The body has an uncanny ability to modify its own abilities through objects that have function. The objects that have been granted this power are sometimes so pervasive – so elegantly designed – that their smooth surfaces that remove the friction of our day to day are no longer noticed. Perhaps however, these pervasive beings define the current zeitgeist most potently. Today, the cult of self has mutated to its sibling phenotype: the cult of wellness. A cult whose achievement subject is a subject that stands upright and resists death, ideally forever.

The column too stands tall. Could the lone object, a building block whose repeated form makes up the column, be a symptom of a signature affliction? Intriguingly, the object resembles the very same skeletal structure it seeks to heal.

What might possibly remedy the brutality of oneself, “of the creature who does not experience pain or obligation but only self-realization”? Through industrialized efficiency, and Taylored, sustained repetition, we too can become are monumental.

Colomina, Beatriz, and Mark Wigley. Are We Human? : Notes on an Archaeology of Design. Zürich, Switzerland: Lars Mul̈ler, 2016.