Noam Toran

Desire Management is a collection of five short films about the use of objects as vehicles for dissident behaviour. In the film, the domestic space is defined as the last private frontier, a place where bespoke appliances provide unorthodox experiences for alienated people: An airline hostess with a unique relationship to turbulence, an elderly man who enjoys being vacuumed, a couple who engage in baseball driven fantasies, a man who is forced by his partner to cry into a strange device. Based on real testimonials, the film presents the inherent need for self-expression in the face of socially imposed conformity.

Desire Management is a project celebrating the use of products as platforms for dissident behaviour. In the project, the domestic space is defined as the last private frontier, a place where alienated people use bespoke appliances to engage in unorthodox experiences. The research involved two years of investigating communities engaging in unique behaviour as a means of individual self-expression. These communities often possess a remarkable gift for addressing their exceptional needs through design by creating the objects, costumes or spaces which help them access their form of expression. The aim of the project is to take the research and turn it into a self-initiated design proposal whose dissemination will be accessible to a wider audience. As a result, the objects and stories created are based on real testimonials and newspaper articles and attempt to reveal the inherent need for self-expression in the face of imposed social conformity. The project is divided into two phases, both of which have been funded by the Research Department of the Royal College of Art. The first phase is the production of three working prototypes for exhibition which were first exhibited during the Venice Architectural Biennale in the summer of 2004.

The second phase of the project is the production of a professionally produced film in which the objects serve as protagonists, revealing the intimate psychology of the respective clients. The film is made up of five short stories, each around two minutes long, and was premiered at the CNAC Pompidou in June 2005. In addition to research funding from the RCA, the film was sponsored by Arriflex Media, Fuji Film, and the National Film and Television School.