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The domestic environment is most often a safe place of comfort and tranquillity where one simply appreciates the area by their presence inside. With the exception of the snap-shot boom caused by social media, photographs of one’s personal interior tended to only exist in relation to some other event that may have taken place at the residence.

However, with the boom of ‘lifestyle’ interior magazines, design television programs and the use of social media, society is now flooded with interior design glamour of homes, cars, workplaces and more. Author Angela Duea (2008, p.288) states this “has turned interior design into a boom industry in recent years…to make interiors work and look amazing.” Society is flooded across every form of media with ‘the perfect interior’ to motivate and manipulate society into always wanting more. Businesses have also taken advantage of this boom and created modern-affordable goods that requires the efforts of the consumer to build themselves at home. Where an unexpected psychological result occurred where according to author Burman (2011) consumers are “Treating that cheap, self-assembled IKEA table like it’s a prized heirloom.” This is called ‘the IKEA effect’ which motivates consumers to keep purchasing new goods, to chase that perfect room that the catalogues feature each season. It seems that society forgets their past history as designs progressively change faster each year as society chases “a project of the modernisation of domestic life and leisure through consumerism.” According to professors, Sarvas and Frohlich (2011, p.48).

The submitted image opposes this and gives praise to the forgotten or often ignored domestic interiors from decades long forgotten before these were tampered with as a consequence of the mass-media boom. This high-dynamic range photograph highlights and exacerbates every minute detail of the aging interior, showcasing their historic memories into the decaying material. Everything from the design of the train interior echoes back to an era that enjoyed its peak moments during the heart of the cold war. This design of the steam-train would have stayed as the pinnacle of its design for much longer than today’s lengthy fashion time of a ‘season’, society back then appreciated functionality over the constant refreshment of design changes. “As long as it was practical and maintained was what we cared about.” Stated Gwyneth Cadwallader (interview 09 August 2012), who says that back then things were purchased to last decades not days. This statement applies when viewing this image of the decommissioned locomotive, even with suffering decades of decaying in the open weather, the carriage still stands with the majority of the interior remaining intact and functional today, even some glass windows remain standing strong. The result is that this train, will most likely outlive domestic products that will be created tomorrow, often these products don’t simply offer practicality but offer a thrill promoted by the media, and when emotions die down, so do these products that were to enrich our lives. The result is that personally, this decaying image is just as ‘perfect’ as one featured in the next season of IKEA’s catalogue and a testament to a long lasting interior space.

Bibliography:

1) Duea, A, 2008, How to Open & Create a Financially Sucessful Pet Sitting Business, Atlantic Publishing Group Inc, Florida.

2) Berman, J, 2011, ‘The IKEA Effect: Study Finds Consumers Over-Value Products They Build Themselves’, retrieved 09/08/12, >http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/ikea-effect-consumers-study_n_981918.html>

3) Sarvas, R, Frohlich, D, 2011, From Snapshots to Social Media – The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography, Springer, New York.

4) Cadwallader, G, Resident, Tullamore Retirement Centre, interview, 2012