Surplus

Surplus elements in design always disrupt the end experience. But it takes much more effort to design objects without surplus elements. It is difficult to be precise. And because of this difficulty, the disparity between our eyes and the way the frame wants to be seen comes up. The disparity is fundamental and is responsible for the reason design practice is in this state of voiceless delusion.

Surplus is a matter of perspective also. Who decides whether a given element needs to be there or not? Nobody.

The fragments of the aesthetic of a frame might be also residing in the surplus. What we think is extra or surplus might actually be the frame’s way of giving out its self-knowledge.

The fact is that we neither know what the surplus is, nor do we know what it represents. The discussion that we might be missing out on is the calibration of what ought to be in the frame and what out of it.