Milan 09: Designer Björn Franke will exhibit a kit for creating evidence of an imaginary affair during the furniture fair in Milan next month.

The kit contains nine tools for making marks on the body that look like bite marks, carpet burns, or scratches, as well as perfume, lipstick and hair for application to the body or clothes.

"This project broaches the subject of intentionally-instigated jealousy in relationships, which often serves to bolster self-esteem or to test the strength of partnerships," says Franke, who completed the prototypes in 2006.

The project will be on show as part of the Love Design exhibition featured in our previous story.

Photographs by Jonas Unger.

Here's some more information from Björn Franke:

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Traces of an Imaginary Affair designed by Björn Franke is a kit containing a set of nine tools which can be used to create an imaginary affair. These tools leave marks on the body, such as bite marks, carpert burns, bondage marks, love bites, scratches and bruises. In addition, probes of perfume, lipstick and haïr can be applied to either the body or clothes.  It was inspired by stories of people who used to fake évidence of victimisation or illnesses to receive attention from others.

Björn Franke investigates the social, psychological and philosophical implications of material culture and technological progress; in particular human behaviour, relationships and self-conception. By means of both socially and psychologically challenging projects, Franke explores how people can express and control their emotions, obsessions and fears through objects and technology. The projects vary in media and include conceptual products, photography and film.

Franke studied Industrial Design at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design Products at the Royal College of Art where he is currently studying for a PhD in Design Interactions. He is also a Fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude. His work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Taipei and has been published in magazines and books worldwide. He lives and works in London.

Type: prototype
Year: 2006
Gallery: Exquise Design, Paris

See all our stories from Milan in our special MIlan 2009