The "Domsais" - Utopian Design

       Utopia in Design means the pursuance to a better future and a better life; and that means to have a better mood and “feeling”. As I learned in class, “feeling is all” says Goethe, design has a lot to do with feeling and the emotion aspect. Therefore, in my opinion, an Utopian Design, a design which aims to improve the society, doesn’t have to be a tremendous or completely innovative object. It can be as simple as an object that brings good feelings to us. And to have a better mood is a way of improving the society.
       Sometimes a simple, small, funny, and interesting design object can totally change our mood and bring us simple happiness. A few days ago, an interesting design object in a local fashion store caught my attention. The design object were little plane-monsters named the Domsais designed by product designer Matteo Cibic. The Domsais are actually little cactuses planted in small plastic human-leg-shaped pots with a glass made dome covered on top like a spaceman cap. There are six of them; and every Domsai contains a different kind of cactus and has its own glass dome which is different from the others. With the funny appearance, together they look just like a crew of small aliens from the planet of walking pants. The sense of humor of the object left smiles on the faces of people in the store who passed by and saw them.

       What I like the most about the Domsais is how the little plants are humanized through design. The different glass cap each of them has intriguingly gives them different personalities. And it somehow reminds me of my own personality and makes me think about the frontier of our own existence. I feel like we are all like the Domsais having the glass bubble being our exterior to protect ourself and also to showcase our difference. I guess it was the similarity that we found in between ourselves and the funny little plant-monsters that we smiled. It seemed that I was waken up by them from my day to day life to realize who I really am and what role I am playing in this society. The Domsais makes people to think; and they also bring life into the harsh lives we have. It is by given a little sense of humor in our daily lives that we discover a simple happiness. I believe the Domsai is an Utopian design which improves the society through emotional interaction that it makes us to think and smile.

Image from: http://www.matteocibicstudio.com/