So been bursting at the bit over the past week reading loads of stuff by Julian bleeker (1st life meets 2nd life was really interesting) and not really getting any further forward in relation to what I’m going to do with this dissertation. alot of stuff on near future laboratories was really interesting particularly the work of a guy called Jed berk http://www.degree119.com/ hes a young designer pushing the boundaries of nature and technology inter relationships. I was looking at the idea of community within design and how all “communities” in a way are linked together and are effected by the pushes and pulls of one and other. Also the idea of “Tv dinner” society and how now people rather than sitting and eating a meal with there family will sit and interact with the TV visually in silence eating a processed meal rather than interacting with there human counterparts who may only be feet away from them… why is this? This then brought up the idea of how people are producing products to combat existing products. like the remote control that can turn off any television because the tv may be annoying in certain circumstaces or intrude in a conversation - device actavism against an existing, excepted and embodied piece of everyday electronic hardware. In a different sense there are products being specifically produced now because a social need has developed because of certain technology. www.designspotter.com/product/2008/08/Birdhouse.html this website has an ironing board for example which is designed so the user can iron seated infront of a tv set.
I then started to think what it is that made me like the stuff that i had been researching and previously enjoyed ( during my tutorial with chris this is) . For example device actavism, device art, graffiti, droog, chindogou, art, near future laboratories etc and also what it is im interested in doing and what i enjoy. it all came down to the fact that mainstream design has become predictable, commercialized, capatalist and controlled not really by creative expression and designers but more by the economic battle for global financial gain and market superiority. Companies produced tv’s that all look the same…why? because every other company is doing it and so therefore its the best way to go… except they may change the colour or the position, size of the on/off switch- really creative. the reason i like what ive been reading and the people i have come accross is that they arent designing what there doing to be rich, they dont have a megalomaniac attitude to design. They do what they do because they enjoy it, because it has or creates a story behind it, it evokes emotions, thoughts, feelings, arguements! and because they are pushing what is the norm and exceptable in society and the commmunity in relation to product design. In a way its a fuck you to the predictable, financially driven companies which pollute society with product ranges which dont really have many differences and which are overly priced with the sole intent of making as much money as physically possible. Mainly through the perversion and exploitation of human nature to always want the “newest” most up to date or in fashion product, even if the new product they buy is the exact bloody same as the one they got but just 4g lighter, pink and a couple £100 more..( the pink idea came cause i used to sell phones and folk would come in a coupe of months later an buy the same phone they had but in pink…it aint my favourite colour incase u were wondering ha)
The commercialisation, com-formalisation and capitalisation of product design by major companies has in a way taken away part of design as a practice. Products no longer challenge the human psyche to explore how something works, how to interact with something and in a way how to interact with each other. Electronics have become monotonously predictable and in a way they are making society predictable, conformist, unimaginative and socially inept. But this applies for design as a whole not simply for the electronics industry.
But like i was sayin there are designers, a beautiful group of designers, individuals, society groups who are rebelling against the conformists, the mindnumbingly unimaginative branch of product which has plagued the worldwide market.
Does design have to be about making money? about producing the latest products to compete in a global product rat race controlled by business men mostly andnot designers? does a product have to have an apparrant function to be classed as design and to be excepted into our society? does it have to provide us with a means of escape form our everyday lives either through a visual or listening medium? and does it have to be black? flat screen? shinny? have a mouse a monitor an on off switch? and be white sqaure and called an Ipod before it is enjoyed and appreciated by anyone more than the small section of society who are sick of the same but only slightly different designs for a society which seems caught up by the latest 32inch tele thats 8g lighter than 6months ago? and the new ipod that does the same fucking thing as the last one?
Ok so after the thought shower than just went down whats this all about?…thats the main question.
I think that one of the main things im getting to is the idea that the designers who are making the biggest impacts and advances to designs are not creators of products which we sit infront of watching mindlessly for hours, neither are they the brains behind the products which are advertised on the product we sit and vegetate infront. They are the people who are producing ideologies, products, services which endues thought, interaction, create a story, challenge the ordinary and acceptable, bring fun back into the market, endues reactions of surprise, excitement, laughter, and which challenge and push the excepted. Not simply new regurgitation’s of products which already exist simply for financial gain ready be consumed by anaive society of consumerism whores.
The child then places the puppet in their desired environment to ensure it has the best effect and there message his heard. The puppet is then triggered by the inbuilt sensor when someone walks within a certain distance ( This is currently a variable which is being explored) by doing so the child’s desired message it replayed anonymously to the masses through the speaker in the face of puppet.
