Journal articles on the topic 'Cardboard architecture'

ICARO (Innovative Cardboard ARchitectural Object) is a type of innovative building technology developed by a working group at the University of Catania, within the framework of the EWAS (an Early WArning System for cultural heritage) research project. It represents a tool for used to combat climate change thanks to the high level of sustainability of its component. The modular component based on ICARO technology is a pre-fabricated panel for building vertical envelopes, consisting of a laminated wood frame that contains corrugated cardboard boxes. In order to improve the panel’s structural performance, a pre-stress procedure has been adopted. The panel is cost-effective and boasts a high level of sustainability thanks to the use of lightweight, pre-cast, recycled, and recyclable materials. This technology is suitable for the construction of micro-architecture in fragile contexts. In order to test its performance, a full-scale prototype called the EP (Experience Pavilion) was built within the Megara Hyblea archaeological area in Sicily, which was chosen as a test site. A campaign to be carried out at the EP is currently being planned, which will focus on various issues. This paper describes the design of ICARO technology and the construction of the EP prototype.

The topic of this article is cardboard as a construction material for temporary architecture: a case study of the Zbigniew Herbert Exhibition Pavilion. The Pavilion was designed and built by a group of 18 students at the course ProtoLAB at the Faculty of Architecture at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in July 2018. The project focused on constructing Pavilion components out of paper tubes and corrugated cardboard, which have been proven to be a promising building material. Wood-based materials also were used to strengthen the construction. The design of the Pavilion aimed to use the geometry of the components to minimize the amount of metal used to connect elements. The article focuses on the problems of paper’s strength, stability, connections, impregnation, and the way they have been solved during the building process. It also discusses the topic of the possibility of using the unimpregnated cardboard in outdoor constructions. The structure was then evaluated after 5 months of being used and exposed to diverse weather conditions. Damages in the Pavilion elements are mentioned in the paper and the probable reasons why they have appeared are explained. Conclusions from this article may be useful when designing similar objects in the future.

Circular-economy-based sustainability approaches in construction are gaining wide acceptance due to the volume of waste generation and increasing demand for natural materials. Propelled by the recent timber shortage in Australia and the issues of waste management of cardboard, this study aims to analyse the possibilities of using cardboard as a construction material, based on its initial strength and multiple recycling options. A systematic review of research papers published in the last 40 years has been undertaken using a single keyword search to select the database. The review is presented in terms of the characteristics of the cardboard, dimensional stability, durability, structural strength, design, and analysis of cardboard. Recurring themes are evaluated using a latent Dirichlet allocation approach to identify the factors that ascertain the suitability of cardboard. Analysis reveals that despite certain constraints, such as water absorption and fire resistance, cardboard can be used as a replacement for timber by overcoming such limitations. This observation has benefits for the construction industry and the recycling industry. This study found that cardboard adheres to the circular economy principles, which should inspire policymakers. The paper concludes by highlighting the current circumstances and scientific challenges that impede the usage of cardboard in construction and recommends potential works needed to address these challenges for the benefit of practitioners and researchers.

Within undergraduate architecture programs, structural design is typically taught in the engineering tradition, with a focus on fundamental principles, analysis and calculation. Architecture students however often find it difficult to make use of such learning in the design studio. This paper discusses a course offered to postgraduate students of architecture that was developed to integrate digital architectural design and structural design in the making of physical structures. As a part of the course, students designed cardboard chairs that were presented to and tested by five year old children to demonstrate to architecture students the immediate responsibility that structural designing incurs. The integration of design, construction of structurally sound chairs and the subsequent testing by users enabled participating students to incorporate structural thinking into their design processes. The applied exercises enriched the theoretical aspects of the course and provided opportunities for multi-faceted and engaging learning experiences.

Virtual reality is the logical step that started way back in time with the appearance of the very first architectural drawing. This has been a long history of development: architectural drawings in Europe, which date back to the tenth century, were the first kind of abstraction that appeared “virtually real” to potential clients and builders—real enough to base decisions on. With the discovery of perspective techniques, drawings became more refined and developed into a form of art with numerous branches, ranging from technical drawings to presentation drawings. Wooden models appeared even before the Renaissance and were supplemented in the nineteenth century with cardboard models. Each new invention helped to improve the understanding of projects and architecture by reducing abstraction, while increasing the complexity of the representation (Schmitt, 1993). Toward the end of the twentieth century, the majority of architectural projects were and are never realized. Prominent projects, such as the new Berlin Government Centre, result in several hundred professional competition entries. With the advent of virtual reality (VR) techniques, architects will at first intensely criticise the new technology, before adopting and improving it, and they will modify it with domain specific contributions. The knowledge of architectural abstraction and simulation is useful to the further development of VR and vice versa. Today, the newest methodological and technical instruments help designers to create a more responsible architecture, many aspects of which can be experienced and tested before construction. This includes the possibility of expanding the number of senses addressed for the explanation of an architectural idea. To structure the discussion about VR in architecture, we first describe the theoretical framework, then move to the description of a Architectural Space Laboratory at the Architecture Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, and follow this with examples of program development. We conclude with speculations on the impact of the new technology on the architecture of the future.

AbstractThe home is a site marked by the increasing collection and use of personal data, whether online or from connected devices. This trend is accompanied by new data protection regulation and the development of privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) that seek to enable individual control over the processing of personal data. However, a great deal of the data generated within the connected home is interpersonal in nature and cannot therefore be attributed to an individual. The cardboard box study adapts the technology probe approach to explore with potential end users the salience of a PET called the Databox and to understand the challenge of collaborative rather than individual data management in the home. The cardboard box study was designed as an ideation card game and conducted with 22 households distributed around the UK, providing us with 38 participants. Demographically, our participants were of varying ages and had a variety of occupational backgrounds and differing household situations. The study makes it perspicuous that privacy is not a ubiquitous concern within the home as a great deal of data is shared by default of people living together; that when privacy is occasioned it performs a distinct social function that is concerned with human security and the safety and integrity of people rather than devices and data; and that current ‘interdependent privacy’ solutions that seek to support collaborative data management are not well aligned with the ways access control is negotiated and managed within the home.

Problem statement: The society has been worried about the environment, especially due to the intense exploitation of natural resources, the large quantity of residues and their effects on the planet. In this context, the study and development of new materials in civil construction have become fundamental to make use of industrial residues or products discarded by the population. An alternative is to recycle paper and use it to manufacture cardboard tubes to serve as structural elements and sealing in the Architecture and civil construction areas, as Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has made in his projects worldwide for over twenty years. Approach: This paper addresses the elaboration of innovative modular panels made of cardboard tubes for vertical sealing and the construction system developed for their use. The panels underwent several analyses: compression resistance, sandbag impact and steel ball impact, and a test cell was also constructed to test their construction system and structural performance. Results: The panels showed good results in all tests, resisting a maximum of 5000 kgf compression load, besides high elasticity and tenacity in the impact resistance tests. Therefore, both the construction system and its complements have been patented. Conclusions: The panels showed enough resistance to be used in constructions. They offer several advantages to the sector of prefabricated buildings and housing, such as lightness, cleanliness and speed of execution and are a good alternative for some types of constructions, such as temporary, popular, emergency and movable. These panels are of large importance due to their recyclability, contributing towards environmental sustainability.

The concrete abrasion monitoring of water launch constructions is the key and hard factor in hydraulic engineering. With the development of technology, the present concrete abrasion monitoring techniques have made excellent progress; however, there are still some problems, such as the small monitoring range, and it is hard to totally mirror the diploma of abrasion damage. The smart sensing tools based totally on concrete abrasion is greater and extra used in engineering dimension due to the fact of its excessive precision and robust anti-interference ability. Based on the alive analysis accessory for accurate abrasion, this cardboard establishes the aegis ecology association anatomy of baptize barrage structures, selects the abstinent chafe advice of the project, incorporates out coaching modelling thru the education set, and forecasts the take a look at set. Through theoretical evaluation and accuracy verification test, it can be concluded that the smart sensing tools based totally on concrete abrasion can be used to measure the floor modifications of concrete materials, the size accuracy can attain 0.1 mm level, and the monitoring accuracy price can attain 95%, which can meet the necessities of concrete abrasion depth monitoring in hydraulic engineering.

Perhaps unexpectedly, architects are seldom talked about in terms of the building toys they once played with or what they constructed with them. Exceptions are Witold Rybczynski and Frank Lloyd Wright. The former describes John Ruskin mastering the laws of building for load-bearing towers and arches by the time he was seven or eight (around 1825) because of playing with wooden building blocks (introduced at the end of the 1700s). However, he also describes himself playing with Bayko. This was a Bakelite building set from the 1930s [1], probably modelled on Mobaco, a cardboard and wood Dutch construction toy [2]. Both of these toys are pre-dated by an 1887 English toy for house construction, the walls of which were made from wooden blocks threaded on to vertical wires. Rybczynski also describes watching his father and uncle build a real garden shed using concrete panels slipped between reinforcing bars, like the method used by the plastic toy but life-size.

AbstractWith the rise of immersive media, advertisers have started to use 360° commercials to engage and persuade consumers. Two experiments were conducted to address research gaps and to validate the positive impact of 360° commercials in realistic settings. The first study (N = 62) compared the effects of 360° commercials using either a mobile cardboard head-mounted display (HMD) or a laptop. This experiment was conducted in the participants’ living rooms and incorporated individual feelings of cybersickness as a moderator. The participants who experienced the 360° commercial with the HMD reported higher spatial presence and product evaluation, but their purchase intentions were only increased when their reported cybersickness was low. The second experiment (N = 197) was conducted online and analyzed the impact of 360° commercials that were experienced with mobile (smartphone/tablet) or static (laptop/desktop) devices instead of HMDs. The positive effects of omnidirectional videos were stronger when participants used mobile devices.

Garbage is a big problem for the sustainability of the environment, economy, and society, where the demand for waste increases along with the growth of society and its needs. Where in 2019 Indonesia was able to produce 66-67 million tons of waste, which is an increase from the previous year of 2 to 3 million tons of waste. Waste management efforts have been carried out by the government, including by making waste sorting regulations. This sorting is known as 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle), but most people do not sort their waste properly. In this study, a model was developed that can sort out 6 types of waste including: cardboard, glass, metal, paper, plastic, trash. The model was built using the transfer learning method with a pretrained model DenseNet169. Where the optimal results are shown for the classes that have been oversampling previously with an accuracy of 91%, an increase of 1% compared to the model that has an unbalanced data distribution. The next model optimization is done by applying the ensemble method to the four models that have been oversampled on the training dataset with the same architecture. This method shows an increase of 3% to 5% while the final accuracy on the test of dataset is 96%.

This paper contends that the peculiar, chronic, itinerant lifestyles and precarious spaces occupied by the homeless enhance their risk and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. These spaces, including the streets, shacks and cardboard boxes, mine dumps and unorganised shelters, expose them to indecent lifestyles, poor choices and greater risk of HIV, as well as Tuberculosis (TB) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). This study was conducted amongst street homeless people, shack and hostel dwellers in informal settlements in various locations in Johannesburg. Inferences were drawn from the personal experiences of homeless people, and inputs from individuals and organisations that are engaged and work in the field of homelessness. Types of dwellings, overcrowding, livelihoods, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and survival sex are among the issues examined. Preliminary findings indicate that, firstly, poverty is a leading cause of precarious housing among the homeless. Secondly, behavioural practices, especially survival sex, make homeless people vulnerable to HIV. As a result, there is an increase in mortality rates from both HIV and AIDS amongst this group of people. Thirdly, the difficulties homeless people experience in gaining access to water, sanitation and health care services also compromises the care of those who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Finally, other barriers to care and determinants of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS are the lack of knowledge, judgemental attitudes of the care providers overcrowding and lack of adequate nutrition amongst the homeless.

The use of Key Enabling Technologies (KET), in the definition of innovative systems, is a crucial point for smart industries and sustainability. The proposed work combines innovations from different fields, including industrial sustainability on the one hand, and smart electronics on the other. An innovative multifunctional panel is presented, produced with waste resulting from the industrial processing of paper and cardboard; the panel can be used for the control of safety in processing factories and for the monitoring of environmental conditions in the area, as well as the energy improvement of the building envelope. Several sensors are embedded in the panel for monitoring temperature, moisture, and localization by means of an RFID tag. In addition, the panel is battery–free, thus enhancing the installation and realization of the system. The power supply is provided by the tag reader as irradiated power, thus realizing a very low power application. Panels have been already realized and experimental tests have been performed in the laboratory.

The internet of things (IoT) is gaining momentum as a technical tool and solution for a diverse range of societal challenges. These challenges include smart cities sustainability issues which are widely recognized by decision makers and societies. Despite this, few works try to tackle these challenges empowering citizens through IoT technologies. In this paper we describe how the Tiles toolkit, a card based idea generation toolkit for IoT, has been extended to support non experts in creating ideas addressing societal challenges that affect modern smart cities. We briefly introduce the Tiles generic toolkit, then we describe in detail the extensions proposed on the cards, cardboard and how the new components are employed in a refined workshop protocol. We report the results obtained during a field study of the extended toolkit, where several groups of students collaborated to generate ideas involving IoT in the smart city. We discuss success and failures, drawing our conclusions after analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected during the workshop. We conclude the article reporting the lessons learned, critical considerations about our experience evaluating the extended toolkit and reflections on possible improvements for future works.

Wearing face masks is essential for reducing infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, ordinary surgical face masks can provide only moderate protection. The N95 face masks should provide sufficient protection but may impose complaints about breathing difficulty or even impair respiratory health. This investigation proposed a novel face mask modified from the surgical face mask to improve both protection and comfort. The filter material of the surgical face mask was covered and sealed on a cardboard support frame but with openings for air permeating through. The modified face masks were worn by a test subject for measuring the air contents inside the face masks. The protection performance was evaluated by the overall PM1 filtration efficiency. The concentrations of CO2, O2, N2, and water vapor were adopted to evaluate the breathing comfort. The performance of the proposed face mask was compared with the market-available surgical and N95 face masks. In addition, CFD modeling was adopted to investigate the dynamic air exchange of the face mask with respiration and the surrounding air. Impacts of the air sampling tube positions on the measurement results were also examined. The results revealed that the overall PM1 filtration efficiency of the modified face mask could reach 96.2%, which was much higher than that of the surgical face mask and only slightly lower than the N95 face mask. As compared with the N95 face mask, the modified mask reduced the respiratory flow resistance and the concentrations of CO2 and water vapor and thus increased the O2 content and breathing comfort.

Mycelium-based composites have the potential to replace petrochemical-based materials within architectural systems and can propose biodegradable alternatives to synthetic sound absorbing materials. Sound absorbing materials help improve acoustic comfort, which in turn benefit our health and productivity. Mycelium-based composites are novel materials that result when mycelium, the vegetative root of fungi, is grown on agricultural plant-based residues. This research presents a material study that explores how substrate variants and fabrication methods affect the sound absorption properties of mycelium-based composites grown on paper-based waste substrate materials. Samples were grown using Pleurotus ostreatus fungi species on waste cardboard, paper, and newsprint substrates of varying processing techniques. Measurements of the normal-incidence sound absorption coefficient were presented and analyzed. This paper outlines two consecutive acoustic tests: the first round of experimentation gathered broad comparative data, useful for selecting materials for sound absorption purposes. The second acoustic test built on the results of the first, collecting more specific performance data and assessing material variability. The results of this study display that cardboard-based mycelium materials perform well acoustically and structurally and could successfully be used in acoustic panels.

This paper reports about the development and implementation of a free forming facade system, consisting of biobased sandwich elements. The build-up of the sandwich contains face sheets from natural fibre reinforced polymer (NFRP), using biobased epoxy resin and flax fibres, and a stuck cardboard core structure. Furthermore a formwork system was designed enabling biobased sandwich elements to be produced with special needs according to efficiency and architectural design. As a result, the biobased and sustainable sandwich elements exhibit low system weight, high sound reduction and sufficient load capacity for the use of facade elements. Additionally LED-stripes were integrated for illuminating the facade elements. Because of the regular pattern of the stuck cardboard core and the translucent face sheet laminates the facade works like a screen on which each created pixel can be controlled in rgb-colours. Therefore an area of 10 m x 5 m biobased sandwich facade with 25 elements is planned as a reference object in Chemnitz, forming a facade with 100 x 48 pixels. In summary the illuminated biobased sandwich elements produced with an efficient technology of production and with the use of renewable resources can replace extensively 3D-formed customary facade systems.

Este trabalho descreve aspectos da biologia, ecologia e arquitetura de ninhos de Megachile (Moureapis) benigna Mitchell em ninhos-armadilha (NA). Os NA foram instalados em cinco fragmentos florestais de 2,1 a 920ha, e duas áreas antrópicas (pasto e plantação). Foram utilizados gomos de bambu (NB) e tubos de cartolina preta inseridos em placas de madeira (NC) para atrair fêmeas em nidificação. As abelhas ocuparam 17 NA (12 NB - 9 a 21mm de diâmetro - e 5 NC - 8 a 10mm) em quatro fragmentos florestais, construindo 26 ninhos (um a seis por NB). Nenhum ninho foi fundado nas áreas antrópicas. Não houve diferença entre o tamanho dos ninhos construídos em NB e NC (t= 0,31; p= 0,763; gl= 25). O número de células variou de 1 a 13 por ninho, sendo mais largas em NB do que em NC (t= 2,26; p= 0,033; gl= 25). A atividade de construção ocorreu durante o período chuvoso (outubro a março), sem correlação com parâmetros climáticos. A emergência (1 a 12 por ninho) foi correlacionada com a umidade (t= 3,013; p= 0,006). O tempo de emergência variou de 1 a 141 dias a partir da coleta do ninho. A proporção sexual foi de 1,8:1 macho/fêmea, diferindo de 1:1 (Χ2= 9,39; p<0,002). Ninhos foram parasitados por Coelioxys otomita Cresson e outras duas espécies de Coelioxys. A espécie demonstra plasticidade na utilização do substrato, com preferência por cavidades com diâmetros maiores que 9mm. Existe uma possível dependência da espécie a ambientes florestais, uma vez que a maior ocorrência de nidificação se deu em áreas de floresta em estágio avançado de regeneração. Nesting Biology of Megachile (Moureapis) benigna Mitchell Abstract. This paper describes the biology, ecology and nest architecture of Megachile (Moureapis) benigna Mitchell in trap nests (NA). The NA were installed in five forest fragments of 2.1 to 920ha, and two disturbed areas (pasture and plantation). We used bamboo canes (NB) and black cardboard tubes placed on wooden boards (NC) to attract nesting females. Bees occupied 17 NA (12 NB - 9 to 21mm in diameter - and 5 NC - 8 to 10mm) in four forest fragments forming 26 nests (one to six nests per NB). No nest was founded in disturbed areas. There was no difference between NB and NC related to the size of formed nests (t= 0.31, p= 0.763, df= 25). The number of cells ranged from 1 to 13 per nest, being larger in NB than in NC (t= 2.26, p= 0.033, df= 25). The construction activity occurred during the rainy season (October to March), with no correlation to climate parameters. Emergence (1 to 12 per nest) was correlated with humidity (t= 3.013, p= 0.006). Time to adult emergence varied from 1 to 141 days. The sex ratio was 1.8:1 male/female, differing from 1:1 (Χ2= 9.39, p<0.002). The parasites were Coelioxys otomita Cresson and two other species of Coelioxys. The species demonstrates plasticity in nesting substrate, and preference for cavities with diameters larger than 9mm. There is a possible dependence of the species to forest environments, since the higher occurrence of nesting was in forest areas in advanced stages of regeneration.

The use of information technology in the field of cultural heritage makes it possible to involve more and more people in the promotion of cultural heritage, fostering social, cultural, economic and community growth. This work stems from the interest in using Virtual Reality (VR) in the field of cultural heritage, creating a tour of the city of Bari that tells its evolution over the years. To this end, a low-cost VR360 application has been developed which, by means of a cardboard, allows the user to experience a virtual journey through time. It tells the story of the city, focusing on its urban expansion and the evolution of its architectural styles, influenced by various dominations over the centuries, up to the current state. The virtual environment was created from spherical images of the city, captured through 360° cameras and enriched with various types of information content. The user experience was assessed by means of a questionnaire derived from previous work that was generalised and adapted to the considered scenario: the results showed a very good level of satisfaction, usability, engagement, immersion and sense of presence; the highest score was obtained for the visual quality of the images of the virtual environment.

Explorations in the use of cardboard products in architecture exist since the 1940s. However, it was not until the early 1990s, when Shigeru Ban's work emerged when cardboard products became a potential material for architecture. Since then, cardboard use in architecture has been continuously growing worldwide, and Ban's cardboard buildings have now achieved important recognition. This article reviews cardboard architecture works in academic research and professional architectural practice in the last eight decades to lay a foundation for designers to get ahead in cardboard for architecture. Cardboard products could contribute to increase more environmentally friendly and affordable architecture because they are recyclable, low-priced, and have relatively good strength to sustain loads, among other potential advantages for construction. The study summarizes the fundamentals of cardboard architectural design and diverse strategies proposed by different authors to decrease cardboard strength degradation due to the material's weaknesses.

AbstractThe paper industry manufactures corrugated cardboard packaging, which is unassembled and stacked on pallets to be supplied to its customers. Human operators usually classify these pallets according to the physical features of the cardboard packaging. This process can be slow, causing congestion on the production line. To optimise the logistics of this process, we propose a visual recognition and tracking pipeline that monitors the palletised packaging while it is moving inside the factory on roller conveyors. Our pipeline has a two-stage architecture composed of Convolutional Neural Networks, one for oriented pallet detection and recognition, and another with which to track identified pallets. We carried out an extensive study using different methods for the pallet detection and tracking tasks and discovered that the oriented object detection approach was the most suitable. Our proposal recognises and tracks different configurations and visual appearance of palletised packaging, providing statistical data in real time with which to assist human operators in decision-making. We tested the precision-performance of the system at the Smurfit Kappa facilities. Our proposal attained an Average Precision (AP) of 0.93 at 14 Frames Per Second (FPS), losing only 1% of detections. Our system is, therefore, able to optimise and speed up the process of logistic distribution.

In the construction sector, the new Industry 4.0 and circular economy paradigms are currently playing an increasingly important role in order to respond to demands for energetic efficiency, optimisation of resource usage, automation and production activities monitoring. Therefore, this article aims to at illustrate industrial research and an experimental development activity that led to the creation of an innovative product named MULTIFId. It consists of an intelligent, economical and low-emission panel, made with waste from the paper and cardboard industrial manufacturing process which intends to contribute to the development of the fundamental enabling technology of “Advanced Materials” for Intelligent Factories.

Waste is part material that has no value within the scope of production. If you no longer need it, metal cans can take about 80 to 200 years to decompose. CNN is part of the supervised learning method that exists in deep learning, where those who have expertise in representing images or images from several categories increase recognition, namely in classifying objects, doing scene recognition, and detecting object detection. In this study, using the CNN method as a development model and applying the ResNet 50 network design, which includes the type Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that operates by way of working, namely receive an input in the form of an image or images. The input will be carried out by training that is set using the CNN architecture so that later it will produce an output that can recognize objects as expected in knowing the types of cardboard and glass waste. The implementation of this research uses the Python programming language, Anvil, and the TensorFlow and Keras libraries. The system has succeeded in detecting the type of metal waste from general waste and assisting third parties, namely implementing it through the website using Anvil. The input shape for CNN modeling in this study is 512x384 pixels, which has a value of 100 eras, and the data set used contains images of metal waste and general waste found 547 images, resulting in an accuracy of 96%.

The present experiment was carried out to standardize drying methods for Dahlia, Larkspur and China Aster and to assess the influence of drying and storage methods on storage quality of the dried flowers. Flowers of Dahlia, Larkspur and China Aster were subjected to seven different drying methods viz., shade drying method without embedding medium (T1), with sand embedding (T2) and with silica gel embedding (T3), microwave oven drying with sand (T4) and silica gel embedding (T5), hot air oven drying at 450C with sand (T6) and silica gel embedding (T7) and stored in cardboard and plastic boxes for three months. Data were statistically analyzed in Completely Randomized Design. The results indicated that in Dahlia, maximum moisture loss (88.25 %) and maximum per cent retention of perimeter (95.28) was observed in T7. In Larkspur, maximum moisture loss (73.43 %) was observed in T1 and maximum percent retention of perimeter (89.62 %) was observed in T4. In China Aster, maximum moisture loss (89.10 %) was observed in T5 and maximum percent retention of perimeter (95.29%) was observed in T6. Time taken for drying was found minimum in silica embedded drying in microwave oven in Dahlia (0.00208 days), Larkspur (0.00139 days) and China Aster (0.00278 days) while, shade dried flowers took maximum time to dry in Dahlia (14.0 days), Larkspur (12.0 days) and in China Aster (15.0 days). Maximum quality score on visual basis of color, appearance, texture and shattering of petals in dried flowers of Dahlia (15.73) was observed in T7, in T4 for Larkspur (15.63) and in T6 for China Aster (15.51). After 90 days of storage, minimum color fading in Dahlia, Larkspur and China aster was observed in flowers stored in plastic boxes while there was no incidence of pests or diseases observed during storage.

Clonal plants that produced by somatic embryogenesis technique is one of the best choice to produce supperior clonal cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) planting materials. The somatic embryogenesis technique is a possible way for massive propagation, the outcome is true to type plants, the architecture similarity that the seedlings but there is not segregation like seedlings plants. At present mass production started of plantlets production until post-acclimatized plantlets of somatic embryogenesis cocoa was done at Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute. Distribution system of the planting materials to whole areas in form of as up-rooted post-acclimatized plantlet. Some problems identified to reduce probability of decreasing viability of up-rooted post-acclimatized plantlets and one of them is extreme internal water deficit. This research investigate of the influece storage condition (air tight and non-air tight) and box storage (mica plastic and cardboardbox). The first experiment result show, there is no significant different between mica plastic and cardboard box usage for storage of post-acclimatized cocoa pantlet. Viability of up-rooted post acclimatized cocoa plantlet influenced exactly by air tight and non-air tight storage condition. Air tight storage condition have better viability of up-rooted post acclimatised (81,58%) than non-air tight storage condition (65,00%). Leaf sanasence on air tight storage condition (10,33%) lower than non-air tight storage (32,58%). There is not significantly on volume storage per plantlet between 4.416 cm3 and 12.600 cm3. Relationship between fallen leaves and cocoa planlet viability follow negative linear correlation y = -1,4719x + 104,88 (R2 = 0,9772). The second experiment treatment showed that maximal storage periode of post cclimatized cocoa plantlet just until 6 days stored (97%) and not significant with 3 days one. Viability of post acclimatized cocoa plantlet decreased after 6 days storage period.Key words : Somatic embryogenesis, post acclimatized cacao plantlet, storage condition, box storage, volume storage, storage period and viability.

Last year, the ABC’s Media Watch (17 Oct. 2005) noted the continuing outrage in the tabloid media over “the dirtiest house in NSW”. The program took issue with Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph, and the descriptor “exclusive” attached to their article on a property in beachside Bondi (9 Oct. 2005). In fact, as Media Watch pointed out, Channel Seven’s current affairs flagship Today Tonight had already made repeat visits to the residence. A Current Affair, Channel Nine’s rival show, as well as Bondi’s local newspaper also offered coverage. However, I am interested not in the number of times the story appeared – though this is certainly a symptom of what I do want to talk about. Instead, I want to consider the affect generated by this reportage. In turn, I want to consider what this reveals about our attitudes to refuse, and how these attitudes work to constitute social order in capitalist discourse. The overwhelming affective register of the language deployed to speak about the house is disgust. Adam Bell in The Sunday Telegraph paints a visceral picture entitled “A stinking mess”. He writes that the Bondi premises are engulfed in a stinking three-metre high pile of decaying rubbish that poses a serious health and safety risk. … Stacked with empty boxes, beer cartons, broken furniture, canned fruit, newspapers and cardboard, the waste dump fills the entire front and backyards of the house and spills onto the street. On hot days, the stench of the rotting garbage is detected blocks away while at night, rats and cockroaches are regularly seen running in and out of the mess. … The rubbish is piled so high only the roof of the 1920s Californian bungalow is clearly visible from the front. (9 Oct. 2005) Bell’s follow-up speaks of “the huge pile of filth at the infamous Bondi rubbish house” and of “a team of cleaners dressed in forensic ‘space suits’” (27 Nov. 2005). Other News Limited journalists who subsequently visited the site conjured similar imagery (Goldner; Cummings). Television was not to be outdone: Today Tonight called it “the house from hell”, whilst A Current Affair focused on the “disgraceful pile of rat-infested rubbish [that] just gets higher and higher” (Media Watch). The tonality of the language is a dimension of the prevalent discourse of “aspirationalism” that is central to the popularist politics of Australian Prime Minister John Howard. One key signifier of “aspiration” is property ownership expressed through the rhetoric of the “home.” The affective dimension of the reporting—the disgust—stems from the disjuncture of the exalted (Bondi Beach, high property values) and the abject (refuse). It is a tool used to discursively fix the inappropriate physical and social location of the refuse so as to locate what is culturally valued. Bell’s initial article mentions no less than three times in 600 words that the house is a “million dollar property” and is “located in one of Sydney’s most prestigious and expensive suburbs” (9 Oct. 2005). His second article also mentioned the property’s value (27 Nov. 2005), as did another article by a colleague at The Daily Telegraph (9 Dec. 2005). Today Tonight emphasized that the house was in “an exclusive beachside suburb” and that it was “smack bang in the middle of one of Australia’s most expensive and best known suburbs” (Media Watch). William Ian Miller in Anatomy of Disgust explains how the affective response to an encounter like the one with Bondi’s “rubbish house” can be attributed to feelings about organisation. Miller positions disgust as “a strong sense of aversion to something perceived as dangerous because of its danger to contaminate, infect, or pollute by proximity, contact or ingestion” (2). In other words, disgust is the product of an aversion to something that breaches the lines of containment, and therefore signals a threat to established order. The body – a network of physiological and neurological processes, which constitute multiple systems of order in their own right – cannot cope with such a breakdown and reacts accordingly. David Trotter elaborates: Psychological activity [is] an attempt to impose order on experience: bodily paroxysm is a way of confronting and resolving urgent abstract dilemmas. According to this view, you vomit because you have lost confidence in your ability to make sense of the world: your ability to categorize, order, explain, or tell stories about what has happened to you. Disgust is the product of conceptual trauma. (158-9) The “conceptual trauma” in the case of Bondi’s “rubbish house” is a reaction to a transgression of the order of capitalist social space, which then becomes a discursive conduit for its hegemonic renewal. Indeed, the concern with the malfunction in social order that the misplaced refuse represents confirms what anthropologist Mary Douglas has been telling us for some time: If we can abstract pathogenicity and hygiene from our notion of dirt, we are left with the old definition of dirt as matter out of place. This is a very suggestive approach. It implies two conditions: a set of ordered relations and a contravention of that order. Dirt then, is never a unique, isolated event. Where there is dirt there is a system. Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements. (36) Certainly, the associated health risks to Mary Bobolas, the house’s owner/occupier, and the wider community from her hoarding are not purely ideological. However, it is impossible to divorce the social discourses surrounding refuse from the series of social and technological developments that Dominique Laporte in his History of Shit calls the “privatisation” of waste (28). The social and technical apparatuses which enable dominant sociogenetic attitudes regarding refuse include the increasing emphasis on private property, the emergence of the family unit as the primary site for the coalescence of socializing forces and inventions such as the toilet (Elias 137-40). Laporte believes that this process in instrumental in creating the individuated, capitalist subject, which, in the context of contemporary Australian capitalist discourse, is the middle-class homeowner. The construction of complex regulatory architecture to manage practices and tastes substantiates American novelist Don DeLillo’s proposal that civilisation did not rise and flourish as men hammered out hunting scenes on bronze gates and whispered philosophy under the stars, with garbage as a noisome offshoot, swept away and forgotten. No, garbage came first, inciting people to build a civilization in response, in self-defense. We had to find ways to discard our waste, to use what we couldn’t discard, to reprocess what we couldn’t use. … Consume or die. That’s the mandate of the culture. And it all ends up in the dump. We make stupendous amounts of garbage, then we react to it, not only technologically but in our hearts and minds. We let it shape us. We let it control our thinking. Garbage comes first, then we build a system to deal with it. (287-8) Most of the systems to which DeLillo refers are designed to counter the visibility of refuse and channel it to a demarcated, separate space. This is the paradox of refuse: our sense of order depends upon it, yet in affluent society we are anxious about confronting it. Over the years, Bondi Beach has been sanitised both materially and socially. The sewage outfall is a heritage site and the area is no longer working class. Yet, it seems the shit is still washing up on the shore: significantly, the refuse Bobolas accumulates is other people’s rubbish collected from “the streets, garbage bins and council clean-ups” (Bell 9 Oct. 2005). It is produced by the very homeowners whose disgust is so palpable. However, the media coverage of the “rubbish house” does not merely remind the rich and famous residents of their own refuse, nor does it function as a critique of conspicuous consumption. The media event of the “rubbish house” illustrates how “matter out of place” and the resulting affect of disgust are exploited discursively by hegemonic culture in order to maintain the ideology of “aspirationalism” and reiterate the wider capitalist project. References Bell, Adam. “A Stinking Mess – Mountain of Garbage in Sydney Yard.” Sunday Telegraph [Sydney] 9 Oct. 2005: 9. Bell, Adam. “End of the Dirt House.” Sunday Telegraph [Sydney] 27 Nov. 2005: 17. Cummings, Larissa. “Bondi Mountain of Rubbish Rises Again.” Daily Telegraph [Sydney] 20 May 2006: 15. DeLillo, Don. Underworld. New York: Scribner, 1997. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge, 2002. Elias, Norbert. The Civilising Process: The History of Manners: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Trans. Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978. Goldner, Viva. “Rage over Rubbish – Daughters Defend Garbage Mountain.” Daily Telegraph [Sydney] 9 Dec. 2005: 17. Laporte, Dominique. History of Shit. Cambridge, Mass: MIT P, 2002. Media Watch. ABC TV. 17 Oct. 2005. Transcript. 23 Jul 2006 http://www.abc. net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1483767.htm. net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1483767.htm> Miller, William Ian. The Anatomy of Disgust. Cambridge, Mass & London: Harvard UP, 1997. Trotter, David. Cooking with Mud: The Idea of Mess in Nineteenth-Century Art and Fiction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Seale, Kirsten. "Location, Location: Situating Bondi’s “Rubbish House”." M/C Journal 9.5 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/07-seale.php>. APA Style Seale, K. (Nov. 2006) "Location, Location: Situating Bondi’s “Rubbish House”," M/C Journal, 9(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/07-seale.php>.

“...children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents...” — Stephen Kline, The Making of Children’s Culture We live in a world saturated by design and through design artefacts, one can glean unique insights into a culture's values and norms. In fact, some academics, such as British media and film theorist Ben Highmore, see the two areas so inextricably intertwined as to suggest a wholesale “re-branding of the cultural sciences as design studies” (14). Too often, however, everyday objects are marginalised or overlooked as objects of scholarly attention. The field of material culture studies seeks to change that by focussing on the quotidian object and its ability to reveal much about the time, place, and culture in which it was designed and used. This article takes on one such object, a mid-century children's toy tea set, whose humble journey from 1968 Sears catalogue to 2014 thrift shop—and subsequently this author’s basement—reveals complex rhetorical messages communicated both visually and verbally. As material culture studies theorist Jules Prown notes, the field’s foundation is laid upon the understanding “that objects made ... by man reflect, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, the beliefs of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased or used them, and by extension the beliefs of the larger society to which they belonged” (1-2). In this case, the objects’ material and aesthetic characteristics can be shown to reflect some of the pervasive stereotypes and gender roles of the mid-century and trace some of the prevailing tastes of the American middle class of that era, or perhaps more accurately the type of design that came to represent good taste and a modern aesthetic for that audience. A wealth of research exists on the function of toys and play in learning about the world and even the role of toy selection in early sex-typing, socialisation, and personal identity of children (Teglasi). This particular research area isn’t the focus of this article; however, one aspect that is directly relevant and will be addressed is the notion of adult role-playing among children and the role of toys in communicating certain adult practices or values to the child—what sociologist David Oswell calls “the dedifferentiation of childhood and adulthood” (200). Neither is the focus of this article the practice nor indeed the ethicality of marketing to children. Relevant to this particular example I suggest, is as a product utilising messaging aimed not at children but at adults, appealing to certain parents’ interest in nurturing within their child a perceived era and class-appropriate sense of taste. This was fuelled in large part by the curatorial pursuits of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, coupled with an interest and investment in raising their children in a design-forward household and a desire for toys that reflected that priority; in essence, parents wishing to raise modern children. Following Prown’s model of material culture analysis, the tea set is examined in three stages, through description, deduction and speculation with each stage building on the previous one. Figure 1: Porcelain Toy Tea Set. Description The tea set consists of twenty-six pieces that allows service for six. Six cups, saucers, and plates; a tall carafe with spout, handle and lid; a smaller vessel with a spout and handle; a small round bowl with a lid; a larger oval bowl with a lid, and a coordinated oval platter. The cups are just under two inches tall and two inches in diameter. The largest piece, the platter is roughly six inches by four inches. The pieces are made of a ceramic material white in colour and glossy in texture and are very lightweight. The rim or edge of each piece is decorated with a motif of three straight lines in two different shades of blue and in different thicknesses, interspersed with a set of three black wiggly lines. Figure 2: Porcelain Toy Tea Set Box. The set is packaged for retail purposes and the original box appears to be fully intact. The packaging of an object carries artefactual evidence just as important as what it contains that falls into the category of a “‘para-artefact’ … paraphernalia that accompanies the product (labels, packaging, instructions etc.), all of which contribute to a product’s discourse” (Folkmann and Jensen 83). The graphics on the box are colourful, featuring similar shades of teal blue as found on the objects, with the addition of orange and a silver sticker featuring the logo of the American retailer Sears. The cover features an illustration of the objects on an orange tabletop. The most prominent text that confirms that the toy is a “Porcelain Toy Tea Set” is in an organic, almost psychedelic style that mimics both popular graphics of this era—especially album art and concert posters—as well as the organic curves of steam that emanate from the illustrated teapot’s spout. Additional messages appear on the box, in particular “Contemporary DESIGN” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. Along the edges of the box lid, a detail of the decorative motif is reproduced somewhat abstracted from what actually appears on the ceramic objects. Figure 3: Sears’s Christmas Wishbook Catalogue, page 574 (1968). Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears) is well-known for its over one-hundred-year history of producing printed merchandise catalogues. The catalogue is another important para-artefact to consider in analysing the objects. The tea set first appeared in the 1968 Sears Christmas Wishbook. There is no date or copyright on the box, so only its inclusion in the catalogue allows the set to be accurately dated. It also allows us to understand how the set was originally marketed. Deduction In the deduction phase, we focus on the sensory aesthetic and functional interactive qualities of the various components of the set. In terms of its function, it is critical that we situate the objects in their original use context, play. The light weight of the objects and thinness of the ceramic material lends the objects a delicate, if not fragile, feeling which indicates that this set is not for rough use. Toy historian Lorraine May Punchard differentiates between toy tea sets “meant to be used by little girls, having parties for their friends and practising the social graces of the times” and smaller sets or doll dishes “made for little girls to have parties with their dolls, or for their dolls to have parties among themselves” (7). Similar sets sold by Sears feature images of girls using the sets with both human playmates and dolls. The quantity allowing service for six invites multiple users to join the party. The packaging makes clear that these toy tea sets were intended for imaginary play only, rendering them non-functional through an all-capitals caution declaiming “IMPORTANT: Do not use near heat”. The walls and handles of the cups are so thin one can imagine that they would quickly become dangerous if filled with a hot liquid. Nevertheless, the lid of the oval bowl has a tan stain or watermark which suggests actual use. The box is broken up by pink cardboard partitions dividing it into segments sized for each item in the set. Interestingly even the small squares of unfinished corrugated cardboard used as cushioning between each stacked plate have survived. The evidence of careful re-packing indicates that great care was taken in keeping the objects safe. It may suggest that even though the set was used, the children or perhaps the parents, considered the set as something to care for and conserve for the future. Flaws in the glaze and applique of the design motif can be found on several pieces in the set and offer some insight as to the technique used in producing these items. Errors such as the design being perfectly evenly spaced but crooked in its alignment to the rim, or pieces of the design becoming detached or accidentally folded over and overlapping itself could only be the result of a print transfer technique popularised with decorative china of the Victorian era, a technique which lends itself to mass production and lower cost when compared to hand decoration. Speculation In the speculation stage, we can consider the external evidence and begin a more rigorous investigation of the messaging, iconography, and possible meanings of the material artefact. Aspects of the set allow a number of useful observations about the role of such an object in its own time and context. Sociologists observe the role of toys as embodiments of particular types of parental messages and values (Cross 292) and note how particularly in the twentieth century “children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents” (Kline 96). Throughout history children’s toys often reflected a miniaturised version of the adult world allowing children to role-play as imagined adult-selves. Kristina Ranalli explored parallels between the practice of drinking tea and the play-acting of the child’s tea party, particularly in the nineteenth century, as a gendered ritual of gentility; a method of socialisation and education, and an opportunity for exploratory and even transgressive play by “spontaneously creating mini-societies with rules of their own” (20). Such toys and objects were available through the Sears mail-order catalogue from the very beginning at the end of the nineteenth century (McGuire). Propelled by the post-war boom of suburban development and homeownership—that generation’s manifestation of the American Dream—concern with home décor and design was elevated among the American mainstream to a degree never before seen. There was a hunger for new, streamlined, efficient, modernist living. In his essay titled “Domesticating Modernity”, historian Jeffrey L. Meikle notes that many early modernist designers found that perhaps the most potent way to “‘domesticate’ modernism and make it more familiar was to miniaturise it; for example, to shrink the skyscraper and put it into the home as furniture or tableware” (143). Dr Timothy Blade, curator of the 1985 exhibition of girls’ toys at the University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Gallery—now the Goldstein Museum of Design—described in his introduction “a miniaturised world with little props which duplicate, however rudely, the larger world of adults” (5). Noting the power of such toys to reflect adult values of their time, Blade continues: “the microcosm of the child’s world, remarkably furnished by the miniaturised props of their parents’ world, holds many direct and implied messages about the society which brought it into being” (9). In large part, the mid-century Sears catalogues capture the spirit of an era when, as collector Thomas Holland observes, “little girls were still primarily being offered only the options of glamour, beauty and parenthood as the stuff of their fantasies” (175). Holland notes that “the Wishbooks of the fifties [and, I would add, the sixties] assumed most girls would follow in their mother’s footsteps to become full-time housewives and mommies” (1). Blade grouped toys into three categories: cooking, cleaning, and sewing. A tea set could arguably be considered part of the cooking category, but closer examination of the language used in marketing this object—“little hostesses”, et cetera—suggests an emphasis not on cooking but on serving or entertaining. This particular category was not prevalent in the era examined by Blade, but the cultural shifts of the mid-twentieth century, particularly the rapid popularisation of a suburban lifestyle, may have led to the use of entertaining as an additional distinct category of role play in the process of learning to become a “proper” homemaker. Sears and other retailers offered a wide variety of styles of toy tea sets during this era. Blade and numerous other sources observe that children’s toy furniture and appliances tended to reflect the style and aesthetic qualities of their contemporary parallels in the adult world, the better to associate the child’s objects to its adult equivalent. The toy tea set’s packaging trumpets messages intended to appeal to modernist values and identity including “Contemporary Design” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. The use of this coded marketing language, aimed particularly at parents, can be traced back several decades. In 1928 a group of American industrial and textile designers established the American Designers' Gallery in New York, in part to encourage American designers to innovate and adopt new styles such as those seen in the L’ Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925) in Paris, the exposition that sparked international interest in the Art Deco or Art Moderne aesthetic. One of the gallery founders, Ilonka Karasz, a Hungarian-American industrial and textile designer who had studied in Austria and was influenced by the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, publicised her new style of nursery furnishings as “designed for the very modern American child” (Brown 80). Sears itself was no stranger to the appeal of such language. The term “contemporary design” was ubiquitous in catalogue copy of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, used to describe everything from draperies (1959) and bedspreads (1961) to spice racks (1964) and the Lady Kenmore portable dishwasher (1961). An emphasis on the role of design in one’s life and surroundings can be traced back to efforts by MoMA. The museum’s interest in modern design hearkens back almost to the institution’s inception, particularly in relation to industrial design and the aestheticisation of everyday objects (Marshall). Through exhibitions and in partnership with mass-market magazines, department stores and manufacturer showrooms, MoMA curators evangelised the importance of “good design” a term that can be found in use as early as 1942. What Is Good Design? followed the pattern of prior exhibitions such as What Is Modern Painting? and situated modern design at the centre of exhibitions that toured the United States in the first half of the nineteen-fifties. To MoMA and its partners, “good design” signified the narrow identification of proper taste in furniture, home decor and accessories; effectively, the establishment of a design canon. The viewpoints enshrined in these exhibitions and partnerships were highly influential on the nation’s perception of taste for decades to come, as the trickle-down effect reached a much broader segment of consumers than those that directly experienced the museum or its exhibitions (Lawrence.) This was evident not only at high-end shops such as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. Even mass-market retailers sought out well-known figures of modernist design to contribute to their offerings. Sears, for example, commissioned noted modernist designer and ceramicist Russel Wright to produce a variety of serving ware and decor items exclusively for the company. Notably for this study, he was also commissioned to create a toy tea set for children. The 1957 Wishbook touts the set as “especially created to delight modern little misses”. Within its Good Design series, MoMA exhibitions celebrated numerous prominent Nordic designers who were exploring simplified forms and new material technologies. In the 1968 Wishbook, the retailer describes the Porcelain Toy Tea Set as “Danish-inspired china for young moderns”. The reference to Danish design is certainly compatible with the modernist appeal; after the explosion in popularity of Danish furniture design, the term “Danish Modern” was commonly used in the nineteen-fifties and sixties as shorthand for pan-Scandinavian or Nordic design, or more broadly for any modern furniture design regardless of origin that exhibited similar characteristics. In subsequent decades the notion of a monolithic Scandinavian-Nordic design aesthetic or movement has been debunked as primarily an economically motivated marketing ploy (Olivarez et al.; Fallan). In the United States, the term “Danish Modern” became so commonly misused that the Danish Society for Arts and Crafts called upon the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to legally restrict the use of the labels “Danish” and “Danish Modern” to companies genuinely originating in Denmark. Coincidentally the FTC ruled on this in 1968, noting “that ‘Danish Modern’ carries certain meanings, and... that consumers might prefer goods that are identified with a foreign culture” (Hansen 451). In the case of the Porcelain Toy Tea Set examined here, Sears was not claiming that the design was “Danish” but rather “Danish-inspired”. One must wonder, was this another coded marketing ploy to communicate a sense of “Good Design” to potential customers? An examination of the formal qualities of the set’s components, particularly the simplified geometric forms and the handle style of the cups, confirms that it is unlike a traditional—say, Victorian-style—tea set. Punchard observes that during this era some American tea sets were actually being modelled on coffee services rather than traditional tea services (148). A visual comparison of other sets sold by Sears in the same year reveals a variety of cup and pot shapes—with some similar to the set in question—while others exhibit more traditional teapot and cup shapes. Coffee culture was historically prominent in Nordic cultures so there is at least a passing reference to that aspect of Nordic—if not specifically Danish—influence in the design. But what of the decorative motif? Simple curved lines were certainly prominent in Danish furniture and architecture of this era, and occasionally found in combination with straight lines, but no connection back to any specific Danish motif could be found even after consultation with experts in the field from the Museum of Danish America and the Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum (personal correspondence). However, knowing that the average American consumer of this era—even the design-savvy among them—consumed Scandinavian design without distinguishing between the various nations, a possible explanation could be contained in the promotion of Finnish textiles at the time. In the decade prior to the manufacture of the tea set a major design tendency began to emerge in the United States, triggered by the geometric design motifs of the Finnish textile and apparel company Marimekko. Marimekko products were introduced to the American market in 1959 via the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based retailer Design Research (DR) and quickly exploded in popularity particularly after would-be First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy appeared in national media wearing Marimekko dresses during the 1960 presidential campaign and on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. (Thompson and Lange). The company’s styling soon came to epitomise a new youth aesthetic of the early nineteen sixties in the United States, a softer and more casual predecessor to the London “mod” influence. During this time multiple patterns were released that brought a sense of whimsy and a more human touch to classic mechanical patterns and stripes. The patterns Piccolo (1953), Helmipitsi (1959), and Varvunraita (1959), all designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi offered varying motifs of parallel straight lines. Maija Isola's Silkkikuikka (1961) pattern—said to be inspired by the plumage of the Great Crested Grebe—combined parallel serpentine lines with straight and angled lines, available in a variety of colours. These and other geometrically inspired patterns quickly inundated apparel and decor markets. DR built a vastly expanded Cambridge flagship store and opened new locations in New York in 1961 and 1964, and in San Francisco in 1965 fuelled in no small part by the fact that they remained the exclusive outlet for Marimekko in the United States. It is clear that Marimekko’s approach to pattern influenced designers and manufacturers across industries. Design historian Lesley Jackson demonstrates that Marimekko designs influenced or were emulated by numerous other companies across Scandinavia and beyond (72-78). The company’s influence grew to such an extent that some described it as a “conquest of the international market” (Hedqvist and Tarschys 150). Subsequent design-forward retailers such as IKEA and Crate and Barrel continue to look to Marimekko even today for modern design inspiration. In 2016 the mass-market retailer Target formed a design partnership with Marimekko to offer an expansive limited-edition line in their stores, numbering over two hundred items. So, despite the “Danish” misnomer, it is quite conceivable that designers working for or commissioned by Sears in 1968 may have taken their aesthetic cues from Marimekko’s booming work, demonstrating a clear understanding of the contemporary high design aesthetic of the time and coding the marketing rhetoric accordingly even if incorrectly. Conclusion The Sears catalogue plays a unique role in capturing cross-sections of American culture not only as a sales tool but also in Holland’s words as “a beautifully illustrated diary of America, it’s [sic] people and the way we thought about things” (1). Applying a rhetorical and material culture analysis to the catalogue and the objects within it provides a unique glimpse into the roles these objects played in mediating relationships, transmitting values and embodying social practices, tastes and beliefs of mid-century American consumers. Adult consumers familiar with the characteristics of the culture of “Good Design” potentially could have made a connection between the simplified geometric forms of the components of the toy tea set and say the work of modernist tableware designers such as Kaj Franck, or between the set’s graphic pattern and the modernist motifs of Marimekko and its imitators. But for a much broader segment of the population with a less direct understanding of modernist aesthetics, those connections may not have been immediately apparent. The rhetorical messaging behind the objects’ packaging and marketing used class and taste signifiers such as modern, contemporary and “Danish” to reinforce this connection to effect an emotional and aspirational appeal. These messages were coded to position the set as an effective transmitter of modernist values and to target parents with the ambition to create “appropriately modern” environments for their children. 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