the idiot-tinkerer persona

The idiot-tinkerer persona acts outside norms in order to reconfigure habitation environments where experiences are expanded beyond routinized repetition and mere functionality. As an unskillful tinkerer with no goals in mind, it works absurdly with whatever is at hand, playing around with materialities and the spatial narratives these might compose. It has a special love for things of the past; focal objects infused with cultural histories and blurry memories that remind one of what home actually feels like. As a mediator between the prior and the current, it takes focal objects from its past and repositions them in the present through on-field, instantaneous re-inventions with simple structures and materials. Here, it takes the flokati, a hand-woven traditional rug made out of sheep wool, characteristic of its Greek origins, and turns it into a new home where alternative domestic practices might unfold. In its mind and memories, the flokati is the most genuine space of affection; it is what turns a house into a home.