All that remains of her is a garlic press

If, like myself, you've contemplated the possibility of having more than one turn as a creature on Mother Earth, the options of what you'll come back as have probably been limited to biological organisms, from the corpulent to the minute. Most people i've met who believe in reincarnation actually limit their options to human, and i have more than a few friends who are certain they've already lived other human lives. Detractors of this multiple lives theory often use the argument that the ever-burgeoning human population makes it impossible for everyone to have had a previous existence. This reasoning only works if rabbits, cannabis plants or masochistic polar bears (a species whose days are clearly numbered) are excluded from the reincarnation catalogue, but what if the form we take in our next life could be extended to include beloved household objects? What anal personality wouldn't enjoy being a dirt devil, sucking up every last bit of dust and detritus from a home's magnificent Persian carpets?

Don't Panic has posted an interview this week with a Dutch designer who has been exploring this very concept. Wieki Somers' show Consumer or Conserve poses the questions, "How can human ashes be reused by means of rapid prototyping or 3D printing, so that we may afford someone a 'second life' as a rocking chair, vacuum cleaner, perhaps even a toaster? Would we become more attached to these objects if this was the case?" i encourage you to take a look at her work, it's quite compelling - serene in a way that only the non-committal nature of gray can be. Personally, i'm not all that adverse to the idea of spending 30 years as an espresso maker, so long as my would-be owner is diligent about cleaning out the grounds. Alternately, one can easily imagine a columbarium filled with these sculptures, offering our cremated loved ones the option of coming back as art, each individual rendered into a unique and distinctive, albeit familiar, form.

Granted, the intrinsic, functional value of an art piece compared to that of, let's say, a cockroach, is debatable. i suppose it's partly a numbers game, since we tend to place greater value on things/organisms not readily multipliable by the millions in even the most contaminated terrestrial environments. Something Somers' work immediately brought to mind was the shadow children project someone did many years ago at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, inspired by images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Art as a response to tragedy serves as an emotional function for many of us, so why not as a response to consumerism, as well? It might make people think more deeply about the material legacies of our time. There's no question that cockroaches are going to survive no matter what we do to the planet, whereas lava lamps and garlic presses are sure to keep 25th century archaeologists guessing.