TARA MEHTA

My room is on the second floor and is accessed by turning south from a hallway entering the room in the northwest corner. The room has 2 closets and one full bathroom off of the main space. The main floor of the bedroom is 13’ by 15’-6”. On the far wall from the entrance (the south wall) is a window centered on the wall that is 8’-10” across. In the southwest corner is a chair facing diagonally into the room next to a door that leads to a closet off the room (6’-2” by 3’). The shorter side of the closet is on the same wall as the window. Adjacent to the entrance, the bathroom (8’ by 5’-6”) and then next to that, the other closet (8’ by 5’-4”) are on the northern side of the room. The main sleeping area has queen size bed frame (Arhaus) centered on the eastern wall flanked back two rectangular side tables (27” by 19.5”) with a circular lamp atop each. On the opposite wall from the bed is a 6-drawer dresser (Arhaus). On the southern end of the dresser is another one of the same lamps. On the northern end of the dresser is a vintage record player. On the floor next to that side of the dresser is a plastic crate used to store more records.

My bed frame comes with a solid Mindi wood headboard that is 54.75” tall. My mattress (lull.com) is 8” thick. My bed has cotton sheets (Springs Industries) and 4 pillows. On the southern side of my bed beyond the side table is a Tower Fan with Ionizer (Lasko). Along that southern wall in the western corner is a french chair (Artee Fabrics & Home). The windows (Norco) centered along the southern wall are triple double hung windoes with 3” trim.

This Actor-Network map traces the actors and processes involved in the bedframe in my room, sold by Arhaus. The map follows the materials, ethos and actuals practices of the company Arhaus, as well as investigates the economic cost of purchasing sustainable products and supply chain technologies. Arhaus is a luxury furniture brand that partners with local artisans to make furniture from that locale’s materials, often coming with a high price tag. However, Arhaus follows the ethos of sustainability, environmentally and socially through their business process. They have a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to recycle unwanted product and even through following their supply chain process. For example, they contracted a consultancy, Wolters Kluwer, to improve their inventory management. This consultancy lauded for their sustainability and is featured on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. However, reports are dubious about the credibility of such indexes, raising the concern of greenwashing, as a larger corporate strategy, across industries.

A second ANT map follows the record player in my room and investigates the evolution of the media of music consumption and touches on how seemingly vintage items are modernly produced.

This organization diagram of my room highlights paths of movement, zones of concentrated activity and axes of symmetry. The primary circulation path travels in and out of the room toward the right side of the bed and toward the window and chair along the food of the bed. The bed is centered along the eastern wall flanked by two lamps, and the dresser’s lamp opposite the bed creates an axis of symmetry.

This graphic composition is composed of five lines. The circulation line to the bed is dashed and offset creating irregular shapes, and the circulation line to the window/chair is irregularly dashed creating a triagular shape. The bed rectangle is represented by overlapping circular dashes. The lamps are represented by thick line-end circles. The axis of symmetry of the bed is a dashed line; the dashes are thin and oscillate in length. The line connecting the side-table lamps has thick dashes that created a curved almond shape. The boundary rectangle has the thinnest dashes that overlap in the corners.

Vectors from the graphic composition are extruded, rotated, revolved and moved to create a three-dimensional space. The center of the room is marked by congruent round elements with circular shapes and a dashed triangular prism connecting the base to a higher elevation. The space is mostly enclosed by gridded elements.

The boundaries of the original room are marked by a thin grid element and used to create an elevate space. The axis of symmetry was converted to a series of oscillating circles featured underneath the elevated space. The lamps are now represented by truncated cones.

The path of circulation from the entry to the former area of the bed is shown in this view and is represented by blocked elements extruded to a height of 1’. Some of the irregular blocks towards what was the adjacent corner of the room from the entrance are rotated. This view also shows the dashed triangular prism representing the other path of circulation. The four lower panels of the prism were rotated toward the center of the room.