Created by Ritika Kedia, Toaster-Typewriter is the first iteration of what technology made with humor can do. A custom-made machine that lets one burn letters onto bread, this hybrid appliance nudges users to exercise their imaginations while performing a mundane task like making toast in the morning. It is intended to be completely against user-friendliness and instead embraces “user-absurdity”.
Design is too serious. Despite being an industry of innovation, we can often be too limited in our approach. Design can and should do more than solve the functional problems of convenience or efficiency. Objects around us shape our everyday experiences. So what if these objects were made with humor in mind? I am proposing a paradigm shift within the industrial design community: design needs humor.
Ritika Kedia
Ritika would like you to imagine having to write one hundred words just to get your bread toasted enough. The anticipated frustration from this inconvenient machine is disguised playfully by its sense of humor. The Toaster-Typewriter is an appliance that is a part of the poetic world of everyday household objects, but rather than being invisible, it aims to make humor an accessible and tangible emotion.
The Toaster-Typewriter embodies a fusion of functionality and whimsy, positioned within the poetic landscape of household essentials. Unlike its conventional counterparts, it renounces invisibility, opting instead to enable humor as a tangible facet of daily life. For Ritika, it comfortably situates itself in familiar territory yet questions and prompts the user to perform tasks with it. In doing so, it not only elevates the mundane but also encourages a playful engagement with the ordinary—a testament to the power of design to provoke delight in the everyday.
Through humor and absurdity, The Toaster-Typewriter facilitates discourse for collective imagination. It uses the design of everyday objects to jumpstart a series of “what if” questions. Humor is inherently an observation and a critique of the world around us. Fascinated by the applications of comedy in politics, science, storytelling, and education, this investigation envisions humor as a tool to help design too become a medium for imagination, a coping mechanism, a catalyst for social change, and a facilitator for uncomfortable conversations – Ritika Kedia.
The project involved the meticulous restoration and repurposing of a 50-year-old typewriter and a $15 toaster, blending nostalgia with innovation. Over an intensive 8-week period, Ritika embarked on a journey of reverse engineering, stripping away excess material and reviving the typewriter’s functionality through deep cleaning to eradicate years of dirt and rust accumulation. The integration of a custom locking mechanism and castor wheels required precise welding and screwing techniques to ensure stability and mobility. The most innovative aspect of the project lay in reinventing the typewriter’s primary function. Drawing inspiration from wire foam cutters, Ritika experimented with heating methods to burn letters onto bread. Crafted conductive copper wire alphabets, connected them to transformer power adapters, and attached them to the typewriter. However, ensuring user safety was paramount; thus, custom clay letterheads were crafted to shield against potential electrocution hazards. Through this process, two seemingly obsolete devices were transformed into a humorous machine, sparking conversations and prompting the user to imagine beyond breakfast.
Toaster-Typewriter is Ritika’s thesis project for BFA in Product Design at the Parsons School of Design, New York.
See also Edible To-Do Lists – An exhaustive exploration of the eating of words.
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