Ant Stump

better keep my teachers happy...

On Monday we were given a little assignment to create an item that would assist us in our future careers - purposefully vague and open to wide interpretation the requirements were thus:

• Invent + design a low tech product
• That doesn't look like anything else
• That has no purpose or meaning to anyone else
• That would help in my future profession

This is the sort of thing we industrial designers and interaction designers revel in. I could understand the more practical trades out there borking and asking questions about yearly budgets and the delegation of resources to particular university courses. But if you consider how many odd gadgets and do-dars populate your profession and that repetitive task that only you do because of the situation you find your self in the "useless tool" does become useful.

Tasked with this purpose I went to work considering my day, my future and the small, simple things that might make it better:

On your average "Queenslander" (traditional Australian house from the colonial era) you'll find mettle caps one the top of each supporting stump. The house is raised above the group and sits on the stumps. The caps keep the termites, ants and other creepy-crawlies out (I think). On my desk I often find my coffee cup (I drink tea) besieged by ants attracted to my 2 teaspoons of sugar. So why not adapt those cap things underneath my cup? Now I can leave my cup sit there for days on end in the comfort of knowing the little guys can't get in. The ant stump has 4 little rubber feet for stability, a wood base (card board here), a polished mettle cap that the ants can't hold onto and a rubber pad to stop your drink sliding off and making a mess.

Ta-dar! It is small but it's this sort of thing that you shell the dosh out for in Ikea and fills your cardboard boxes each time you move house. And maybe someone will take this in a direction that could truly help humanity.