Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, And Critical Design

by Anthony Dunne

As our everyday social and cultural experiences are increasingly mediated by electronic products -- from "intelligent" toasters to iPods -- it is the design of these products that shapes our experience of the "electrosphere" in which we live. Designers of electronic products, writes Anthony Dunne in Hertzian Tales , must begin to think more broadly about the aesthetic role of electronic products in everyday life. Industrial design has the potential to enrich our daily lives -- to improve the quality of our relationship to the artificial environment of technology, and even, argues Dunne, to be subverted for socially beneficial ends. The cultural speculations and conceptual design proposals in Hertzian Tales are not utopian visions or blueprints; instead, they embody a critique of present-day practices, "mixing criticism with optimism." Six essays explore design approaches for developing the aesthetic potential of electronic products outside a commercial context--considering such topics as the post-optimal object and the aesthetics of user-unfriendliness -- and five proposals offer commentary in the form of objects, videos, and images. These include "Electroclimates," animations on an LCD screen that register changes in radio frequency; "When Objects Dream...," consumer products that "dream" in electromagnetic waves; "Thief of Affection," which steals radio signals from cardiac pacemakers; "Tuneable Cities," which uses the car as it drives through overlapping radio environments as an interface of hertzian and physical space; and the "Faraday Negative Radio," enclosed in a transparent but radio-opaque shield. Very little has changed in the world of design since Hertzian Tales was first published by the Royal College of Art in 1999, writes Dunne in his preface to this MIT Press "Design is not engaging with the social, cultural, and ethical implications of the technologies it makes so sexy and consumable." His project and proposals challenge it to do so.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art, Technology, Art Design, Science

174 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthony Dunne, the current head of the Interactive Design program at the Royal College of Art, wrote this piece as his PhD dissertation. It’s part theory and part design proposal, yet only one of those pieces actually succeeds.

The theory behind the book, one with which I sympathize, is that designers need to stop coddling their audiences. Virtually all design, be it industrial, electronic, or anything else, tends to focus on accessibility and usability as primary virtues. This makes sense if your design is meant as a conduit for pure functionality, but it ignores vast realms of aesthetic possibilities through different forms of interaction. To this end, Dunne coined the term the “post-optimal object” to encapsulate objects that move beyond pandering to the user into crafting a more complex form of interaction. In this, Dunne is proposal a similar move made by the arts nearly a century ago, towards an aesthetics that challenged rather than placating viewers (see, for example, Brecht’s discourse on alienation in art).

All well and good. However, Dunne seems incapable of integrating his theory into anything resembling a remotely interesting design project. Not only are many of them banal in conception, Dunne seems to think it appropriate to stop at concept. Having proposed some ridiculous scenario, he then proceeds to wax lyrical about what interactions with these objects will teach us about the way in which we interact wit the world – entirely failing to miss the point that in order to understand interactive objects, we need to interact with them. Anything short of that reads like an interactive design just-so story – which pretty well encapsulates the latter half of this book.

[Mark Poulsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for conceptual and critical design. It's a great read too and contains many important ideas for a critical design practice. It is not conclusive however; it lacks a properly defined methodology and its emphasis on using critical design to contrast industrial design becomes one-sided.

Nevertheless, it covers important ideas for design aesthetic that causes estrangement, alienation and provokes reflection about everyday-life, especially with regards to consumerism and electronic devices. It brings attention to functionality as an important element of design aesthetics, and showcases the "post-optimal object" as a contrast to user-friendly and mass-produced products. There are also good considerations in terms of presenting such designs to an audience, and finally Dunne concludes by presenting five design cases that can be categorised more or less as critical design.

[to'c · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that I found this book quite a delight. But I was bit put off by the opening chapter because I lack the vocabulary to fully grok what Mr. Dunne is trying to tell me.

So I flipped to the pictures instead.

And found a fascinating world of very human interactions with the technological and hertzian space that surrounds us. Echoes of my own non-artistic bent on the same and a renewed interest in pursuing those ideas.

I will pick it up again, in the near future, and read all of the words this time. It's not a bad thing to be bewildered, is it?

[Avşar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is derived from Anthony Dunne's PhD dissertation. It paves the way for Dunne and Raby's future speculative and critical design practices. I could see how they are very perceptive about the design environment and aware of the alternative practices. Thus, the amalgamation of their and other professional practices with exciting student projects supported with strong theoretical arguments creates a very persuasive work that is valuable for the scholar and student alike.

[Hossein Seifi · Rating 2 out of 5]

خیلی باهاش ارتباط برقرار نکردم:
1. کتاب برای اوایل دهه نود میلادی بود!
2. متن (یا ترجمه اش) خیلی گنگ بود.
ولی تونست چند سوال در ذهنم ایجاد کنه که برای یافتن پاسخشون نیاز به مطالعه بیشتر در این حوزه (طراحی انتقادی) دارم.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for those interested in art, design, or objects... especially electronic objects

[Yokusun Basi]

Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design (The MIT Press) by Anthony Dunne (2008)

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dunne's dissertation, advocating industrial designers to not get lost in making products as user-friendly as possible, but to borrow from art and have objects be surreal, mysterious, un-obvious, confusing and controversial in their design and user-experience. To communicate critical messages, inspire and provoke further discourse on these objects that invade so much of our everyday life. Dunne's focus are electronic objects and his quest is to communicate their invisible reality, of being far-reaching overlapping electromagnetic-fields instead of just simple discrete matter. Great great book with tons of inspiration and ideas.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas from Anthony Dunne on the poetic opportunities of electronic product. It's a really heady mix of design, art, electronics and critical theory. It does read a bit like a work from the very end of the 1990s, which is not a criticism, it's just great to see the stamp of the times. I do have one problem with it - it reads far too much like a PhD thesis, which I guess it really is...

[Sonali Sridhar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book with great anecdotes on objects in an electro magnetic space. The story and life of these objects - the spectrum they live in and their influences on people who interact with them.

[cecil mariani]

the birth of the so called critical design

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also brilliant!

[Rushina Ansari · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite books I think under the design noir genre - insightful, critical and filled with subtle satire