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Changing Things: The Future of Objects in a Digital World
Many of the things we now live with do not take a purely physical form. Objects such as smart phones, laptops and wearable fitness trackers are different from our things of the past. These new digital forms are networked, dynamic and contextually configured. They can be changeable and unpredictable, even inscrutable when it comes to understanding what they actually do and whom they really serve.
In this compelling new volume, Johan Redstrom and Heather Wiltse address critical questions that have assumed a fresh urgency in the context of these rapidly-developing forms. Drawing on critical traditions from a range of disciplines that have been used to understand the nature of things, they develop a new vocabulary and a theoretical approach that allows us to account for and address the multi-faceted, dynamic, constantly evolving forms and functions of contemporary things. In doing so, the book prototypes a new design discourse around everyday things, and describes them as fluid assemblages.
Redstrom and Wiltse explore how a new theoretical framework could enable a richer understanding of things as fluid and networked, with a case study of the evolution of music players culminating in an in-depth discussion of Spotify. Other contemporary 'things' touched on in their analysis include smart phones and watches, as well as digital platforms and applications such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.
In this compelling new volume, Johan Redstrom and Heather Wiltse address critical questions that have assumed a fresh urgency in the context of these rapidly-developing forms. Drawing on critical traditions from a range of disciplines that have been used to understand the nature of things, they develop a new vocabulary and a theoretical approach that allows us to account for and address the multi-faceted, dynamic, constantly evolving forms and functions of contemporary things. In doing so, the book prototypes a new design discourse around everyday things, and describes them as fluid assemblages.
Redstrom and Wiltse explore how a new theoretical framework could enable a richer understanding of things as fluid and networked, with a case study of the evolution of music players culminating in an in-depth discussion of Spotify. Other contemporary 'things' touched on in their analysis include smart phones and watches, as well as digital platforms and applications such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.
- GenresDesign
192 pages, Hardcover
Published September 20, 2018
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Johan Redström
3 books5 followersJohan Redström joined UID as professor of design in 2012, and has been responsible for the PhD programme and research direction at UID. Between 2015 and 2018, he was Rector of UID.
Background
Coming into design was for me initially the result of a collision: on one side music, on the other philosophy. After studies in both areas (and some more), I ended up as a PhD student in philosophy but in parallel still experimenting with interactive and electronic music. But then I was recruited to a new research group working with applied research on art and technology (Göteborg University). This work, basically what we now call interaction design, for me turned out to be a perfect combination of projects together with industrial partners, design experimentation and practice-based research, and in 2001 I defended my PhD thesis called 'Designing Everyday Computational Things'. Since then I have primarily been doing and directing design research at the Interactive Institute, I've been adjunct professor at the School of Textiles at the University of Borås, Sweden, and associate research professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Denmark.
Background
Coming into design was for me initially the result of a collision: on one side music, on the other philosophy. After studies in both areas (and some more), I ended up as a PhD student in philosophy but in parallel still experimenting with interactive and electronic music. But then I was recruited to a new research group working with applied research on art and technology (Göteborg University). This work, basically what we now call interaction design, for me turned out to be a perfect combination of projects together with industrial partners, design experimentation and practice-based research, and in 2001 I defended my PhD thesis called 'Designing Everyday Computational Things'. Since then I have primarily been doing and directing design research at the Interactive Institute, I've been adjunct professor at the School of Textiles at the University of Borås, Sweden, and associate research professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Denmark.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 20, 2019
Interesting exploration in a new type of thing. An unstable object, a fluid assemblage. Things that change. That embed the system, the network and is especially continuously taking a new presence.
I believe after reading this is indeed an important category of the things we use, and design. It is setting the stage for further explorations, it is not offering the ready to use methods and tools. Which would be too early too, we first need to understand the consequences.
Well written, inspiring. Especially suited for those who design things or services.
I believe after reading this is indeed an important category of the things we use, and design. It is setting the stage for further explorations, it is not offering the ready to use methods and tools. Which would be too early too, we first need to understand the consequences.
Well written, inspiring. Especially suited for those who design things or services.
Displaying 1 of 1 review