Hunching over your phone all day can lead to serious neck and back pain, not to mention tired-out thumbs. Luckily, artist and filmmaker Jillian Mayer has designed the perfect solution to this modern-day problem.
“With new research indicating that smartphone users spend an average of 4.7 hours on their devices daily, one must wonder why there has not been an increase in production of physical structures that will help support the human body in this journey to connect globally through their phone,” Mayer says. Her innovative project Slumpies does exactly this.
A variety of brightly colored chairs and armrests, decorated with glitter and attractive ferns, offers the ergonomic support your body needs so you can text to your heart’s content. Mayer has created nine different Slumpie models, and she also offers customized versions, tailored to your height or phone model. If you happen to be in Miami, you can also test out the pieces at Perez Art Museum, where Slumpies is showing until January 2017.
Slumpies may be making fun of our need for constant connection, but Mayer is also calling attention to a genuine problem. So-called “text neck”—pain caused by staring down at a phone—has been recognized a real, and growing, problem by the medical community. As we continue to live increasing portions of our lives online, eyes fixed to a phone or laptop below us, the pressure on our spines mounts. Maybe someday soon there will be a real market for smartphone-optimized furniture. Glitter is definitely a bonus.
For now, Mayer’s Slumpies are the best answer we’ve got, “relieving the human form of the duty of supporting its own neck while acknowledging our ever-increasing relationship with mankind’s best invention,” as Mayer puts it.
See Jillian Mayer’s Slumpies series below, and find out more on her website.
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