Discarded bicycle fenders are the skin of this helmet, a post-industrial metaphor of the feathers of a rara avis –a rare bird- an extinct species perhaps, certainly urban and possibly majestic. This object is clearly not about safety. It is about rebellion and marginal symbolism. It is somehow about subversion. Daniel Richheimer was still a student when he designed it in 2001. As one of his thesis advisors, I remember his work well: he developed a series of mutant bicycles from discarded bicycle fragments found in junkyards and second-hand stores. He also developed related products and accessories capable of defining a new urban subgroup with a strong cultural identity. Although the process of using found objects to create new ones was far from innovative at the time, the context of personal urban mobility gave it an interesting twist: Daniel’s collage cycles were designed to became cult objects, excessive contraptions that subverted the accepted paradigm of efficient, aerodynamic, lightweight human-powered objects. The helmet speaks of excess and non-functionality as much as it dwells in the post-modern perversion that more is more, particularly when applied to a field –individual transportation- that is always about less and less. The conceptual process of cutting and pasting (finding and using, selecting and assembling) that generated this object is similar to the one Indian manufacturers use to build ever-different cycle rickshaws and, yet, the rickshaws are mainly about durability and functionality: they can’t afford to be cultural.
