Designer: Jonathan Ben-Tovim
Project Name: Safely Dangerous Kitchen (above)
Project text English: From toothbrushes to missile defence systems, the industry of safety has become a global obsession. A visit to any modern airport will reveal the desperate lengths we go to in creating the illusion of safety. However, there seems to be little scrutiny of the vast sums of money and time spent on the safety industry. Perhaps its time to ask; does safety really make us safer? This question was the basis of my investigation into the safety measures we take, and the human factors that drive these decisions.

Much of my investigation was spent on understanding the psychological factors behind safety such as risk perception, and our basic attraction to danger. Ultimately I wanted to pose the question: Do we always need safety, or is a little bit of danger just as safe? The material response to this research comes in the form of the Safely Dangerous Kitchen; a series of kitchen appliances that confront the user with certain safety ‘myths’ that are associated with specific products. A whole kitchen environment was created with the aim of finding the border between danger and attraction.