91. Chupa Chups dispenser

The invention of the Chupa Chups (original brand name for lollipop) dates back to 1957 when Spanish entrepreneur Enric Bernat thought it would be a good idea to add a wooden stick to a ball of candy so that kids would not have to touch it and get their fingers sticky: it will be like eating candy with a fork, Bernat said when explaining his idea, and soon the demand for the product made his company an international success. In Spain, Chupa Chups have an excellent distribution system, but I had never seen a Chupa Chups dispenser until this summer. It was placed at the entrance of a cafeteria in Candás, a small coastal town in the North of Spain. The device holds 20 different flavors and it is easy to operate in a low-tech way: insert a coin; turn the transparent cylinder until the desired flavor is up front; turn the metal wheel below it and the candy will appear through the opening at the bottom. The rest of the dispenser is a little bit dated – circular metal tubes anodized in gold- but still functional in the way it is designed to roll in and out of the cafeteria during business hours. It is interesting to think about the public nature of this object, placed in the sidewalk to be in sight of young consumers so that they may, in turn, bring their guardians closer to the entrance of the cafeteria.

9> Containing

The last ten entries to this blog are about objects designed to contain other objects, to store someone’s everyday possessions. Some are static and rigid, designed as desktop or shelftop objects (boxes); some are dynamic and flexible, designed to adapt to the human body like a second skin (billum, rathak). Some represent the failure of consumerism and the quest for the cheap in our industrial civilization (plastic bag); some celebrate the traditions of ancient civilizations and the cultural benefit of making things meaningfully (parfleche flat bag). Some are about masterful craftsmanship (phingaruk); some about functional readjustment (take-out container). It is remarkable to realize the amount of different objects designed to contain other objects, and how this suggests that individuals of every civilization surround themselves with the things they need to have and the objects they want to have around them at all times. Objects designed to contain other objects are present in every human society despite geographic location, history or degree of isolation in relation to other cultures. Some of the bags and containers produced by the so called primitive societies, using natural fibers and processes, have a degree of sophistication foreign to the industrial expediency we are used to in our own societies. What is then the meaning of craft and how does it apply to our everyday needs? How does one of our mass-produced, inexpensive, overseas-manufactured tote bags –for example- compare to the complexity of a phingaruk, or a rathak?