The Entrance to mod
From Mod Mania
The entrance to mod
Think about mod. I am such a beginner of modifier.
Modification = the act or process of changing something in order to improve it or make it more acceptable (from OALD).
When I heard the word, modification, I thought it sounded difficult because I thought that it was only about electrical things. However, it seems that there are many different type of modification such as movie, accessory, fashion, game, shoes and so on. It sounds interesting. It is different approach to the design. In this case, approach to the design of ready-made product.
I just remembered that I started similar things when I was studying in primary school. Girls always do something different from others, and they are so sensitive to what other girls are doing!! That’s why girls fashion change quickly and a lot, I think. They always look for the best of the best or new.
Anyway, what kind of mod happened in primary school and junior high school? Decorate notebooks with pen and stickers. Heat the pen and twist the bottom of it. Cover an eraser with stickers. Add a plastic ring to a top of pencil. Put some picture or sticker into the pen. Put pierced earrings on the pen case or bags as badges (because pierced earrings are not allowed in most of secondary school in Japan.) so for them, it works as badges, not as earrings. Draw on the school bag. Change the form of bad and use it in different way. Put safety pins, barrette, enamel/nail polish, oil-based pen, print club stickers, fake fur and anything they think cute, on the bag.
The other thing to change is the school uniform. (My school uniform was a jumper skirt and bolero.) Most of girls try to make short skirt. There are different ways to do. One is just cutting the edges; however, if it was done once, it could not be returned. It is not the best way. The other is pulling up the jumper skirt (=pinafore dress) as much as you can, and fasten the shoulder part with the safety pin so that the skirt does not go down and the skirt seems short. This is easy to be returned when they have school uniform inspection/check. They just need to take pins out. The problem is that the uniform shortened looks weird because the waist line is so high position. They can hide the line with bolero anyway, so they did not care. The priority is how they can make short skirt perfectly without damaging the material to be cute which they expect to be.
That effort was extraordinary. Even magazines show some advice about it. But what is it for? It is easy. They want to be cool and cute, and play. They just hate tasteless school uniform or school bag. They want to be unusual, and what they think unusual is always changing. Now, they wear short one, but in the past (maybe 10 year ago, like my mother’s generation) long skirt was preferred. The skirt was extremely long. They tried to make it longer as much as they could. There was special shop where girls ask to make it long.
Is this the modification same as improving or making something acceptable? I think so. They improve their quality of school life and things chose by school which cannot be replaced with other things. They find how to make difference and express themselves with using the same uniform and same bag. It is also satisfaction. Although it is sometimes not improvement in terms of user-friendliness, it is improved to satisfy them and they love what they create under the restriction. This is the everlasting battle between teachers who let us obey the rules and students who always try to break the rules.
This movement/action affects the market. It could be said that the market of stationery is influenced by junior high school students or high school students well, especially by girls. The stationery department in the store is quite large. When there was a trend which was having lots and lots and lots of pens, most of girl prefer to have and buy big pen case. This is simple. Schoolgirls explore anything what they want to use, then the maker answers for it. Sometimes, the position is changed. The maker create new item, and girls love it. There is development of materials for modification. In this area, it is clear that “Girls always know what is best.” (Ogawa, 2006)
Actually, the same thing seems happened in Melbourne. Recently, there are some stationery shop such as kikki.k and smiggle. I saw that many girls were visiting to these shops. In this case, it seems that the maker leads the trend, but I’m not sure what’ll be going on next.
In Melbourne, uniform seems having the same form such as blazer jacket or one-piece dress type, and they are not really changed much. Actually, it is already cute for me, and the one-piece dress uniform is hard to modify. What I only found is badges on the jacket lapel. So, mod to uniform is not really common (or interesting thing) in Melbourne, maybe.
I was going back to think about mod to everyday things. Actually, it always happens around me, naturally. Here is some small mod which I have done without knowing about mod (so, this is not mod project).
This one is mod as solution. I put hair band or sunglasses on the small shelf, but there is not enough space and they always drop without knowing. I was thinking to put them into somewhere, but I use them often, and I really wanted them to be stay there. The solution was just hung on the wall. It was the Postcard. I looked at them, and took it out from wall, cut a bit and put it back on the wall. I tried the strength, then the problem was solved.
I’m not sure I can call it mod or not, but this is one of changing or improving my room which was done in one or two months ago. This window is faced to the outside corridor, so neighbors pass by my room. It seems okay at the daytime, but at night, the window blind might not work as hiding my room or shadow, so I decided to add curtain even there was not any curtain rail. I bought flexible wire to hang the curtain. It strengthened the security of privacy.
Here is mobile (kind of) mod. I put stickers for mobile on the button of mobile phone so that I can push buttons easily because I loved to mail. Commonly, Japanese love to use massage rather than calling. So, when LG’s Chocolate phone was finally planed to sell in Japan, they had to improve the strength of button!! Japanese mobile market is separated from other countries because of using different system. They do not have SIM card, so they cannot use their own phone in foreign country. This is inconvenient for people who are going to other countries; however, it might protect the market so that it is difficult for overseas mobile companies to compete in the Japanese mobile market. It is because of system and also cultural demands.
This is another mobile which I bought in Australia. When I was thinking to get new mobile (because the old one was broken), I checked the possibility of decorating. It means that there is plan of decorating first before buying it because there was not good design one for me, so I needed to make it affordable. The reason why I chose this mobile is simplicity. Also, there was one more decisive point which was color. I chose pink because pink color version will not be sold in my country. I was caught by desire which was “do not want to lose the freedom”, in other words, “want to have limited edition.” The limited edition is one of the strategy. Cialdini (2001) says that "the more we loose freedom, the more we want to retain these freedoms."
This is mod as solution. (Is it too small to say that it is mod?)The lipstick is always put on the shelf, but it is always missing because it rolls easily, and morning is always busy. So I just stick it with Bluetac on the shelf! It is simple but it achieved a maximum of efficiency with a minimum material.
This was done (adding the plastic ring on the hole of automatic pencil) when I was in junior high school, and I’m still using this. The point is why I did this. I did it because I wanted to change, and accidentally it has a hole. This hole is not suppose to be used for ring, but sometimes the function is misused or well-used.
These things were telling me about how I made mass-product/already-made items better or improved in order to make life easy, and also to have fun. In mod, there is always different viewpoint to object, and approached from different way to improve.
So, in conclusion, what I have developed as a mod beginner? I started to try finding something mod in public space, even during the journey from university to home, or home to university. It was difficult to find any mod done by adult. The more people get old, the more money they get? Then, they do not need to change something in order to express themselves. Instead of that, they can buy something different from others. This is just changing of way to mod. The other thing which I've learned is to find another possibility of object. When people see ordinary thing, they know what it is because parents or other people told them before, or they naturally see how other people use it. As a modifier, what I can do is to forget the common meaning of it, and to see through the object as material, structure, form and any different aspect so that I can see another possibility of the object.
Ref
Cialdini, Robert B 2001, Influence: Science and Practice, Allyn & Bacon. 4th edn.
Ogawa, Y 2006, SCHOOL OF DESIGN, Seibundo Shinkosha, Tokyo
