#23 Tia Dương's 3 objects
"It's a boundary, to the touch but not to the eyes."
Welcome to Objectively #23! Living with Objects is a sub-series sharing a person thinking out loud about their experiences through the objects they live with. The ways we relate to, interact with, and consume things can say a lot about us, and we hope that exploring these ideas gives us new understandings of ourselves.
Here’s Tia Dương, Partner at Sum Suê, on creating a constant for herself through moving around from a young age, and how sometimes what you wear is more important than you think.
Tia (Thục Anh) Dương (she/her) is 22. After living in London for the last four years, she’s currently spending a year or so in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she was born. She works in design—be it architectural or product. At the moment, Tia is seeing where she ends up within that spectrum, and not too bogged down if it is outside of that too.
Can you tell us about an everyday object you interact with, and what would your life be without it?
My socks. Socks are an intensely sneaky way to express who you are to yourself or to others. It's hidden sometimes, and eye catching at others. My life without it would be utterly meaningless, and result in more heels, and stinky painful feet. I wrote this initially as a joke, but reading it again, I don't think it's as much of a joke. Socks are more important than you'd think.
How about an object that has helped you stay connected to yourself in the midst of everything?
My wall… Or what has been accumulated on it, as I move from my home, to high school, to university, back to another home. I carry these and add to it as I live through my life, from birthday cards from friends who are no longer friends, to postcards in various museums, to a train ticket from London to Oxford. It is the only constant in my life since I was 16, but it is also ever-changing. We carry these things in one form or another, subconsciously or consciously, in our cells. It's interesting to see a physical form of it.
Now imagine you could be any object, what would you want to be?
A piece of glass. Transparent, but awfully visible. People look at it to look through, but sometimes to look at themselves too. It's a boundary, to the touch but not to the eyes. The thickness only determines the strength, not the visibility.
We are scared when it breaks, because it might hurt us, so we handle it carefully. Other times, it is extremely strong and durable, so that when it breaks, it only cracks up within itself and affects no one else. It protects, showcases, reflects.
You can find Tia on Instagram. She is also Partner at Sum Suê, an international design and architectural services group based in the UK and Vietnam.
👋🏼 Hi! There are many of you new here this week. Makes my day that you’re here! In case you haven’t read it, here’s why I started Objectively.
You’ll also see that I’m still experimenting along the way, so whether you’ve just learnt about us or been here since the beginning, I would love to know what you enjoy about Objectively and what you’d like to see more of 👇🏼
It was a pleasant surprise to be included in the Read.cv Digest earlier this week (shoutout to Shen, Andy, Mehdi!). If you haven’t, check out Read.cv, a show, don't tell professional network. I love that it lets you show your experiences and interests in a visual-forward and possibly side project-centric way, if that’s your thing. Here’s mine and how I got to showcase Objectively.
🎉 Something new’s coming our way…
See you next Thursday for our first ever Collectors issue 🪑 — kicking it off with Marcus Mohan of Sandal Studios.
Subscribe for free to read it first:
For now, catch up on past features -
#22 Object Talks: Playing with metal (with Thana Pramadono, Lichen)
#21 Damar Masato’s 3 objects: On returning home