THE SEVERANCE FURNITURE CONTROVERSY (that *should* be?)
Top-tier brain power unleashed on a misguided (? or not) use of DIETER RAMS in LUMONsphere décor
Dear Snoops,
“DIETER RAMS: AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE” is absolutely THE TOPPEST TIER of monographs, and it was authored by FOR SCALE Correspondent extraordinaire, SOPHIE L. (You will recall her from THE BEIGE DEBATE and IN PRINT: Issue 1.)
No f*cking wonder then, that she has the TOPPEST TIER opinions about the should-be controversial décor selections in the popular television program “SEVERANCE” (Season Two).
TODAY:
Sophie L. unleashes her wild brain-power on THE SEVERED FLOOR: how the optimistic-democratic spirit of RAMS et al. has been… corrupted? misunderstood? misused? (YOU DECIDE!!!) (We have!)
TEENSY-BACKGROUNDER: The office of Lumon (i.e. the “evil corp” ← no surprises there) in “SEVERANCE” isn’t a domestic space, but many of its s2 décor objects are VERY PRESENT within a niche homespheres: VITSŒ 620, 1965 Braun WALL STEREO (both by DIETER RAMS, legendary German dude — pls watch the d*mn Hustwit).
End of background.
You are reading because you ARE AWARE OF the LUMONscape:
Our correspondent identifies some crucial DÉCOR-CULTURE references for its “theatrical décor of uncanny, malevolent corp space”:
1 → JACQUES TATI’S “PLAYTIME” (OF COURSE) (1967) (BAD modular!)
2 → LARS TUNBJÖRK’S PHOTO BOOK “OFFICE” (2001)
3 → ”SUPERLIMINAL”, which we’re told is a video game (2019)
4 → ”CONTROL”, which we’re told is yet another video game (2019)
“So far,” ACCORDING TO SOPHIE L., “very intellectually amusant.” (!!FRENCH!! We’re off to the races, now!…)
A good soundtrack for this post, B.T.W.:
NOW, LET’S HAVE SOPHIE L. PRESENT HER (SUPERIOR) ARGUMENTS:
What follows is a very special report, in her words (and FOR SCALE Official Formatting™).
PART 1: THE GRIPE
“In the 2nd season of “Severance”, the corporate aesthetic its production team called “power and control and commerce” is notably represented by domestic Gegenstände/objets designed by Dieter Rams namely the VITSŒ 620 chair programme (1962, and STILL IN PRODUCTION) and the WANDANLAGE wall-mounted Braun stereo system (1965, and EXTREMELY COLLECTIBLE).
This has annoyed my design nerd and roused my (currently highly compromised) righteous indignation.
I don’t have that much of an issue with using a twist on inhumanly-scaled midcentury corporate to create a sense of spatial malevolent inhospitality. It has history, to say the least, and Finnish-American architect EERO SAARINEN’s ginormous 1960s BELL LABS complex is, after all, the location for the show’s exterior shots.
BUT,
it is really not good to use these Rams-design objects as signifiers of same.
WHY?
Because Dieter R. and many of his 1960s design contemporaries were born into or came up out of the “NEVER AGAIN” ERA of post-WWII. Look up* OTL AICHER (who founded the ULM SCHOOL of Design together with INGE SCHOLL, sister of HANS and SOPHIE SCHOLL, N*zi resisters who were murdered by the regime in 1943) and MAX BILL, or HANS GUGELOT and Dieter R.’s other (yes, all male) colleagues.
(GOOD modular!)
PART 2: IT’S GODD*MN DEMOCRACY, STUPID
Their functionalist design philosophy and practice were a direct response to the dark horrors of TOTALITARIAN*SM and FASC*SM. It grew out of a strong belief in:
→ designing a more democratic, more egalitarian world WITHIN, full of light and labor-saving devices for “users” (not “consumers”) – products that gave people the freedom of choice in the interiors of their homes
→ to complement the rise of democracy WITHOUT.
EXAMPLE:
When EERO S. designed his buildings, his goal was EMOTIONAL IMPACT.
When DIETER R. designed the Vitsœ 620 chair programme and the wall-mounted Braun stereo system, key priorities were:
(1) choice
(2) individual expression; and,
(3) the idea of assigning utilitarian quality thanks to in-built longevity and modularity
These objects may well have been flawed in that they were expensive and beyond the pockets of anyone below middle management
BUT,
the design goal and their RAISON D’ÊTRE were the exact opposite of power and control.
**Note to large, design-led companies who should know better**: Thrust as we are, once again, into a déjà vu of twisted narratives let’s not join the mad dance and twist things up even further, shall we?
PART 3: THE LUMONsphere
FOR SCALE ASKS: ALSO, is this some kind of APPLE self-effacing SH*T (because the show is an APPLE production)? We seem to be in a world now where their appropriation of that frictionless, sleek, machined, functional vibe is like, RIPPED from its utopia-aspirational origin (which was lots about DOMESTICITY!), yet still FED TO US as utopian—and really there’s probably not a single 620 in a landfill, but there’s about a billion iPhones (and let’s be fair, phones are now a staple of domesticity, too). Has RAMSian domesticity been totally corrupted?
SOPHIE L. RESPONDS: Good question. There is definitely floor space for a couple of meta-level interpretations in the LUMONsphere of “SEVERANCE”.
There’s the much repeated Jobs-Ive-Rams* reference triangle as definers of the domestic and personal tech aesthetic of Apple Inc.’s product palette. This would mean the inclusion of Rams-designed objects in the decor are simply intended as easter eggs for Vloggers and Redditors. If so: Really?
*which should read Jobs-’Apple Design Team’-’Braun Design Team’ but never does because the media is obsessed with simplified attributions.
There’s also a possibility of IRONIC SELF-CRITIQUE (i.e. sniggery insider joke) suggesting the Lumon offices are some kind of Dark Mirror version of FOSTER & PARTNERS’ “Apple Campus 2”, the corporate HQ of APPLE INC. And certainly, the technology at LUMON looks like a geeks’ nightmare of what the world would be like if APPLE never existed – an eternal purgatory of 1970s IBM aesthetics (P.O.V. Apple).
PART 4: END GAME
FOR SCALE REQUESTS: TAKE US HOME, SOPHIE L.!
SOPHIE L. OBLIGES: Let’s go back to that (yes, it’s bloody gorgeous) wall-mounted Braun stereo system. Did you know Dieter R. and his team invented the silver stackable stereo system – as well as the black one? They were really expensive at the time – like the price of a family car. It took Japanese companies like Pioneer, Sony and Technics to make the idea and the technology more affordable and therefore ABSOLUTE CENTERPIECE TECH SWAG for any domestic interior between the 1970s and 1990. But the exterior design of modular stereo systems never really strayed from those first Braun designs, which were the end game of domestic sound system aesthetics right from the start.
Since the “SEVERANCE” series is set in a strange 1960s-1990s time mix, maybe Dieter R.’s “WANDANLAGE” represents “timeless” universal domestic tech in this parallel Apple-less Lumonsphere? – a “quality” placeholder for those missing Ive-team Apple products.
Maybe we are looking at a post-steampunk-style subgenre. One where 19th-century obsolete tech is replaced by 20th-century obsolete tech. It kind of fits the “cusp of Singularity” moment we are currently not enjoying.
Ramsian domesticity, as you call it, probably was utopian. It was a fragile dream for a better world that instead sold out to consumption – not unlike democracy as it turns out.
Dieter Rams’ TEN PRINCIPLES OF GOOD DESIGN are not perfect but they were intended as guidelines towards that dream. (Try applying them to your décor and objets instead of asking whether they spark joy!!!). Sadly – as we are all currently learning – principles only work if everybody more or less agrees to follow the moral compass behind them. The alternative is to end up corrupted away from ethical responsibility, worshipping empty “icons” at the altar of mammon in our very own non-fictional dystopia.
(There goes any lingering chance of being commissioned to write the definitive Apple monograph.)
Remember to fluff the pillows,
Your End Times Correspondent,
Sophie L.
P.S.
*After clicking all the links for excellent free knowledge moderated pretty much without an agenda, make a donation to Wikipedia, which also has a fine set of governing principles.
Hot take: All due respect to Sophie L. and Dieter R., whose work I love but cannot afford, I would argue that the appearance of the Wandanlage and 620 in the bowels of the severed floor(s) is not a misappropriation; it’s ace production design that subverts the iconicity of high modernism, esp. in the particularly sterile/institutional instantiation of mid-century Braun and Vitsoe products.
Just as much of the appeal of Gary H.’s film is seeing Dieter R. living among his creations, the beauty of the 606 is its ‘blank canvas’ neutrality: Even a minimalist will ‘set-dress’ the shelves with a book or two (cf. screenshot from the doc above). Merits—and scarcity—of the Wandanlage notwithstanding, its presence in Ms. Casey’s room is intended to be dehumanizing if not outright oppressive, yearning for a personal expression that is denied to it, with the crisp rectilinearity of Rams’ design very much in keeping with the aesthetics of the severed floor(s). (Note, for example, the fact that Ms. Casey’s bookshelf holds what appears to be a uniform series of volumes of Keir’s teachings, while Mark & co. at least have Lumon-approved tchotchkes on their desks.)
That said, I appreciate the additional context from Sophie, an expert on Rams if there ever was one, though I would caution that alluding to German current events with “nie wieder” might open a proverbial can of worms that far exceeds the scope of an essay on Severance (much less a comment).
TL;DR it's a fine line between utopia and dystopia
Really enjoyed this! The addition of a crazy collection of wooden Dansk pepper grinders in Burt + Fields kitchen does have me leaning toward them adding some easter eggs for design nerds in some of the set choices. But not sure if that explains the lumon office choices nearly as well as Sophie did :)