverings as per COVID 19 regulations. Using pictures, I was able to add some colors and transform my refrigerator door into an art piece. Furthermore, I was able to enrich the environment of my apartment and improve the aesthetic appeal of the interiors.
When I was thoroughly satisfied with the end product of my piece, I began to reflect on Ferguson’s “Embrace the Remix” talk. I was reminded of how he talks about transforming old pieces to produce a remix. Using his idea of a remix, I was able to remix the basic refrigerator to construct a customized home appliance. While I acknowledge that this idea is certainly not original and I’m sure that someone has thought about it in the past, I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience of remixing objects to make it “my own” product.
