Week 4
MEET MY OBJECT
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| pic 1. Elbow crutch |
This week we went to the Alelykan. Alelykan is a place where the future fates of objects are decided.
Alelykan was very huge and composed of two parts. One was quite huge and full of furniture, machines, mechanical stuff, and etc. The other one was more arranged well and displayed clothes, toys, books, kitchen stuff and etc.
I tried to find my object, but it was not that much easy as I expected. I wanted to find something really looks fancy and small enough to bring to Korea. Because I wanted to find something really special, it was hard to find the object. Suddenly, I found crutches put in a basket at the corner. Crutches were neither fancy nor small. Definitely not fit to the criteria that I had. However, I couldn't stop staring at those. In the end, I bought those crutches which were neither fancy, not small but gave me a strong nostalgic. However, these crutches look different from old crutches that I had used in Korea(pic 2) when I got injured.
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| pic 2. Arm-fit crutches used in Korea |
Korean uses Arm-fit crutch more than elbow crutch, so I was curious about the elbow crutch. However, when I took my elbow crutches to the school, all the European friends said the elbow crutch is a standard in Europe. They had no idea about an arm-fit crutch. When I explained about it they finally knew what it is and said: "Oh, I know it, I saw it in the America movies." So, I got a clue. Arm-fit crutch is more used in Korea and the US. But why? Why Europe does not use an arm-fit crutch? Is it worse than elbow crutch?
Before I talk about the differences between the two type of crutches, I want to talk about my personal story first. I used crutches about 2~3 times which means about 1 month in total. That experience changed my whole perspective. Before I got injured, I had not thought about crutches seriously. However, after I got injured and started to use them I could realize that those crutches are way more hard to use than I thought. I couldn't even use them for a long time because my arm-fit and hand got blushed because of frictional heat. If was awful. I bought a soft band to cover the handles and arm-fit support fixtures but it was still uncomfortable to use. Carrying them was also annoying. I also noticed that Korea is not kind for the disabled. Most of the buildings and infrastructures were designed without careful thought for the disabled. This experience made my ankle weaker but made my thought about universal design stronger.
I am trying to be familiar to my object, crutches. I am using them in the school, classroom, and stairs at Olofshojd. I found some interesting points about these crutches.First, it has two light reflection pads, one at the front of the crutches and another at the back of the crutches. They must be for safety and can't be seen at the crutches that I saw in Korea.
Second, the handle is slightly designed diagonal, and it makes a user easy to move forward. It is super great detail regarding that the purpose of crutches is movement.
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