Jisu Han Jung

MFA Furniture Design

Useful Useless Object

If spicy ramyun is spicy for others but not for me, is it still spicy ramyun? This question begins Useful Useless Object, my investigation into furniture as a site where function, perception, and value are constantly negotiated rather than fixed. From this question, I explore how meaning is shaped by the unstable relationship between object and user. In furniture, usefulness is often treated as an objective standard, measured by comfort, efficiency, or practicality. However, this project argues that usefulness is never universal; it is subjective, relational, and dependent on individual experience, expectation, and desire.

Through making objects that sit between furniture and sculpture, function and dysfunction, attraction and resistance, I challenge conventional assumptions about what furniture is supposed to do. These works do not reject utility entirely, but instead complicate it, asking whether an object can remain “useful” even when it resists use, or whether uselessness can itself become a form of meaning. By embracing contradiction, ambiguity, and humor, Useful Useless Object proposes furniture as a space for questioning established definitions of purpose. Ultimately, this thesis suggests that an object’s identity is not determined solely by its intended function, but by the shifting perceptions, expectations, and embodied experiences of those who encounter it.