Digital Turn
BDES 1201- Week 12
In this week’s readings we take a look at Paola Antonelli’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” which takes a dive into the many ways design and technology have influenced the way we live and the impact we can cause because of it. We also reviewed Shannon Mattern’s review of “Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects” an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York put on by curators Paola Antonelli and Kate Carmody who present a collection of designs which all involve interaction with people.
At the start of Antonelli’s article, we are presented with a few examples within history that provide to the testament that people often underestimate or misunderstand various evolutions within society, more specifically technology. Antonelli explains how integral design is within technology because without it many of the technology we surround ourselves with today would be skeletons of their former selves more importantly Antonelli goes on to explain how integrated technology has become in our lives and how “human perception has been expanded and augmented by technology”(Antonelli). Antonelli uses this as a foundation to explain the need for flexibility in technological innovation specifically due to the fact that prior evolutions in technology have shaped our life so drastically that newer additions need to be conscious of this change “indeed, even as technology offers us more and more options, many agree that we in fact require fewer-not more-objects in our lives”(Antonelli). Antonelli relates this vast evolution in technology back to the ever-expanding role of the designer within different disciplines of science and how they have become more integral to the ‘communication’ of technologies, which have become more intimate, within our lives.
In Shannon Mattern’s exhibition review, we take a look at a showcase of various “human interaction” centered designs put on by curators Paola Antonelli and Kate Carmody. Mattern starts off her review by mentioning Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher who wrote “Understanding Media”, which Mattern relates a chapter that explores the integration of technology and culture to the theme of culture and technology showcased in the designs within the showcase. The exhibition was devised into 5 sections: “objects” which focused on designs that talked to us about themselves, “Bodies” showcase designs that interact with people's physical selves, “life” which showcased designs that helped users navigate through everyday life, “City” which shows designs involved in urban communication and encouraging citizen engagement, and lastly “worlds” which showcased design that “alter humans’ perception of, and help us to comprehend, global phenomena that are beyond empirical observation. Mattern lastly comments on the fact that since items were purely displayed and that visitors were unable to interact with designs, whose main function was to deal with interaction, the exhibition itself turned into an almost lesson on the complications of human and object communication.
A pivotal example and possibly a glimpse into the future revelation of technology is the Neuralink which in essence is a brain implant that can be used to control devices. The device seems like an object out of science fiction but its uses are vast as controlling technology with movement is just a start. This type of technology goes to show how much technology has influenced our culture and lives and that technology such as this and nanotechnology are paving the way to become part of our lifestyles.
Questions
- Do you think that the integration of technology has been for the most part positive or negative and why?
- Do you think the design of technology is becoming too intrusive? (i.e personalized ads, alexa)
Work Cited
Antonelli, Paola, editor. Design and the Elastic Mind. New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2008, pp. 14–27.
Mattern, Shannon. “Exhibition Reviews: Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects.” Design and Culture, vol. 4, no. 3, 2012, pp. 369–372
