Design noir: the secret life of electronic objects

environment creating an opportunity to reconligure it to suit our 'illegitimate' needs, establishing new and unofficial narratives.

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escape normalisation and ensure that even a totally manufactured environment has room for danger, adventure and transgression. We don't think that design can ever fully anticipate the richness of this unofficial world and neither should it. But it can draw inspiration from it and develop new design approaches and roles so that ar our new environment evolves, there is stillscope for rich and complex

already know about people, and weave new idea into existing realities. The resultingscenarios extend pre-existent reality into the future and so reinforce the status quo rather than challenging it. Their slick produced to show us what the future could be like, design works to keep officialvalues in place.

Some people already exploit the potentially subversive possibilities of this parallel world of illicit pleasures stolen from commodified experience. They seek out (&)user-friendly products that lend themselves to imaginative possibilities for short-circuiting thecombinatorial limits suggested by electronic products.This rangesfrom terrorists fashioning bombs and weapons out of mundane

Beta-testers have learnt how to derive enjoyment from electronic materiality, from rejecting the material realities on offer and constructing their own. They display a level of pleasure in customisation currently limited to home DNand custom car hobbyists. Many specialist magazines and booksare already available that show readers how to modify or hveakeveryday electronic products. Most of them are a little technical, but only because knowledge of electronics is still not ar common ar other forms of practical know-how. After all, an ever-growing number of home improvement magazines and TV programmes thrive on the pleasure people get from modifying their environments themselves- of customising reality. Maybe in the future we will see popular electronics magazines that show us how to turn our mobile phones into eavesdropping devices in three easy steps?

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their scanners are conliscated. Many of these stories illustrate the nanative space entered by using and

Consumers ar anti-heroes: some cautionary tales

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The almost unbelievable stories reported in newspapers testify to the unpredictable potential of human beings to establish new situations despite the constraints on everyday life imposed through electronic objects. We are interested in people who have assimilated electronic technologies so fully into their lives that they feel comfortabledoing things others would thinkof as almost too sacred or highly charged for technology. These individuals can be thought ofar sad, bared on the view that playing out deeply human narratives through technological objects is degrading and inferior to more traditional media. Or they can be seen as early adopters, able to find meaning and recognise the potential of new technologies for supporting complex human emotions and desires.

Amateur subversions and beta-testers When an object's use is subverted, it is ar though the protagonist is cheating the system and deriving more pleasure than is his or her due. The subversion of function relates to a breakdown of order; something else becomes visible, unnameable, unable to find a correspondence in the material world. This subversion of function is related to not being able to find the right word, leading to the coining of neologisms that bend language toaccommodate something new. Desire leads toasubversion of the

Teenagers are now using their mobile phones to intimidate each 0ther.A new form of bullying has emerged since Christmas 1999, when a huge number of teenagers in Britain received pre-paid mobile phones ar gifts. Earlier in the year, a 15-year-oldwar driven to suicide after receiving up to 20 silent calls in halfan hour. The teenager left a suicide text message on her mobile phone the night before she died. The fact that her suicide note war in the form of a text message rather than handwritten will seem even more tragic to some, but to this girl text messages played a more vital role in her life than letters.

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As asociety we are struggling to define and communicate the safe use of new media to teenagers lust as

we have developedmodels of safe behaviour for the street and for dealing with strangers In cars, we will have to do so for phonesand computers. It is not that these technolog~esare in themselves harmful, it is their use and misuse that weneed to understand. Another distressing example is that ofthe 16-year-old

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matter of time before purely text-based romancing matures asa genre of its own. A more humorous example is the man ~nAustralia who married his TV During the ceremony, he placed

he watched up to ten hours aday. It is easy to criticise people who watch so much TI! but tn many ways this form of happiness shows what might be in store for the r a t of us as society becomes even more

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other people because of technology; they have found happiness with technolgy instead. Before the advent of telwision and the web, they might have been loncly.

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Maybe these obsessivebehaviours provide glimpses ofa future where electronic products have been fuliy assimilated into everyday culture and our psyche. They are cautionary tales; they push our relationship with the medium of electronic technology to thelimit. This is despite the design of the products: in fact there is acontmt behveen the banal design of many electronic products and the extreme misuses they are subjected to. Products could offer more complex and demanding aesthetic experiences if designers referred to this bizarre world of the 'infra-ordinary', where stories show that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and prove that our experience ofeveryday day lifelived through conventional electronic products is aesthetically impoverished.

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When objects dream ...

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N a t i o n a l R a d i o Q u i e t Zone, U S A

The hertzian landscape even has its own natural preserves. In the US, West Virginia state legislature uses the Radio Astronomy Zoning Act to create a National Radio Quite Zone. This 13,000 square mile area is designed to be an electromagnetic sanctuary, relatively free from electromagnetic pollution. Situated close to the state border between Virginiaand West Virginia, the zone is shielded from the nearest city by a mountain range, there are no high-powered radio or TVstations nearby and only a few electric power transmission lines pass through the landscape. Commercial airlines do not fly overhead, so there are no radar signals, and heavy trucks and buses are only allowed to pass on the other side of the mountains. TheNRQZ was established by the Federal Communications Commission in 1958 to minimise the risk of interference to theNational Radio Astronomy Observatory located at Green Bank. Thearea is also home to listening post run by the US Navyat Sugar Grove, which was once intended to be the site for the world's biggest bug. Even today, the area is still shrouded in secrecy.

-----------------------------------------------------------Electronic objects are disembodied machines with extended invisible skins. They couple and decouple with our bodies without us knowing. Working on microscopic scales, often pathogenic, many electromagnetic fields interfere with the cellular structure of the body. Paranoia accompanies dealings with such hertzian machines. How do they touch us? Do they merely reflect off our skin, or the surface ofour internal organs? In other words, do they merely 'see' us, or can they 'read' us too, extracting personal information about our identity, status, and health? Vatican Radio broadcasts the Pope's speeches and events to the furthest corners of the world in 40 languagesviaa forest of 58 antennae located at Santa Maria di Galeria near Rome. Following concern at

the disproportionately high incidence of leukaemia in children living near the transmitter site, in ,,,arch 2001 the Italian Environment Minister charged three senior officials of the radio station with ~talianlaws on electromagnetic emissions. The Vatican denied causinga health hazard, and only agreed to reduce the number oftransmissions as a goodwill gesture after the government threatened to cut offthe electricity supply to its radio station. As the Vatican enjoys the legal status of an independent city-state, its lawyers also claimed immunity from Italian laws in this case, and argued that the station's emission levels did comply with the less stringent international standards. This fusion of religious content, electromagnetic space, health concerns and government regulations is a particularly colourfulexample of struggles occurring all over the developedworld between large corporations, governments and increasingly concerned citizens. ~h~ rapid expansion of uses for the electromagnetic spectrum has resulted in a new form of pollution, or electrosmog. Many different organisations exist to raise awareness of these issues, from the official, like the FEB (The Swedish Association for the Electro-sensitive) to the grassroots, like the EMFGuru website. Thereare also specialist centres such as the Breakspear Hospital in England, which specialises intreatingenvironmenhl illnesses, including hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields. But much of the information available on the effects of electromagnetic pollution is quite technical and difficultto understand. Powerlines (1997). apoetic documentary film by Helen Hall, uses dance and music to the mystery of electromagnetic fields, the promise of new energy, and the dangers of electromagnetic pollution. It is an artistic interpretation of a scientific area and introduces the topic to anaudience who otherwise might be alienated by the technical subject matter. Located on the edge of a global electronic culture, it explores the shifts beginning to occur in the ways we relate to our environment, especially when we have to move beyond our senses: 'As the environment becomes flooded with electromagnetic radiation, all our senses are swamped with energy and information. While the entire world becomes electrified we are being overloaded by avast world of electronic images, lights, and sounds, as huge amounts of information travel around the world at the speed of lightand interact with the millions ofelectrical processes in every living cell of our

Helen H a l l , from t h e s c r i p t of Powerlines. The uncertainty about the effects of electro-pollution has resulted in aplethora of companies producing and selling protective devices, many ofwhich seem highly unscientific. One company called LessEMF manufactures and sells protective underwear via the internet under the category of personal protection

'Gain control of your inner environment-very sheer, comfortable undergarments you can wear over your regular underwear to shield yourself from powerline and computer electric fields, and microwave. radar, and TV radiation. This silver-plated, stretchable, washable nylon mesh is electrically conductive. It reflects radiation. Plus you won't get those static shocks as you used to in dry weather and your clothes won't cling to you1 Fabric provides up to 35 dB of shielding at 10OMHz. Made in USA. Surround what you want to protect!' -th

through the magnetic fields and electronic workings of video cassettes, video players, TVs and the telephonesystem rather than hallways and cellars. There is something poetic about the ideaofa ghost existing in a magnetic medium, breaking into everyday life through products that shape and transform the verysame media.

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Faraday cage, p.26

Lawyers, criminals and the superstitious are already aware of these issues, designers and architects need to explore them too. Not just by finding new ways of exploiting the electromagnetic spectwm as a medium, but by defining and giving tangible expression to new thresholds between inside and outside, public and private, mine and yours, within a cultural context.

............................................................ Immaterial sensuality As a result of these changing notions and shifting boundaries, a whole host of technologies, devices and materials have been developed to offer protection or shelter from the spectrum. These objects and materials could be defined as 'radiogenic', that is they interact directly with electromagnetic waves, either reflecting energy, converting it or diverting i t Radiogenic objects and materials function as unwitting interfaces between the abstract space ofelectromagnetism and the material culture of everyday life, revealing unexpected points of contact between them. This fusion of the immaterial and sensual can generate some intriguingsituations, objects and aesthetic possibilities.

The challenge today is not to create electronicspace, but electronic-free space. The extent of hertzian space is reflected in the difficultyof finding electromagnetically unpolluted parts of the globe as sites for intelligence gathering 'antenna farms'and the use of Faraday cages to create 'empty' zero-field spaces for isolating sensitive equipment. A modern war is won by the side that best exploits the electromagnetic spectrum, denying the enemy its effective use and protecting friendly electromagnetic systems against electronic attack. In order to prevent electronic eavesdropping, many office buildings are now designed to function as Faraday cages, utilising electromagneticshielding materials throughout the structure. Ceramic conductive coatings or fine blackened copper wire meshes are laminated in glass to create 'dahsafe' windows. The same technology is used to protect sensitive equipment inside buildings from bursts of external radiation.

this shielding technology. His project proposes a new settlement populated by radio enthusiasts broadcasting opinions and (dis)information from avery dense site in Berlin. The city's fabric consists of a layering of protective surfaces, or fapdes, which protect broadcasters from the electromagnetic waves generated. In the true spirit of radio hams, the city is to be assembled by its inhabitants themselves, using a selection of designed parts and a set of c o n s t ~ c t i o nguidelines. Most of the materials Michell has chosen to focus on are familiw elements of domestic surface decoration such as wallpaper and net curtains, modified to filter out electromagnetic fields. His Faraday Curtains consist of readily available domestic net curtains soaked in clear resin before being vacuum metalicised with copper. Although a design proposal, this project is intended to be technically feasible. For instance, the lace used for the curtains was checked to ensure the holes were of a suitable dimension to shield against short wave radio waves. The final result expresses a hertziin domesticity, acknowledging the need for privacy and homeliness while providing psychological and physical protection from electromagnetic fields. A differentapproach to shelters was explored by another architect, Pedro Sepulveda-Sandoval, as part

Faraday Chair (1998),for example, we used a conductive ceramic coating to shield the occupant.This utilitarian shelter of minimum dimensions and comfort might even be a retreat, a new place to dream, away from the constant bombardment by the radiation of telecommunications. We just do not know what the real effects ofthe new space that has been constructed are, but to completely shield our homes is a luxury only the rich could afford. Antenna test-sites and other specially designed technical environments like anechoic chambers are used to measure an object's 'leakiness' in order to predict its effect on other objects. The complexity and specificity of these spaces show just how difficult it is to create fully-shielded environments. Most protective environments concentrate on blocking only particular wavelengths. In City of Fapdes (2001), architect Oliver Michell has developed a range of prototype Faraday Curtains that make use of

of his ongoing research into digital shelters for the scanscape. His kit for making temporary zones of privacy consists of specially made tape with the words 'digital shelter' printed on it and a waveshield mobile phone jammer. When the electromagnetic shelter is set up, the only visible indication of its existence is a taped rectangle marking the functional limits of the phone jammer. This project very clearly demonstrates the environmental qualities of electromagnetic fields: when somebody steps inside the taped boundary, their mobile phone stops working. It is as though they have stepped into an invisible shelter that prevents telephone signals from penetrating its walls. Waveshield devices are currently used in cinemas and restaurants to minimise 'social pollution'; they work by generatinga radio signal that prevents the telephone from communicating with a base station, thereby losing its connection with the network. The UK distributor for these devices requires government approval before one can be sold. Using a jammer constitutes a form of trespass.

Like all supposedly immaterial medla, herhian space has ~ t material s props In the case of mob~lephone networks, ~tIS the unsightly masts dotted throughout the countlys~deand perched on bulldlngs In all major cltles and towns There are believed to be more than 20,000 such masts In Brltain and an estimated 100,000 more will be needed over the next decade Several Amerlcan companies lncludlng ARCNET of New Jersey, the Larson Company ofArlzona, Valmont Industries ofNebraska, and AT&T are

cactus designs are also be available, to suit different environments Hundreds of church spires already cany some form of telecommunications equipment and in return the churches receive a rent of behveenE3,OOO-£30,000 per year. One of the most intriguing stealth antennas is located in Guildford cathedral in Surrey. The telecommunications company One-to-one offered to re-gild the cathedral's 5 m angel weather vane with gold leafat a cost of620.000 if it was allowed to place a radio mast inside it. The pole on which the vane rotates has been replaced by a new steel structure concealing three transmitters. Solutions like these are produced outside ofa conventional design context. Whereas a professional designer might tly to express the meaning of the antenna, or create a 'modernist'sculptural statement

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J O I to ~ create an accidentally poetic landmark.

Electron~ctechnology g~vesensting objects, in this case a weathervane, new and almost magical aualltles The Gulldford angel expresses beautifully the poetic

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Rather than forclng material culture to express thls fusion, the angel antenna is an example of how juxtaposition could lead to a more enjoyable, lf cerebral, meetmg of matenal and electron~ccultures.

D l g l t a l S h e l t e r b y Pedro Sepulveda-Sandoval, p.27 Peel t h e backlng off t h e D l g l t a l S h e l t e r adheslve tape and s t l c k t o t h e f l o o r I n t h e c h o s e n s p a c e . A t t a c h r n o b l l e p h o n e lar--- -- -"-

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NO PERFUME NO PERFUMED PRODUCTS NO AFTERSHAVE NO SMOKING NO FLOWERS @

Entrance sign, Breakspear Hospital, Hemel Hempstead, p.21

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Personal protection devices by LessEMF, p.21

. If the current situation in product design is analogous to the Hollywood blockbuster, thenan interesting place to explore in more detail might be its opposite: Design Noir. h a genre, it would focus on how the psychological dimensions ofexperiences offered through electronic products can be expanded. By referring to the world of product misuse and abuse, where desire overflows its material limits and subverts the function of everyday objects, this product genre would address the darker, conceptual models ofneed that are usually limited to cinema and literature. Noir products would be conceptual products, a medium that fuses complex narratives with everyday life. This is very diiferent from conceptual design, which usesdesign proposals as a medium for exploring what these products might be like. Conceptual design can exist comfortably in book or video form, it is about life whereas conceptual products are part of life. With this form of design, the 'product' would be a fusion of psychological and external 'realities', the user would become a protagonist and coproducer of narrative experience rather than a passive consumerofa product's meaning. The mental interface between the individual and the product is where the 'experience' lies. Electronic technology makes this meeting more fluid, more complex and more interesting. Like in Film Noir, the emphasis would be on existentialism. Imagine objects that generate 'existential moments' - a dilemma, for instance -which they would stage or dramatise.These objects would not help people to adapt to existing social, cultural and politialvalues. Instead, the product would force a decision onto the user, revealing how limited choices are usually hard-wired into products for us. On another level, we could simply enjoy the wickedness of the values embedded in these products and services.Theirvery existence is enough to create pleasure.

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beaches. Designed for those 'little white lies in between', the CD is intended to be played in the background while you are making a telephone call from a place you should not be. This soundtrack CD allows you to cut and paste reality. Its very existence triggers a chain of thoughts and narratives in the imagination.

TERMS, CONDITIONS 6 DISCLAIMER

Many interesting examples of noir products already exist, but they are not created by designers. The best examples of how design responds to the psychological and behavioural dimensionsofelectronics can be found at the edges of anonymous design. These products and services work on a radically differentaesthetic principal from traditional products: it is what they do that creates pleasure, not how they look and feel. It is the thrill of transgression that counts here. Even if we do not use them, just imagining these objects in use creates a strong and perversely enjoyable experience. They show how design products and services can function as a medium for producing complex psychological experiences. The Truth Phone, a real product produced by the Counter Spy shop, is one example of how a Noir product might work. It combines avoice stress analyser with a telephone, and shows how electronic products have the potential to generate a chain of events which together form a story. If you consider products in this way, the focus of the design shifts from concerns of physical interaction (passive button pushing) to the potential psychological experiences inherent in the product. Imaginespeaking to your mother or a lover while the Truth Phone suggests they are lying. The user becomes a protagonist and the designer becomes a co-author ofthe experience, the product creates dilemmas rather than resolving them. By using the phone, the owner explores boundaries between himself and the paranoid user sugyested by the product, entering into a psychological adventure.

TheTruth Phone and similar electronic objects generate a conceptual space where interactivity can challenge and enlarge the scheme through which we interpret our experiences of using everyday electronic objects and the social experiences they mediate. The effect isnot only limited to products: as its name suggests, Ace-Alibi.com is a service for creating false alibis. When you subscribe, you might choose an option that involves beingsent a letter inviting you to a conference. The letterwill be postmarked with the correct area code, and you can also arrange to leave a contact number which will be answered in the correct regional accent. Franchises of this service are available, although the people behind the schemeare nervous about offeringthe service in the United States, in case they are sued for their part in helping employees bunk offwork. We find this service interesting because it meets areal need not fulfilled anywhere else. You may not agree with it or choose to use it, but many people use this service. The pleasure provided by the existence of a service like this lies is in resolving the dilemma it presents. It isas though the internet reflects human nature inall its imperfections while the material world of consumer products only reflects idealised notions of correct behaviour.

Documentation is i s s u e d b y F a s t Track S e r v i c e s t o t h e c l i e n t f o r t h e purposes of substantiating a n a l i b i t o help ensure t h a t a r e l a t i o n s h i p remains s t a b l e and is n o t t o b e used i n c o n j u n c t i o n w i t h Tax R e t u r n s , V a t Purposes o r f o r a n y o t h e r f i n a n c i a l g a i n . ~ l l i n conjunction with any c r i m i n a l a c t whatsoever. F a s t Track S e r v i c e s w i l l n o t b e h e l d r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e b r e a k down o f a n y r e l a t i o n s h i p

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o f f e r a s e r v i c e t o h e l p p r o t e c t t h e family u n i t o r r e l a t i o n s h i p from d i s t r e s s c a u s e d b y e m o t i o n a l o r a n y o t h e r t u r m o i l w h i c h may o c c u r due t o t h e d i s c l o s u r e of a n y a c t i o n s t a k i n g p l a c e o u t s i d e of t h e normal r e l a t i o n s h i p . F a s t Track S e r v i c e s d o n o t condone o r d i s a g r e e with s a i d a c t i o n s . Although a l l p o s s i b l e safeguards and measures a r e t a k e n , n o g u a r a n t e e i s g i v e n t o a n y member t o e n s u r e t h a t t h e i r p a r t n e r w i l l n o t b e c o m e a w a r e o f " o t h e r " r e l a t i o n s h i p s . NO R e f u n d s whatsoever a r e given under any circumstances.

In Japan they have taken this idea one step further. One love hotel there allows you to select avariety of background environmental sounds to give the impression you are calling from a train station, street, bar etc. while youare really on the phone in your hotel room. Like Ace-Alibi.com, thisservice may not be to everyone's taste, but it uses technology to satisfy unacknowledged but genuine needs, rather than manufactured ones. On another level, this love hotel is an interesting counterpoint to the typical 'smart

S u i c i d e C o m p u t e r , d r a w n b y Tom G a u l d ( t o p ) a n d R e i T~~~~

The company that produces the Alibi CD also produce Nie Mehr Nlein (Alone No More),a CD of the familiar sounds of everyday domestic tasks that became acult hit. Bernd Klosterfelde had the idea for this product shortly after finding himself living alone after a divorce. He asked a friend to invite his girlfriend around, and then proceeded to record her doing everything from the washing up and the laundry to reading the newspaper. Imagine if this were one of many radio stations you could tune into. The producer claims this CD is a manifesto for singletons. This product not only recognises loneliness, but celebrates it.

Alone no more 1. T h e f r i d g e i s f u l l a g a i n a t l a s t

2. 3. 4. 5.

Cappuccino break Reading t h e paper Time t o d o t h e w a s h i n g u p A s h i r t is q u i c k l y i r o n e d 6. Baking a c a k e f o r t h e beloved 7. A b a t h is j u s t t h e t h i n g 8. And s t r a i g h t o n t o t h e s u n b e d 9. G e t t i n g o u t t h e h a i r d r y e r 10. Nature c a l l s 11. F o r g o t t o d o t h e v a c u u m i n g 12. J u s t t y p i n g up t h a t letter on t h e computer 1 3 . T h e r e ' s n o t h i n g o n TV a g a i n , a t l e a s t t h e c r l s p s a r e g o o d 1 4 . B e t t e r o f f r e a d i n g a n d h a v i n g a smoke 1 5 . Slamming a r o a s t i n t o t h e o v e n

Many products like these have an existential theme. They perplex rather than comfort, wen just thinking about them raises many important issues. Objects can be existential in other ways too, for instance in the form of computer-aided existentialism. Asuicide computer built to kill patients legally was developed by Dr. Philip Nitschke in theNorthemTerritory of Australia, where euthanasia was legal for a brief period in the 1990s. The machine consisted of a computer that asked the patient three times whether they really wanted to die. If the patient agreed each time, then 100 ml of liquid Nembutal was pumped through a needle into the patient's arm. They fell asleep and died within a few minutes. The machine was first used in Danvin in 1996, and was bought by the ScienceMuseum in London in 2001.

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Although discovered by accident, the orgasm generator is part of an almost secret history of inventions for pleasure. Very few of them have made it to the market place, but a look through patent records throws up some very interesting and strange ideas that again tell us more about the diversity of notions of pleasure than anything else. The US Patent Office provides a history of technological pleasure in the form of patents for sex aids collected over the last 150 years. The list includes contraception devices,

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(including sex robots). The strange narrative of pleasure documented in patent drawings offers a technological reflection of human frustratioq fantasy, fear and pleasure. These objects are not science fiction or art, they were documented because they either solved a problem or provided exceptional pleasure. Their inventors were motivated by the hard reality of financial gain. They believed that each of these devices had a potential market, for example the need for methods of making sex safe in the age ofAlDS. The contents of the patent office represent a material cultural history of desire.

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Today, large corporations know that as many of our basic needs are met, we desire to satisfy more abstract ones, but they are unsure what these might be. The current focus is on wellness and well-being.

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~ a r t i c ~ ~ abut t e ,the fact these things exist means our material culture reflects more accurately the

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eventually wear off with Increased famil~ar~ty, ~twould sttll be valuable to l~vew ~ t hthem for awh~le. What Ifthey could be rented?Not l ~ k e a v ~ d or e oItbrary book-although thefunct~on~ s s i m ~ l-a but r l ~ k mus~cal e ~nstrumentsare today, and even palnt~ngs.We belleve there IS room for a new category of objects that prov~decomplex aesthettc and psycholog~calexpertences w ~ t h ~everyday n Itfe They could come in a varfety of genres of wh~chnoir ~ s j u sone t

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O r g a s m i m p l a n t , d r a w n by Tarn C a u l d , p . 5 1

............................................................ (Un)Popular design

product designers in particular, see the social value of their work as inextricably linked to the marketplace. Design outside this arena isviewed with suspicion as escapist or unreal. At the moment, the only

............................................................ Design is ideological When technology is developing as rapidly as it is now, reflection and criticism are particularly important. We need to consider alternative visions to those put forward by industry. Design, being accessible, contemporary and part of popular culture, is perfectly positioned to perform this role. But in order to achieve this, some significant shifts need to occur. We need to develop a parallel design activity that questions and challenges industrial agendas. Most designers, especially industrial designers, view design assomehow neutral, cleanand pure. But all design is ideological, the design process is informed by values based on a specific worldview, or way of seeingand understanding reality. Design can be described as falling into two very broad categories: affirmative design and critical design.The former reinforces how things are now, it conform to cultural, social, technical and economic expectation. Most design falls into this category. The latter rejects how things are now as being the only possibility, it provides a critique of the prevailing situation through designs that embody alternative social, cultural, technical or economicvalues.

Critical design, or design that askscarefullycrafted questionsand d e s u s think, is just as difficultand just as important as design that solves problems or finds answers. Being provocative and challenging might seem like an obvious role for art, but art is far t w removed from theworld of mass consumption and electronic consumer products to be effective in this context, even though it is of course part of consumerist culture.There is a place for a form ofdesign that pushes the cultural and aesthetic potential and role of electronic products and services to its limits. Questions must be asked about what we actually need, about the way poetic moments can be intertwined with the everyday and not separated from it. At the moment, this type of design is neglected and regarded as secondary. Today, design's main purpose isstill to provide new products-smaller, faster,different, better. Critical design is related to haute couture, concept cars, design propaganda, and visions of the luture, but its purpose is not to present the d r e a m of industry, attract new business, anticipate new trends or test the market. Its purpose is to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the aesthetic quality of our electronically mediated existence. It differs too from experimental design, which seeks to extend the medium, extending it in the name of progress and aesthetic novelty. Critical design takes as its medium social, psychological, cultural, technical and economicvalues, in an effortto push the limits of lived experience not the medium. This has always been the case inarchitecture, but design isstruggling to reach this level of intellectual maturity.

and creative design thinking. To be considered successful in the marketplace, design has to sell in large numbers, therefore it h a to be popular. Critical designcan never be truly popular, and that is its fundamental problem. Objects that are critical of industry'sagenda are unlikely to be funded by industry. Asaresult, they will tend to remain one-offs. Maybe we need a new category to replace the avant-garde: (un)popular design.

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The design profession needs to mature and find ways of operatingoutside the tight constraints of servicing industry.At its worst, product design simply reinforces global capitalist values. It helps to create and maintain desire for new products, ensures obsolescence, encourages disatisfactionwith what we have and merely translates brand values into objects. Design needs to see this for what it is, just one possibility, and develop alternative roles for itself. It needs to establish an intellectual stance of its own, or the design profession is destined to loose all intellectual credibility and beviewed simply as an agent of capitalism. Weare not against industry, although it could direct more of its profits into serious design research rather than facile PR exercises. Industry is after all in the businw ofmaking money for its shareholders. More disturbing is the unwillingness of the design profession to take on a more responsible and pro-active role within society. Before this can happen, designers will have to redeline their role. embracing and developing new methods and approaches that simultaneously appeal and challenge in the way a film or book does. More could be learnt from fine art where there is a history of critical strategies for asking questions through objectsand stimulating debate in engaging ways. Instead ofthinking about appearance, user-friendliness or corporate identity, industrial designers could develop design proposals that challenge conventional values. But critical design must avoid the pitfalls of the 1970s by developingstrategies that link it back to everyday life and fully engage the viewer. Things are far more complex today than they were 30 years ago. It is not enough to simply offeran alternative, new strategies need to be developed that are both critical and optimistic, that engage with and challenge industry's technological agenda. Global corporations are becoming more powerful than states, as Noreena Hertz points out in The Silent Takeover (2001) -the annual values ofsales ofeach of thesix largest transnational corporatiom, ranging between $111 and $126 billion, are now exceeded by the GDPs ofonly 21 nation states, and as a result, governments and politicians are loosing power. Corporations have a bigger influence on reality than government, and buying power is more important thanvoting power. Aworld where shopping has more political impact thanvoting is a threat to democracy.

store (w.etoys.com) that attempted to use its superior size and financial power to force etoy to give up its domain name, even though the artists'site had been established long before the retailer's.Afraid that potential customersmight confuse the twosimilarly named sites, eToysoriginally tried to buy out the etoy brand, but their $500,000 offerwas turned down. The toy company then set out to sue etoy, accusing the internet artists of unfair competition and trademark delusion. With the help of 1,800 volunteer etoy agents and activists, who served the cause by publicising the case on the net and in the news media, filing counter suits and establishingalliances, etoy succeeded in getting eToys to back off. During the course of the Toywar campaign, the value of the on-line toy store's stock dropped from $67 to $15 a share. Not all artists choose to wage war against the corporate world. Instead of seeking arts funding, Lucy Kimbell preferred to present one of her projects as a business proposition and look for investors. Her proposal was for a vibrating internal pager (VIP) using the same technology as vibrating mobile phones. If you liked someone, you could give them your VIP number and receive a gentle buzz when they called you later. The product was never realised, in fact there is not even a picture of what it looks like. VIP exists as a description, a business proposal and an on-line application form.

There has also been a shift in the intellectual landscape as relations between popular culture, the market and critical positions have changed. The marketplace is viewed as the only reality, or as Thomas Frankwrites in One Market Under God (2001) a form of'market populism' has taken hold, where people's true desires are expressed and fulfilled through the marketplace. Anything outside of the marketplace is regarded as suspiciousand unreal. This state ofaffairs makes critical positions almost impossible, they are dismissed aselitist. It isalmost taboo for an industrial designer to rejectwhat the marketwants. As the intermediary between the consumer and the corporation, the design profession is in a perfect

position to host a debate in the form of design proposals about technology, consumerism and cultural value. But first designers will need to develop new communication strategies and move from narratives

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eiphasis from the object and demonstrating its feasibility to the experiences it &n offer. Designers can learn much about this from the approaches developed by artists during the 1990s, when ageneral blurring of distinctions behveen fine art, design and business began to develop. For instance, theartist rollrrtiv~AtplierVm I . i ~ < h nh~i l~~wnvk~d t nn t h d~~ d o of. n nnntrh ahnrtionhin to hp anchored off the coast of Ireland and other catholic countries where abortion is illegal. Liam Cillick, who explores decision making mechanisms in corporate culture and their impact on history, also designs exhibitions, interiors and is working on a building.

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Other artists have concentrated on appropriating the business world'sorganisational structures to produce work that fused fictional and real, legal, economicand cultural systems. Probably the best known example is etoy, a corporation, art group and brand formed in 1994 by a group of architects, lawyers, pr'ogrammers, artists and designers. Their original aim was to create a purely digital identity (www.etoy.com) and break out of narrow art world constraints. All participating artists agree to sell them individual identity to etoy corporation forshares and to live an anonymous llfe as etoy agents. 60

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Artists presenting themselves as employees of imaginary organisations or companies can also yield some interesting results. Originally from an engineering background, Natalie Jeremijenko now describes herself as a staff engineer working for the Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT). She has left the ideaof artist as individual behind to work on a fictional organisation where she is just one employee. In Suicide Box (1996). BIT installed a motion detector and video camera near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to count the number of oeoole iumoine off. Later. a reoort was oroduced (engineer's reoort SB03: Jan 23-97) with recommendations for how the BlTSuicide Box data could be used to calculate a 'robust and market responsive value of life'. There is something moresinister about the idea of an organisation rather than an individual carrying out subversive work like this. One of the most comprehensive fusions ofart and corporate culture has to be Maywa Denki, an art unit set up in 1993 by twolapanese brothers. Nobumichi and Masamichi Tosa. Describing themselves as 'parallel world electricians', they are organised as a business whose core activity is producinga variety of devices. They even produce aMaywa Denki company profile explaining all the company's activities for potential jobapplicants. During their performances, or product promotions as they like to call them, theywear costumes designed to look like those of a typical Japanese small to medium sized enterprise (SME). M a y a Denki produce three kinds ofobject: prototypes (NAKI),which are one-of-a-kind productsand are not for sale; multiples (GM-NAKl), which are reproductions of NAKl products and are for sale; and industrial Goods (TOY-NAKI)which are mass-produced in a factory and sold in the mainstream marketplace. They also produce CDs, videos, books, uniforms and stationary.

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Their NAKl series is a collection offish-inspired nonsense machines. Many of the products in the NAKI series have a darkly humorous side. Uke-Tel is a cage with a tank at the bottom, with hvoor three fish swimming around in it. The cage is connected to a speaking clock. When the number is dialled, a spike is released and drops on to the fish below. It may or may nor kill one. Sei-Gyo is a cross-shaped, waterfilled container mounted on a robotic vehicle. The direction the vehicle takes depends on which arm a fish inside the container swims into. Gralish consists of a sheet of ~apersurroundedby a box into which a living fish dipped in ink is placed. The dying fish leaves a graphic pattern on the sheet: 'as each fish has a unique life, it also has a unique death'. Maywa Denki's industrial goods (TOY-NAKI)are so popular that some Japanese department stores have a dedicated Maywa Denki department. Most of these products are not unlike the merchandising used to promote a new film -plastic miniatureversions of fictional

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-----------------------------------------------------------Complicated pleasure

Although their work borders on entertainment, Maywa Denki offeranother way of thinking about design in relation to both art and product markets, cutting across several genres and types ofactivity. Originally signed to Sony Music Entertainment as musicians producing CDs and performances, they later transferred to the amusement and entertainment division ofYoshimoto Kogyo Co. Ltd, a well' good known agency for managing TV personalities and comedians. In 2000 they wereawarded A design award for theme category' by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organisation. Maywa Denki use design as a form of entertainment, a dark counterpoint to the 'happy-ever-after'world ofAlessi

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We believe that in order for conceptual design to be effective,it must provide pleasure,or more specifically,provide a type of experience that M a r t i n h i s has called 'complicated pleasure'. One way this could happen in design is through the development of value fictions. If in science fiction, the technology is often futuristic while social values are conservative, the opposite is true in value fictions. In these scenarios, the technologiesare realistic but thesocialand cultural values are often fictional, or at least highly ambiguous. The aim is to encourage the viewers to ask themselves why the values embodied in the proposal seem'fictional'or 'unreal', and to question the social and cultural mechanisms that define what is real or fictional. The idea is not to be negative, but to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the publicabout electronic technology and everyday life. This is done by developing alternative and often gently provocative artefacts which set out to engage people through humour, insight, surprise and wonder. The suspension of disbelief is crucial -if the artefacts are too strange they are dismissed, they have to be grounded in how people really do behave. The approach is based on viewing values as raw material and shaping them into objects. Materialising unusual values in products is one way that design can be ave~ypowerfulformofsocial critique. Thedesign proposals portrayed invalue fictionsderive their interest through their potential functionality and use. One of the main challenges of using value fictions is how they are communicated: we need tosee them in use, placed in everyday life, but in a way that leaves room for the viewer's imagination. We don't actually have to use the proposed products ourselves, it is by imagining them being used that they have an effect on us. Value fictions cannot be too clear or they blend intowhat wealready know.Aslight strangeness is the key tooweird and they are instantly dismissed, not strange enough and they're absorbed into everyday reality.

Similarly subversive, Surrender Control is a poetic service by Matt Locke and Tim Etchells that was delivered to participants through their mobile phones. An experimental narrative in the form of SMS messages, Surrender Control drew users into an evolving game of textual suggestion, provocation and dare through instructions such as 'breaksomething and pretend it was an accident', or 'call somebody and tell them something that you have already told them. Don't explain'. The idea was to invite people to live life in a strange dialogue with a distant other; to surrender some control.

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Television is medium ripe for subversion. Watched by millions, it touches nearly everyone's life but is heavily policed, in the US especially. The fear of being boycotted by the extreme Right, ofalienating sponsors and incurring the wrath of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) means serious issues are rarely addressed on the main commercial TV channels. Oneattempt to change thissituation was a project to infiltrate the American soap opera Melrose Place, which is set in a Los Angeles apartment complex Artist Mel Chin had the idea of using TVas a medium for 'public art' that raises important issues about gender, violence and infectious diseases. He approached the set designers of Melrose Place and offered to provide freeart to put in the background. When they agreed, Chin formed the GALA Committee, made up of students and teachers from University of Georgia and CalArts (Los Angeles), to collaborate on the design of props for the show which they called non-commercial PIMs (product insertion manifestations). On closer inspection, many ofthe GALApaintingshanging in the Melrose Place apartments turn out to depict infamous LA locations where horrible violence or death occurred -Marilyn Monroe's bungalow on the day she died, the apartment from which Rodney King's beating was videoed, Nicole Brown Simpson's house. Having noticed that characters on the show have a lot ofsex but are never shown using condoms, GALAproducedbed linen for one bedroom scene that is covered in images of unrolled

condoms.Although it is not clear how many people actually noticed these subtle interventions, it isa fresh and playful combination of set design and art.

The following examples, drawn from recent graduate projects at the Royal College of Art in iondon, show how design proposals like this might work. The projects explore the psychological and behaviourai dimensions of our relationship toobjects and services, rather than the technical, formal or structural possibilities of consumer technologies. The emphasis isshifted from the aesthetics of production to the aesthetics of consumption, an imaginedaesthetics of use. Like the examples from the art world described earlier, these projects mix fiction and reality, borrow commercial structures and combine different media in an effort toengage and challenge the viewer.

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Ippei Matsumoto uses product design to explore the powerful need for individual identity and meaning within a context ofglobal culture. WithLife Counter (2001), you choose how many years you would like to or expect to live forand start the counter. Once activated, it counts down theselected time span at four differentrates: the number of years, days, hours or seconds to go areshown on different faces. Dependingon which face you choose todisplay, you may feel very relaxedas theyears stretch out ahead or begin to panic as you see your life speed away before your eyes. The counter is designed to be visually unassuming andcould easily fit into the slightly retro-futuristic style ofthe moment. It is aclassic noir product, its power lies in its precise function andlow key display ofdisturbing information.

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He is interested in how new technological possibilities will affect the way we treat other people in our search for new pleasures. and asks us to think about the desirability of his scenarios becoming reality. Auger's device allows someone to be somewhere they are not. Wearing a head-mounted display,the user receives information from a second person whose own headset is equipped with a video camera and binaural microphones. So for example, a person might be hired to spend time in a peep show, attend a meeting, go on a blind date or even shopping on somebody else's behalf -verbal instructions would be relayed from the user to the host via a speaker in their helmet. Should the host be to enjoy

though they were TV channels. Of course, this device could have socially beneficial uses too, providing the housebound with a means ofconnection to their environment, for instance. Design proposals like these can really only exist outside the marketplace, as a form of 'conceptual design'- meaning not the conceptual stage ofa design project, but a design proposal intended to challenge preconceptions about how electronics shape our lives. These ideas might even be expressed in the form of filmsand books rather than products. Designers need to explore how such design thinking might re-enter everyday life in ways that maintain the design proposal's critical integrity and effectiveness,while facing accusations of escapism, utopianism or fantasy. One way this could happen is if the design profession took on more social responsibility and developed its own independent vision, working with the public to demand more from industry than is currently on offer.This would require not only a shift in the way designersview their own position, but also how professional design organisationsand associations see their role. Perhaps they could follow the lead of some architechre institutions, and focus on the need to encourage di3erse visions through competitionsand workshops for practisingdesigners, as well as trying to engage the public through more challenging exhibitions and publications. Or is this a role for 'academic'designers? Rather than writing papersand seeking conventional academic approval, they could exploit their privileged position to explore a subversive role for design as social critique. Free from commercial restrictions and based in an educational environment, they could develop provocative design proposals to challenge the simplistic Hollywood vision of the consumer electronics industry. Design proposals could be used as a medium to stimulate debateand discussion amongst the public, designers, and industry. The challenge is to blur the boundaries behveen the real and the fictional, so that the conceptual becomes more real and the real is seen as just one limited possibility among many.

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1. P a r a s i t e l i g h t T h i s l e a d - c l a d box on t o p of a l a d d e r i s a p l a c e t a s t o r e p r e c i o u s

n o t feed o f f EM f i e l d s and i s i n f a c t b a t t e r y powered. ~ i k et h e n l p p l e c h a i r , i t uses on e l e c t r i c f i e l d sensor t o r e l a t e t h e i n t e n s i t y o f i t s f u n c t i o n - i n t h i s case t h e amount of l i g h t e m i t t e d from 20 LEOS - t o

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t h e s t r e n g t h o f t h e f i e l d i t senses.

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Electricity drain

Some people who a r e h y p e r - s e n s i t i v e t o e l e c t r i c i t y d r a i n excess

2. Compass t a b l e T h i s t a b l e reminds you t h a t e l e c t r o n i c o b j e c t s extend beyond t h e i r v i s i b l e l i m i t s . The 25 compasses s e t i n t o i t s s u r f a c e t w i t c h and s p i n when o b j e c t s l i k e m o b i l e phones o r l a p t o p computers a r e ~ l o c e don i t . The t w i t c h i n g needles con be i n t e r p r e t e d as b e i n g e i t h e r s i n i s t e r o r depending on t h e v i e w e r ' s s t a t e af mind. When we designed t h e compass t a b l e , we wondered i f a n e a t - f r e a k might try t o make a l l t h e needles l i n e up, i g n o r i n g t h e a r c h i t e c t u r a l space o f t h e room in

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works i n t h e same way: you p l u g i t i n and s i t naked on a s t a i n l e s s s t e e l p l a t e i n t h e seat. We o r e p a r t i c u l a r l y i n t e r e s t e d where people w i l l keep t h i s o b j e c t : i n t h e bathroam? Bedroom? S i t t i n g room? I s i t a hygiene p r o d u c t , m e d i t a t i v e p i e c e o r f u n c t i o n a l c h a i r ?

favour o f t h e E a r t h ' s magnetic f i e l d .

----____-___-_-------------------3. N i p p l e c h o i r

T h i s t a b l e has a g l o b a l p o s i t i o n i n g sensor i n s i d e i t . I t can o n l y d i s p l a y i t s p o s i t i o n i n t h e w o r l d when i t has a c l e a r view o f t h e s a t e l l i t e s , t h e r e s t o f t h e t i m e i t i s l o s t and i n d i c a t e s t h i s f a c t . The i d e a l owner w i l l need a c o n s e r v a t o r y o r l a r g e window, o r a garden s o t h a t they can a t l e a s t b r i n g t h e t a b l e outdaors from t i m e t o t i m e so i t con connect w i t h a s a t e l l i t e and f u l f i l i t s p o t e n t i a l . We l i k e

aware o f t h e r a d i o waves p e n e t r a t i n g t h e i r t o r s o . I t i s up t o them whether they s t a y and e n j o y t h e g e n t l e buzz, o r move t o a ' q u i e t e r ' spot. A 5 f i e l d s can a l s o f l o w up t h r o u g h t h e s i t t e r ' s body from e l e c t r i c w i r i n g r u n n i n g underneath t h e f l o o r , t h e c h o i r has f o o t r e s t s so t h a t you can i s o l a t e your f e e t from t h e ground. We l i k e t h a t i t i s s l i g h t l y anthropomorphic; i t ' s a s though you a r e s i t t i n g on i t s l o p .

.................................. 8. Phone t a b l e

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Electro-draught excluder I

T h i s o b j e c t i s a c l a s s i c placebo. Though t h e draught e x c l u d e r i s mode from c o n d u c t i v e foam, i t i s n o t grounded, and t h e r e f o r e does n o t r e a l l y obsarb r a d i a t i o n . We were i n t e r e s t e d i n whether o r n o t i t would make t h e awner f e e l more c o m f o r t a b l e . I f you a r e working near a TV, f o r example, you might p l a c e t h e o b j e c t between you and t h e T V t o c r e a t e a s o r t o f shadow - a comfort zone where you s i m p l y f e e l b e t t e r .

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T h i s t a b l e i s an a t t e m p t t o domesticate t h e m o b i l e telephone,

whose

s y n t h e t i c and u r g e n t squawk can be d i f f i c u l t t o r e s i s t . On r e t u r n i n g home, t h e phone i s p l a c e d i n s i d e t h e t a b l e w i t h i t s r i n g e r s w i t c h e d o f f . Whenever t h e phone i s c a l l e d , t h e t o p o f t h e t a b l e glows g e n t l y . The t a b l e suggests how e l e c t r o n i c o b j e c t s can use a more g e n t l e language t o c a p t u r e o u r a t t e n t i o n o r mediate human c o n t a c t . When i t does glow, i t i s much e a s i e r t o r e s i s t t h a n a r i n g i n g phone. The phone t o b l e can be p o s i t i o n e d b e h i n d t h e TV i f a c a l l i s expected, o r o u t o f s i g h t i f you wauld p r e f e r n o t t o b e d i s t u r b e d .

Do you t h i n k i t a c t u a l l y d r a i n s ? p i c t u r e d i s a p p e a r s e v e r y now and then, and a p p a r e n t l y t h a t i s t o do w i t h t h e magnetic f i e l d . So we were h o p i n g t h a t something would happen m a g i c a l l y , t h a t ' s why i t ' s b e s i d e t h e t e l e v i s i o n . B u t t h a t h a s n ' t a c t u a l l y happened, I ' m a f r a i d . Ia l s o p u t t h e a e r i a l on i t as we were h a v i n g problems g e t t i n g a good enough p i c t u r e .

Yes. It h i n k so. As Is a i d , when Iwas on t h e phone my f i l l i n g s h u r t . T h a t c e r t a i n l y made a d i f f e r e n c e . I t d o e s n ' t make me calm and serene, particularly. Could i t be d e s c r i b e d as a gadget?

Does t h a t h e l p ?

No. I c e r t a i n l y saw i t a s a t a b l e . I t i s more o f a s p e c i a l t a b l e r a t h e r t h a n a gadget t h a t l o o k s l i k e a t a b l e .

Sometimes It h i n k i t helped, yes. Has t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f l o o k i n g a f t e r t h e o b j e c t had any e f f e c t on t h e way you t h i n k about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves a t a l l ?

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I t c e r t a i n l y made me r e a l i s e how much we must have i n t h e house. because i t has made me aware o f how many o b j e c t s a r e on. We have had a l o t o f s t r a n g e e x p e r i e n c e s i n here. L i g h t b u l b s - t h e y d a n ' t j u s t go o u t , t h e y ' d bang. We had about s i x months o f t h e t o p l i g h t s n o t w o r k i n g a t a l l . And I have t o say, whether i t i s t o do w i t h t h e t a b l e o r n o t , t h e y a r e now w o r k i n g and t h e y j u s t seemed t o h e a l themselves.

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Have t h e r e been o t h e r e x p e r i e n c e s o f e l e c t r o n i c t h i n g s ? Do you have any t h e o r i e s why?

Ij u s t d o n ' t know why, b u t I am v e r y p r o n e t o s t a t i c . Iwas w i t h my daughter i n Sofeway i n H i g h S t r e e t K e n s i n g t o n about s i x weeks ago when as soon as Iwalked i n I gave h e r an e l e c t r i c shock. And I k e p t g i v i n g h e r shocks, Igave h e r f i v e shocks and she began t o g e t u p s e t and Ik i s s e d h e r and Igave h e r a n o t h e r shock and she s t a r t e d c r y i n g . I was w i p i n g h e r t e a r s away and w h i l e Iwas d o i n g t h a t , Iwas g i v i n g h e r e l e c t r i c shocks and Ia c t u a l l y h a d t o g e t someone e l s e t o t a k e h e r o u t o f t h e t r o l l e y and p u t h e r down because I was a f r a i d t o t o u c h h e r w h i l e we were i n t h e shop. I t was very, v e r y b i z a r r e . I t ' s j u s t me and c e r t a i n shops - as soon as I walk i n , Ia c t u a l l y f e e l a b i t weird. IfIt o u c h t h i n g s o r my c h i l d r e n . I g i v e them shocks.

How do you f e e l about t h e i d e a of p l u g g i n g something l i k e a c h a i r i n , l i k e you would on i r o n o r a cooker?

I t i s q u i t e s t r a n g e . Peaple have n o t i c e d t h a t i t ' s n o t something t h a t you would n o r m a l l y do. I t ' s g o t a s l i g h t l y wacky c h a r a c t e r and I l i k e t h a t . Il o v e t h e f a c t t h a t i t i s i r o n i n g c a b l e - l i k e an a p p l i a n c e . Iw o u l d n ' t have l i k e d i t so much if i t was j u s t a l l p l a s t i c c o a t i n g . What k i n d s of p e o p l e do you t h i n k m i g h t want t o own an o b j e c t l i k e this?

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I ' d say anyone who had l o t s of e l e c t r o n i c gadgets around them and was

Do you t h i n k mony p e o p l e b e l i e v e t h o t i t a c t u a ? l y works?

a d r a m a t i c e f f e c t , ift h e y f e l t something t i n g l e when t h e y t o u c h e d i t o r i f i t c u t t h e i r phone o u t , t h e y would c o n s i d e r t h a t t o be working. So you see i t as c o n s t a n t l y w o r k i n g on t h e environment - you p l u g i t i n ond e v e r y t h i n g i n t h e room has been absorbed I s t h a t r i g h t ?

D i d you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r people?

It o l d everybody about i t when t h e y came i n and some p e o p l e were f a s c i n a t e d and some p e o p l e pooh-poohed i t , as Iexpected. Some p e o p l e were q u i t e w o r r i e d about i t and Ihad t o e x p l a i n t h a t t h e p l u g was j u s t an o u t l e t and n o t an i n l e t and t h e n t h e y seemed reassured. B u t t h e r e were s o many who were q u i t e w o r r i e d about what an e a r t h i t m i g h t be. Ihad a l o t o f t r o u b l e t r y i n g t o e x p l a i n what i t was supposed t o do because Iw a s n ' t s u r e whether i t was d o i n g i t m y s e l f .

I f t h e r e c o u l d be some k i n d o f gauge which would show you when something was w o r k i n g . . . It h i n k t h a t i s a l l t h o t i t would need

A r a b e l l a : I had an a l a r m i n g h a b i t o f b l o w i n g l i g h t bulbs. Sometimes t h e y dim as w e l l . S i n c e I ' v e l i v e d here, t w i c e I ' v e come i n and t u r n e d t h e l i g h t s on and t h e h a l l l i g h t s have blown out. And Iam r e a l l y s t a t i c . I g e t e l e c t r i c shocks o f f e v e r y t h i n g t h a t ' s metal. So when Ig e t o u t a f c a r s Ialways t a p t h e h a n d l e w i t h my n o i l s , w i t h o u t even t h i n k i n g about i t f i r s t so t h a t I d a n ' t g e t a shock o f f t h e handles.

Diane. I t ' s a c u r i o s i t y

So have your experiences of l o o k i n g a f t e r t h e t a b l e hod an e f f e c t on t h e way t h a t you t h i n k about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves?

What about o s an o u t s i d e p i e c e of f u r n i t u r e ?

k e n ' t t h e y t e l l i n g you w e r e n o r t h i s ? I s n ' t t h a t f u n c t i o n a l ? Diane: What's t h e p o i n t o f knowing t h a t ? Why i s t h a t f u n c t i o n a l . knowing where n o r t h i s ?

A r a b e l l a : I t h i n k Iwould l i k e t h a t most o f a l l . Diane: Because you move around a p i e c e of garden f u r n i t u r e anyway, d o n ' t you? F r i e n d : I t ' s a l s o more r e l e v a n t t o know which way n o r t h i s ify o u ' r e o u t s i d e , r a t h e r t h a n i n s i d e . You're n o t t h i n k i n g about your p l a c e i n t h e w o r l d as much.

Diane: D e f i n i t e l y . But a l s o t h i n k i n g about how many o b j e c t s have g a t magnets i n them, t h i n g s l i k e phones t h o t you p u t up t o yaur head. A r a b e l l a : It h i n k if t h e r e was one o b j e c t i n t h e room which hod r e a l l y mode t h e t a b l e go crazy, t h e n I would have been a b i t alarmed by t h a t . . . b u t t h e r e wasn't, r e a l l y . F o r t u n a t e l y . Diane: J u s t t h e r a d i a t o r . D i d you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r people? What was t h e i r r e a c t i o n ? A r a b e l l a ( t o a f r i e n d i n t h e room): You came ond l o o k e d a t i t . F r i e n d : I t sounded l i k e a r e a l l y i n t r i g u i n g p r a j e c t . I t wasn't what I r e a l l y expected when i t g o t here.

I I

What d i d you expect? F r i e n d : Samething r e a l l y amazing t h a t d i d t r i c k s o r something. A r a b e l l a . Perhaps t h i s i s o u r f a u l t though! Diane: We t a l k e d i t up so much. My s i s t e r was r e a l l y i n t o i t , b u t she d i d sciences. She was making her phone do t h o t (waving t h e phone around a compass) so t h a t t h e d i a l s went r o u n d and round and s t u f f ,

In o t i c e you have w r i t t e n about how u s e f u l t h e d l a l s were as a s o r t o f demarcation so you can a c t u a l l y use t h e t a b l e t o make r e a d i n g s Diane: Yau can t u r n t h e t a b l e round, b u t t h e needles would s t i l l be i t had a n o r t h , i n t h e same way. I t h o u g h t was q u i t e c o o l . If ifyou p r i n t e d i t on t h e r e , i t would have a d i r e c t i o n , w o u l d n ' t i t , b u t ifyou l e o v e i t p l a i n , i t can have any d i r e c t i o n . B u t you c o u l d have d i a l s t h a t moved s o t h a t you c o u l d s e t i t t o z e r o and d e c i d e t h a t one i s z e r o and have i t twenty degrees round, o r something. Then you c o u l d do s o r t of readings. A r a b e l l o : Ican imagine you, o f an evening: 'I'll j u s t t a k e some r e a d i n g s . '(everyone laughs) Diane: I ' l l g e t a t r a i n s p o t t i n g book. You a r e t a l k i n g about i t b e i n g functional and t h e n you see t h e compass f a c t o r us b e i n g n o n - f u n c t i o n a l .

A r a b e l l a : Yes. Diane: Yeah, d e f i n i t e l y . r e a l l y interesting.

They make you t h i n k a l o t more and they a r e

On an everyday l e v e l ? Diane: I t ' s n i c e t o t h i n k everyday.

t h i s i s n ' t p u r e l y f u n c t i o n a l t h e n what i s i t ? So if A r a b e l l a : Well,

i t ' s g o t d i a l s on i t . Or i s t h a t f u n c t i o n a l ?

j

Diane: I t ' s more t h a t Iwant t o understand what i s happening. I ' v e g o t those diagrams which Idrew, t r y i n g t o show what happens by t h e r a d i a t o r , b u t because they were drawn by hand, they o r e o b i t a l l over t h e p l a c e B u t you c o u l d do readings, you c o u l d p l o t t h e whole

L o f t - Sophie

Do you f i n d i t hard t o t h r o w t h i n g s away?

When you t a l k t o your f r i e n d s . how do you d e s c r i b e t h e o b j e c t ?

Yeah. I ' v e moved o u t of home c o m p l e t e l y r e c e n t l y , so my mum's been making me go t h r o u g h e v e r y t h i n g . T h e r e ' s j u s t l o a d s and l o a d s of s t u f f t h a t ' s accumulated over t h e years w h i c h I d o n ' t want t o t h r o w away.

A b i g box on t o p o f a l a d d e r t h a t ' s propped up a g a i n s t t h e w a l l . W i t h a few people who come around, I had t o e x p l a i n : 'Oh, by t h e way. t h e b i g o b j e c t i n my room, i t ' s a l o f t - and I ' v e adopted i t ' .

Was t h e r e a n y t h i n g t h a t you p u t i n t h e l o f t ond took out i m m e d i a t e l y ?

Where i s t h e o b j e c t now? Why i s i t p o s i t i o n e d t h e r e ? t h a t needed p r o t e c t i n g i n some way . . . more l i k e l i v i n g t h i n g s r e a l l y . b u t t h e y w o u l d n ' t r e a l l y be s u i t a b l e t o go i n .

I t ' s i n my bedroom. I t ' s q u i t e a c l u t t e r e d room. What d i d you use t h e o b j e c t f o r ?

Living things?

I d i d n ' t use i t as much as I t h o u g h t I would. I found i t h a r d t h i n k i n g of t h i n g s t o put i n i t .

Once i n p o s i t i o n ,

P l a n t s or something l i k e t h a t , s e e d l i n g s because they w o u l d n ' t g e t t h e i r l i g h t .

t h e ladder f i t t e d

/ What k i n d s of t h i n g s d i d you p u t i n t h e r e ? T h i n g s l i k e t a p e s I d o n ' t l i s t e n t o v e r y much, ones w i t h s e n t i m e n t a l v a l u e , and some photographs. I would have p u t my t r a v e l card i n t h e r e because i t k e p t on g e t t i n g wiped, so I t h o u g h t i t c o u l d be p r o t e c t e d , b u t I need i t e v e r y day. I ' d p u t t h i n g s i n t h a t would i n some ways be q u i t e permanent o r n o t needed v e r y o f t e n . Because i t was h i g h up and h a r d t o g e t t o , a n y t h i n g I put i n t h e r e hod t o e a r n i t s place.

I f you had t o g i v e t h e o b j e c t t o someone.

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b u t t h a t w o u l d n ' t work

who would you g i v e i t t o ?

P o s s i b l y my s i s t e r , t o see what s h e ' d do w i t h i t , t h e s l i g h t d i f f e r e n c e s t h a t might be t h e r e . She's q u i t e l i k e me and hoards l o t s of s t u f f , b u t t h e n q u i t e d i f f e r e n t i n o t h e r ways. Do you t h i n k she would respond t o i t s b e i n g made o f l e a d , of protecting things?

t o t h i s idea

P o s s i b l y n o t as much. I d i d p h y s i c s a t A - l e v e l and she d i d n ' t , so I p r o b a b l y know about t h i n g s - l i k e t h a t more t h a n she does. S h e ' s l e s s l i k e l y t o be i n t o t h a t s i d e of i t .

And what t y p e s o f t h i n g s do you t h i n k you might have p u t i n t h e box? I f t h e o b j e c t was t o be passed on t o someone e l s e , T h i n g s t h a t were s e n t i m e n t a l and t h i n g s w h i c h a r e q u i t e personal, t h i n g s I j u s t wanted t o keep and know where t h e y a r e , and n o t l o s e . Probably i n t i m e I ' d p i c k up p a r t i c u l a r t y p e s o f o b j e c t s , i t ' s hard t o soy s t r a i g h t o f f what, j u s t l i k e I have g o t o t h e r boxes f u l l o f o l d l e t t e r s o r t h i n g s from p a r t i c u l a r t i m e s o f my l i f e .

what a d v i c e would

you g i v e t o t h e n e x t odopter? I ' d probably t e l l them i t ' s a c t u a l l y q u i t e easy t o have i n a way, b u t i t ' s w o r t h spending some t i m e r e a l l y t r y i n g t o work o u t what you would put i n . I t ' s q u i t e easy t o l e t i t j u s t s i t t h e r e and not p u t a n y t h i n g i n , because i t d o e s n ' t r e a l l y i n t r u d e a t a l l .

What o t h e r k i n d s of boxes o r c o l l e c t i o n s o f t h i n g s do you make? Hhat k l n d o f people do you t h i n k might want t o own t h i s o b j e c t ond Because I ' v e moved around a l o t i n t h e l a s t few years, t h i n g s have c o l l e c t e d i n boxes and s t a y e d t h e r e . So I have boxes o f t a p e s , boxes o f f u l l o f l e t t e r s and p o s t c a r d s , and boxes f u l l o f o b j e c t s t h a t d o n ' t r e a l l y have a home, l i k e boxes of p i n s and s t u f f l i k e t h a t .

I can see i t a p p e a l i n g t o people who o r e much more o r d e r e d t h a n I am, b u t i t appeals t o me. I ' m v e r y unordered, a l l my s t u f f i s everywhere i n d i s a r r a y . It appealed i n a way t o t r y and p u t t h i n g s i n some s o r t

I t d i d make me t h i n k about how you use d i f f e r e n t senses t o be a l e r t e d

The o n l y r e a l l y annoying t h i n g i n t h i s house i s t h e d o a r b e l l .

b y d i f f e r e n t t h i n g s , t h e f a c t t h a t your phone r e a l l y i s t h e r i n g . So i t ' s q u i t e n i c e n o t t o have a r i n g , j u s t a g e n t l e s u b t l e i n d i c a t o r t h a t you've g o t a c a l l

works. People a r e always h a v i n g t o u s e t h e i r m o b i l e phones t o get i n t o t h e house, t h e y a r e always h a v i n g t o r i n g up and say ' I ' m here, can you l e t me i n ' . Perhaps we s h o u l d p l u g t h e t a b l e i n t o t h e d o a r b e l l , t h e n you would know when someone's a t t h e door.

How would you f e e l if more o b j e c t s i n t h e home hod e l e c t r o n i c functions?

I l i k e t h e f a c t t h a t t h e o b j e c t was d i s g u i s i n g t h c f u n c t i o n of t h e phone, making i t more a e s t h e t i c and more soothing. We've g o t a k e t t l e t h a t w h i s t l e s i t s head o f f when i t ' s ready, b u t i n s t e o d you c o u l d have a c o n t r o l board w i t h d i f f e r e n t l i g h t s f o r d i f f e r e n t t h i n g s i n t h e house t h o t c o u l d f l a s h . I t ' d be a much more s o o t h i n g way o f b e i n g a l e r t e d t o things.

D i d you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r people?

I 1

because i t wasn't a t a b l e and i t s a i d i t was a t o b l e , so i t ' s m i s r e p r e s e n t i n g i t s e l f as a t a b l e . My f l a t m a t e agreed t h a t i t l o o k e d n i c e , b u t Id o n ' t t h i n k she saw why y o u ' d ever have a need f o r such a t h i n g . She was d e f i n i t e l y l e s s enamoured w i t h i t t h a t Iwas. She j u s t t h i n k s i t ' s weird.

If you had t o g i v e t h e o b j e c t t o someone, who would you g i v e i t t o ? I ' d p r o b a b l y g i v e i t t o my Mum, because Iknow s h e ' s more concerned obout waves and t h i n g s . She always r u n s o u t o f t h e roam when she t u r n s t h e microwave on and she has a p h o b i a about m o b i l e phones as w e l l , so i t would be i n t e r e s t i n g t o see how t h e two p l a y e d o f f each o t h e r .

Do you t h i n k t h e o b j e c t i t s e l f i s a gadget? On i t s own i t ' s a p i e c e o f f u r n i t u r e . Combined w i t h t h e m o b i l e phone i t ' s d e f i n i t e l y a gadget. Unless i t glowed w i t h o u t t h e phone: you c o u l d have i t on phone f u n c t i o n o r j u s t a e s t h e t i c f u n c t i o n , so i t would a c t as a lamp o r something.

t h i n k I was l e s s concerned about t h e waves and t h i n g s . Iam conscious of them, b u t Iwas more i n t r i g u e d as t o why i t was g o i n g o f f r a t h e r t h a n where t h e waves were coming from. Isuppose i t d i d n ' t go o f f t h a t r e g u l a r l y because i t o n l y d e t e c t e d c e r t a i n s p e c i f i c waves. Perhaps ifi t was t o d e t e c t d i f f e r e n t wavelengths, t h a t would be t h e s c a r y t h i n g : i t would be c o n t i n u o u s l y g o i n g o f f , o r i f i t f l a s h e d b r i g h t e r w i t h a more h a r m f u l o r more i n t e n s i t y of r a y . Have any e l e c t r o n i c o b j e c t s i n your home c r e a t e d any unusuol s i t u a t i o n s between f a m i l y members o r p e t s o r v i s i t o r s t o yaur home?

They thought i t l o o k e d r e a l l y c o o l and t h o u g h t t h e i d e a was c o o l , b u t t h e y a l l t h o u g h t of ways t h e y c o u l d enhance i t , l i k e p u t t i n g a l i t t l e counter on t h e f r o n t so you c o u l d see how many c a l l s you had i n case you h a d n ' t seen t h e f l a s h i n g . y o u ' d missed them, if

It h i n k some t h o u g h t i t was t o t a l l y p o i n t l e s s ,

Id o n ' t know g e n e r a l l y about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves, even though I ' m i n communications. Ip r o b a b l y s h o u l d know t h a t t h e s i g n a l i s s e n t even b e f o r e a c a l l comes and i t l a s t s afterwards. B u t yeah, i t i s i n t e r e s t i n g , e s p e c i a l l y when t h e t a b l e glows and you h a v e n ' t g o t your phone i n t h c r c . You r e a l i s e t h a t t h e r e a r e so mony t h i n g s , n a t u r a l l y o r otherwise, around you t h o t e m i t waves. B u t Ithought i t was q u i t e a n i c e i d e a c o n v e r t i n g t h e waves t o something else.

I

What was t h e i r r e a c t i a n ?

D i d t h e o b j e c t generate any d i s c u s s i o n s ? Were t h e r e any disagreements between you and your f r i e n d s o r f l o t m a t e over i t s meaning?

Has t h e experience of l o o k i n g a f t e r t h e o b j e c t hod on a f f e c t on t h e way you t h i n k about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves?

What would you say was t h e most unexpected t h i n g t o come from b o r r o w i n g t h e o b j e c t f o r o month?

I t never

How would you imagine she would use i t ?

!

She'd use i t t o d e t e c t r a y s and t h i n g s , s h e ' d be conscious of l a o k i n g a t i t r e a l l y c a r e f u l l y and m o n i t o r i n g i t a l l t h e t i m e t o see when i t went o f f and t o see e x a c t l y what caused i t . She'd p r o b a b l y mave i t n e x t t o a l l t h e d i f f e r e n t e l e c t r i c a l o b j e c t s i n t h e house t o see how i t r e a c t s t o them, e s p e c i a l l y t h e microwave. I f she c o u l d p u t t h e microwave i n i t I ' m sure she would, t o f i n d o u t what t h e p a t t e r n was.

E l e c t r o - d r o u g h t Excluder

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Lauren & J a n

When you t o l k t o your f r i e n d s how do you d e s c r i b e t h e o b j e c t ? Lauren: An e l e c t r i c drought e x c l u d e r o r a c o n c e p t u a l d e s i g n t h i n g . People would t h e n ask 'what do you mean?', and t h e n I d e s c r i b e what it l o o k s l i k e and how you a r e meant t o u s e i t . Jon: Some people h a v e n ' t understood a t a l l when y o u ' r e t r y i n g t o g e t a c r o s s what it i s . Lauren: Square, pink foam, p o i n t y b i t s , with backboard and h a n d l e s o you can move it around. Where i s t h e o b j e c t now? And why i s i t p o s i t i o n e d t h e r e ? Lauren: I ended up u s i n g it i n two p l a c e s . One was when I was watching TV: when I f i r s t s t a r t e d u s i n g it. I f e l t t h a t it w a s n ' t s h i e l d i n g me completely, s o I ended u p . . . J a n : . . . crouching behind it and peaking over i t ! Lauren: I ended up c r e a t i n g a l i t t l e s a f e s p a c e where I ' d tuck it i n p a r a l l e l t o t h e t e l e v i s i o n b u t behind t h e t a b l e . I ' d l i e on t h e s o f a s o it was p r o t e c t i n g almost a l l o f me a p a r t from my head, which I found o b i t t r o u b l i n g . And t h e o t h e r woy I ' v e used i t was t o t a k e i t i n t o t h e bedroom with me t o p r o t e c t myself from J a n ' s s t u d i o n e x t door. It worked b e t t e r a s a symbolic ' s h u t t i n g t h e d o o r ' , a s a g e s t u r e of s h u t t i n g myself away f o r a l i t t l e while. But t h o t was l e s s t o do with s p e c i f i c a l l y p r o t e c t i n g myself from e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves and much more t o do with c r e a t i n g a l i t t l e space. J a n : Are you s u r e about t h a t ? Louren: I d i d n ' t f e e l t h a t i t was s h i e l d i n g me, b u t I f e l t it was d e f i n i n g a s p a c e r a t h e r t h a n a c t u a l l y doing something. Jan: I t ' s t o o s m a l l t o p r o t e c t you, r e a l l y . It can p r o t e c t p a r t s of your body, b u t y o u ' r e going t o a b s o r b r a d i a t i o n from around i t . Lauren: I n s t e a d of making me f e e l p r o t e c t e d , f o r t h e f i r s t week t h e o b j e c t r e a l l y made me f e e l unsafe. j u s t because i t suddenly t r i g g e r e d e x t r a f e e l i n g of t h i n g s t h a t were i n t h e house.

It was making c e r t o i n n e u r o s e s e x p l i c i t t h a t you d i d n ' t know you had? Lauren: Yeah. I ' v e been t h i n k i n g t h a t t h e bedroom was a s a f e space. As soon a s I took i t i n t h e r e , I r e a l i s e d i t w a s n ' t a t a l l , because I hod e x t e n s i o n c a b l e s , my mobile phone re-charger, p l u g s o c k e t s , i r o n and h a i r d r y e r . Its n o t a c l e a r s p a c e i n any sense. Jon: I ' d l i k e t o hang i t on t h e w a l l and g e t i t o u t t h e way. I t ' s q u i t e on a e s t h e t i c work of a r t . This a b s o r b i n g r a d i a t i o n t h i n g , I h a v e n ' t been a b l e t o s e e it t h o t way. I ' m n o t s u r e i f it does do it.

Has t h e e x p e r i e n c e of l o o k i n g a f t e r t h e o b j e c t had on a f f e c t on t h e way you t n i n k about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c waves? Lauren: I ' d a l r e a d y been conscious of t h e s u b j e c t , b u t I d o n ' t t h i n k I wos a s c o n s c i o u s u n t i l I bought t h e draught e x c l u d e r i n t o t h e house. Jan: I know t h a t Lauren h a s been u s i n g it a s a weapon a g o i n s t me. I h a v e n ' t a c t u a l l y used i t i n r e l a t i o n t o my equipment myself because i t ' s completely p o i n t l e s s . . . t h e equipment s u r r o u n d s t h e room. Have any e l e c t r o n i c o b j e c t s i n your home c r e a t e d ony unusual s i t u a t i o n s between f a m i l y members o r p e t s o r v i s i t o r s t o your home? Lauren: The l a p t o p is plugged i n t o b i g s p e a k e r s and sometimes when J a n ' s not here, l a t e a t n i g h t , suddenly CompuServe speaks o u t 'you have m a i l ' i n h i g h d e c i b e l s . It s t a r t l e s me. I found i t q u i t e s c a r y Jan: I play music I ' v e downloaded from t h e n e t through my s t e r e o , and I j u s t l e a v e t h e volume high ond go away. Three hours l a t e r on e-mail w i l l a r r i v e and completely s h a t t e r s t h e dead of n i g h t . Did you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r ~ e o p l e ?Whot was t h e i r r e a c t i o n ? Lauren: People thought i t looked g r e a t , people s a i d 'Wow'. I t h i n k t h e pink c o l o u r i n g a t t r a c t e d p e o p l e Jan: I have t o s a y everyone was n a t u r a l l y q u i t e s c e p t i c a l about i t s Lauren: What, your f r i e n d s ? Jan: Yeah, my f r i e n d s . Lauren: My f r i e n d s w e r e n ' t , b u t my f r i e n d s a r e a l l museum c u r a t o r s . . . I f you had t o g i v e t h e o b j e c t t o someone who would you g i v e li t o ? Jan: I ' d t r y and s e l l i t . I ' m s u r e you can g e t o few quid. Lauren: I ' d g i v e it t o my s i s t e r , s h e ' s r e a l l y busy and s t r e s s e d a t t h e moment. Her room's r e a l l y s m a l l and e v e r y t h i n g ' s i n t h e r e . Where do you imagine s h e would p u t i t ? Lauren: S h e ' s g o t a bed and h e r desk r i g h t n e x t t o h e r head, where s h e s s g o t a l l h e r h i - f i equipment, and I con s e e it going i n f r o n t of t h a t when s h e goes t o s l e e p . I t h i n k t h a t could work q u i t e well. because i t ' s n o t t h e r e t o completely e n c l o s e o f f a space, i t ' s t h e r e t o b e a symbolic p r o t e c t i o n . What kind of people do you t h i n k might want t o own t h i s o b j e c t and

GPS Table - Dick.

Lorna & L i z z i e

o r t h a t i t i s located,

i t ' s got a position.

And Ialways do i t b e f o r e

I go t o bed. Last thing I do a t night,

when a l l t h e l i g h t s a r e o f f down here, Il o o k o u t o f t h e bedroom window and t h e r e i t i s . When you When you t a l k t o your f r i e n d s about t h i s o b j e c t ,

how do you d e s c r i b e

i t t o them? D i c k : When I ' v e spoken about i t ,

i t ' s been 'We've g o t a work o f a r t i n

t h e house. I t ' s a t a b l e , b u t i t a l s o has t h e s a t e l l i t e read-out on t h e top. I t ' s q u i t e f u n - you p u t your hand over t h e t o p o f i t and i t has t a r e a d j u s t , i t has t o r e l o c a t e t o a n o t h e r s a t e l l i t e . ' Isee i t more as a p e t , i n a way. T h a t ' s how Id e s c r i b e i t : 'We have t h i s work o f a r t and i t ' s l o c a t i n g s a t e l l i t e s . '

l o o k down and t h e r e ' s a l i t t l e green l i g h t , i t ' s a l i t t l e c o m f o r t f e e l i n g - ' T h a t ' s f i n e . A l l ' s w e l l w i t h t h e world. Go t o sleep. ' Which i s why Ih a v e n ' t moved t h e t a b l e from there, because Ican see i t s t r a i g h t down from t h e r e when we go t o bed So Ia c t u a l l y check i t more o f t e n t h a n It h o u g h t Id i d . What k i n d o f t h e o r i e s do you have about when i t ' s l o s t and when i t ' s found? What do you t h i n k i s happening? Dick: I t ' s s i l l y r e a l l y ,

Where i s t h e o b j e c t now? D i c k : I t ' s a t t h e end of o u r c o n s e r v a t o r y . T h e r e a r e n ' t many o t h e r p l a c e s i n t h e house where i t would connect w i t h a l l t h e s a t e l l i t e s . We v e r y r a r e l y t a k e i t o u t s i d e , f a r obvious reasons. I t ' s a s e n s i t i v e b i t af f u r n i t u r e .

b u t because t h e l i g h t s f l a s h ,

because i t

moves between i t s t h r e e s a t e l l i t e s and t h e r e a r e f o u r t h i n g s you can read, t h r e e s a t e l l i t e p o s i t i o n s and ' l o s t ' , i t g i v e s i t a sense o f b e i n g a l i v e . There's no o t h e r word f o r i t . Iknow i t ' s not, o b v i o u s l y , i t ' s an o b j e c t and i t ' s e l e c t r o n i c , b u t i t ' s i n t e r e s t i n g t h a t i t ' s a t a b l e t h a t ' s d o i n g t h a t . . . You g e t t h e sense t h a t you have t o go ' I s i t a l l r i g h t ? ' . I t ' s s i l l y t o t a l k about t r e a t i n g i t as a s o r t of person, b u t i t i s - ' I ' d b e t t e r go and check t h e t a b l e ' s t h e r e . '

Do you t h i n k t h e r e a r e o t h e r p l a c e s i n t h e house i t c o u l d l i v e ? Could

i t be something you would have i n a bedroom o r a l i v ~ n gspace? L o r n a : I f Ihad a b i g h a l l , where you c o u l d walk round i t , t h a t would be q u i t e n i c e . . . t h e i d e a perhaps t h a t , as you come i n , you hang your c o a t up, you l o o k a t i t . Because t h a t ' s t h e t h i n g about i t - you j u s t k i n d of check i t .

Has i t mode you t h i n k about t a b l e s i n a d i f f e r e n t woy? The n a t u r e of what t h e t a b l e ' s f o r ? L o r n a : Id o n ' t r e a l l y t h i n k so. D i c k : No. As a t a b l e It h o u g h t i t was a b i t i m p r a c t i c a l . We d i d n ' t use i t because you have t h i s read-out s l a p bang i n t h e m i d d l e of i t , ond

L o r n a : Yes. D i c k : Yes. Every day.

you d o n ' t want t o u p s e t t h a t because you know i t ' s s c i e n t i f i c a l l y s e n s i t i v e . The whole i d e a o f ~ i c k i n gup s a t e l l i t e s Ifound v e r y i n t e r e s t i n g . I t was t h e read-out r a t h e r t h a n t h e t a b l e t h a t Ifound q u i t e fun. L o r n a : If you've g o t a b i g enough t a b l e , you c o u l d a c t u a l l y have a l l

And what k i n d o f c o n d i t i o n i s i t i n ?

s a r t s o f t h i n g s down t h e m i d d l e some o t h e r s c i e n t i f i c read-outs,

So you go and check i t ? You f i n d y o u r s e l f

j u s t g o i n g over and l o o k l n g ?

-

i f you had t h a t GPS read-out

and

It h i n k t h a t would be g r e a t . And i f

i t became i m p o r t a n t o r i n t e r e s t i n g t o keep an eye on t h i n g s ,

Lorna: I t ' s l o s t a come back and Ido t i d y up a b i t , and ' l a s t ' was ever so

l o t . Idrop L i z z y a t s c h o o l i n t h e morning and I those c e r t a i n s e t r o u t i n e s , c l e a r t h i n g s away and Icheck i t because i t ' s a p a r t o f t h a t . The word c l e v e r - Id o n ' t know whether i t i s b e i n g p a r e n t s ,

l i k e the e a r t h ' s atmosphere o r weather, h a v i n g t h a t i n f o r m a t i o n i n t h e m i d d l e o f t h e t a b l e would be i d e a l because t h a t ' s when you s i t down and you t h i n k about l i v i n g . I f o u r houses c o n t a i n e d a l o t more equipment which i s more s c i e n t i f i c , automated, computerised and whatever, t h e n It h i n k

b u t you t h i n k , 'Ah, i t ' s l o s t . ' You g e t a b i t worried, r e a l l y . D i c k : You have t o s i t and watch and w a i t f o r i t t o f i n d something. L o r n a : T h a t ' s when we t a l k e d about moving i t. . .

i t ' s much n i c e r t o have i t as p a r t o f t h e f u r n i t u r e t h a n as an i n s t r u m e n t you go over t o a w a l l and read. When you see a l l t h e space programmes, t h e y go over t o a w a l l and t h e y go 'oh, l e t ' s p r e s s t h i s

D i c k : . . . b u t never d i d I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g , now t h a t you say t h a t , because when Icome home from work, t h e r e ' s a s o r t o f a u t o m a t i c r o u t i n e . You come i n , drop t h e bag and come i n here, and Ie i t h e r glance aver i t o r l o o k a t it, j u s t t o check t h a t i t ' s s t i l l t h e r e

i n 50 y e a r s ' t i m e people s t i l l s i t o t and l e t ' s see a s c r e e n ' . If t a b l e s , you've g o t i t a l l t h e r e . Then i t becomes much more p a r t o f

Tii

I

I s ~t somethlng t h a t has an a e s t h e t l c function, somethlng t h a t you l u s t e n l o y o r something functional?

I t ' s t h e sense t h a t you can go up an t h e satellite, t h a t y o u ' r e suddenly aware, as you a r e never i n any o t h e r c ~ r c u m s t a n c eI n a day. t h o t you a r e t h l s t l n y speck on t h e p l a n e t D l d you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r people? What was t h e l r reaction? Lorna They d l d n ' t n o t l c e t h a t ~t was a n y t h l n g different u n l e s s you p o l n t e d ~t o u t People would say What e l s e does ~t do?' as ~ f t h e y were e x ~ e c t l n at r l c k s o f some s o r t I f you had t o g l v e t h e o b j e c t t o somebody e l s e , o f r l e n d o r somebody ~ n t h e f a m l l v who would vou a l v e l t t o ond whv?

1

1

1

L o r n a : I ' v e g o t nephews and n i e c e s who a r e m i d - t w e n t i e s and t h e y would l o v e i t . I t ' s a v e r y n i c e s i m p l e design. You l i k e more o r g a n i c s t u f f , b u t Il i k e i t , b a s i c a l l y t h e s t r e n g t h and a n g u l a r i t y . It h i n k i t would f i t i n more w i t h a more modern way o f l i f e . D i c k : One o f t h e t h i n g s about t h e t o b l e i s t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p t h a t you b u i l d up w i t h i t d u r i n g t h e day. Ican imagine b o t h our p a r e n t s b e i n g i n t e r e s t e d i n a t a b l e l i k e t h a t , and t h e y ' r e b o t h v e r y d i f f e r e n t . My p a r e n t s a r e farmers s t u c k o u t i n t h e w i l d s o f L e i c e s t e r s h i r e , your p a r e n t s a r e over i n S u f f o l k and r e t i r e d . B u t It h i n k t h a t because t h e y ' r e w i t h t h e i r f u r n i t u r e and t h e i r homes a l l t h e day, t h e y ' d be q u i t e f a s c i n a t e d by i t a l l . Id o n ' t t h i n k because i t ' s g o t s a t e l l i t e t e c h n o l o g y i n i t , t h a t i t has t o be n e c e s s a r i l y f o r younger.. . L o r n a : . . . and i t d o e s n ' t have t o be i n a modern design. D i c k : You mentioned t h a t p o i n t about suddenly h a v i n g t h a t sense o f ' I ' m a speck i n t h e u n i v e r s e ' . That wauld c e r t a i n l y i n t e r e s t my mother. Ican see h e r going up t o t h a t t a b l e and l o o k i n g a t i t , t h e n l o o k i n g o u t down t a t h e M1 and t h e w i l d s o f L e i c e s t e r s h i r e and t h i n k i n g 'Mm. ' It h i n k s h e ' d f i n d i t q u i t e an experience. L o r n a : It h i n k she would. Because s h e ' s i n h e r s e v e n t i e s and l i s t e n s t o t h e r a d i o and reads l o t and s h e ' s v e r y much someone who would p u t a s p i r i t u a l t u r n on i t .

=

Do you t h i n k t h i s t a b l e f a l l s i n t o t h e c a t e g o r y of t h e gadget? D l c k I t c o u l d do I~ e r s o n a l l vwould see ~t n o t as a oadaet b u t much more as an a e s t h e t l c t h l n g I t makes you t h l n k , and you go and check ~t That ~t s l m p l y t e l l s you your p o s l t l o n I n t h e w o r l d 1 s n o t alwoys b r l l l l a n t l y u s e f u l , u n l e s s o f course,you were a t sea

I

i n t e n s i t y of t h e energy coming from t h e m o b i l e phone was j u s t b e f o r e ond a l i t t l e b i t a f t e r i t s t a r t e d r i n g i n g

D e n i s : I t d o e s n ' t have a screen. A l l gadgets t h a t r e s p e c t themselves have t o have a screen. Whether i t ' s a GPS screen o r a m i n i TV screen, i t displayed, i t has t o d i s p l a y something t o be o p r o p e r gadget. If say, t h e h u m i d i t y and t h e temperature, t h a t would be a b i g s t e p towards b e i n g a gadget. Or t h e time, maybe. L i d a : I t would have t o show something more c o m p l i c a t e d . . . What i f you had something t h o t c o u l d measure e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c f i e l d s ? D i d you show t h e o b j e c t t o o t h e r people? What was t h e i r reaction?

Have any e l e c t r o n i c o b j e c t s i n your home c r e a t e d any unusual s i t u a t i o n s , between f a m i l y members, or p e t s , o r v i s i t o r s t o your home?

D e n i s : W e l l , mixed r e a c t i o n s , r e a l l y . Some pretended t h e y d i d n ' t l i k e i t , b u t I t h i n k t h e y f e l t j e a l o u s they h a d n ' t found o u t obout i t Everybody l o v e d t h e f a c t t h o t i f you p u t a hand on, i t l i t up o r n o t . W i t h some o f t h e people i t worked, w i t h some i t d i d n o t . SO w e thought t h e o b j e c t h a t i t s f a v o u r i t e s . D i d you g i v e o t e c h n i c a l explanation a t a l l ?

e s p e c i a l l y t h e GPS. Before we go anywhere, he has t o s i t f o r t h r e e hours, d o i n g t h e GPS, working away w i t h a mop. He has t h i s t h i n g about h i s gadgets, and Ihave t h i s t h i n g about n o t wanting any gadgets, because n o t h i n g works w i t h me. So we always f i g h t about how mony gadgets we can have, and how many I w i l l throw away.

D e n i s : Most of them w e r e n ' t i n t e r e s t e d i n t h e i n t e r n a l s of t h e o b j e c t . Just t h a t i t worked, and i t worked w i t h electromagnetism. D i d many of them know about e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c r o d i a t i o n ?

You have a gadget t h a t ' s a remote c o n t r o l f o r u s i n g t h e o t h e r remote

Denis: The p u b l i c i s aware now t h a t t h e r e i s some k i n d of energy e m i t t e d from m o b i l e phones. What t h a t ' s c a l l e d t h e y ' r e n o t sure, b u t t h e y know i t ' s some k i n d o f w e i r d e l e c t r o - s o m e t h i n g energy. The o b j e c t

Denis: Because we f i g h t between us who's g o i n g t o have t h e remote. L i d o : And Id o n ' t know how t o s w i t c h t h e TV on. Only one

was a way o f demonstrating t h e e f f e c t o f t h a t energy. I f you viere t o pass t h i s o b j e c t t o someone else,

what a d v i c e v ~ o u l dyou

So what does each o f these do? ( p o i n t i n g t o t h e 7 remote c o n t r o l s on t h e coffee t a b l e ) Denis: R i g h t ,

t h i s i s f o r t h e TV,

t h i s i s for the d i g i t a l s a t e l l i t e , t h i s i s f o r t h e o t h e r s a t e l l i t e r e c e i v e r , t h i s is f o r one o f t h e t w o video recorders, t h i s i s for t h e other video recorder, t h i s i s for t h e s t e r e o and t h i s i s f o r e v e r y t h i n g . Do you see t h e p a r a s i t e l i g h t as a gadget? D e n i s : Id o n ' t t h i n k i t ' s a gadget because i t d o e s n ' t r e a l l y do a n y t h i n g . It h i n k i t ' s more o f a d e s i g n o b j e c t . L i d o : I t l o o k s n i c e and i t ' s f u n - t h a t d o e s n ' t make i t a gadget. What would make i t o gadget? L i d o : If i t would bleep,

you know, be more complicated.

Denis: Iwould l e t them f i n d o u t f o r themselves. Iw o u l d n ' t t e l l them anything, A f t e r a week o r two, Iwould want t o know what t h e y d i d w i t h t h e o b j e c t , and t h e n Im i g h t o f f e r some t i p s . . . What k i n d of people do you t h i n k might l i k e on o b j e c t l i k e t h i s ? L i d a : People l i k e Denis, people who a r e gadget maniacs. Denis: T e c h n i c a l minded people and modern art-minded people. People who l i k e d e s i g n ond unusual i t e m s would l i k e i t .

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guess.

How would you f e e l i f more o b j e c t s i n t h e home hod t h i s k l n d o f i n t e l l e c t u a l o r o e s t h e t i c v o l u e os opposed t o b e i n g p u r e l y f u n c t i o n a l ? L i d a : IVe're c o m p l e t e l y d i f f e r e n t : Iwould buy something j u s t because i t l o o k s r e a l l y n i c e , b u t Denis wouldn't.

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b u t t h e y w o n ' t work i t That would be a shame Most p e o p l e w i l l use an o b j e c t f o r 10, 20 p e r c e n t o f what i t can do

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We've a l s o been o s k i n g p e o p l e i f t h e y m i g h t r e n t o b l e c t s l i k e t h e s e

D e n i s What y o u ' r e s a y l n g r e a l l y 1 s t h a t i t would b e t o o expensive t o buy, s o you have t o r e n t i t

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N o t n e c e s s a r i l y I guess i t ' s about commitment t o a n o b j e c t Maybe t h e y would be e x p e n s i v e t o make, and y o u ' r e n o t s u r e whether i t ' s something you m i g h t want, so you can t r y l t o u t

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D e n i s : And t h e n have t h e o p t i o n t o buy?

Interested L i d a E x a c t l y You can say t o people, ' T h i s i s r e a l l y new, so you have t o t r y i t f i r s t ' I t ' s n o t j u s t f u r n i t u r e , ~ t ' something s new D e n i s And t h e n you can deduct t h e r e n t money from t h e a c t u a l p r l c e I n t h e end

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L i d a Well, one t h a t you s h o u l d c h a r g e i t l e s s f r e q u e n t l y D e n i s And i t s shape i s n ' t t h e e a s l e s t shape t o have I n t h e house I t s h a u l d b e more v e r t i c a l t h a n h o r i z o n t a l Your o t h e r o b j e c t s w e r e n ' t l i k e t h a t , t h e y d i d n ' t t a k e up much spoce on t h e h o r i z o n t a l p l a n e L i d a And maybe you c o u l d use l t as a lamp, as a r e a l lamp And more p a w e r f u l , because now you can o n l y see t h a t ~t works, and t h a t ' s a l l D e n i s I t l o o k e d o b i t easy t o break I t d i d n ' t l o o k s t u r d y enough L i d a I t l o o k s expensive, t o t e l l you t h e t r u t h

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What d i d you l i k e about t h e o b i e c t ?

the future

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Ic o u l d have v e r y many I d e a s on t h i s and o t h e r o b j e c t s

Ok. It h i n k w e ' r e done D e n i s : So when a r e you h a v i n g y o u r n e x t p r o j e c t ?

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Nipple Chair

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Neil

recorders, cameros, radios, shovers. . Putting it near the television only affects it when it storts up, and when you put it on the righthand side, There does seem to be one particular ~ositionthat it likes. Some things really do affect it and other things hove no effect Some things seem to slow it down, which is o bit suspicious.

When you tolk to your friends, how do you describe the object? It's really difficult to get the concept across - you tell them it's a nipple chair ond they think of something really kinky. Then you try and explain thot it's a bit of furniture which detects electromagnetic fields. Most people just say 'Why would you do that?'. I just ,say it's

How about in relotion to your body7 Oh yes. If you stand close to it, it tends to go faster. It slows down if you touch the ontenna. It changes if you go near it. And if other people are around, or moving around the object?

to things thot ore going on. It's sort of aware, in a sense Where is the object now? Why is it there?

When we first had the chair, we had about four people staying here in this tiny spoce and it seemed to slow it right down. So maybe it likes company. The foster it gets, the more onxious it is, perhaps.

It's where it is now because I'm working at the desk - we used it os a proper choir rather than a curiosity If you're sick of thinking, you can change your awareness to listening to what the chair's

So you started to interpret its behaviour. Yes, I think so. When Sophie phones up she alwoys wonts to hear the chair, to see if it's ok. I suppose it has the some thing as those interactive pets, like a Furby or something like that. They respond in a really rudimentary way, but it can be interpreted. This has that same thing because it does actually respond. When you come home at night, it speeds up and you think 'Oh, it's pleased to see me. ' Poor deluded person that I am.

ogoinst the window there, it takes o little while to settle down, it settles down to almost nothing. We've tried it everywhere, but living room is where it always comes back to, different positions this room. This is o pretty hot corner, not just becouse of the computer but because there's more activity even if the computer's

but the in off.

Why do you think it's particularly active in that location? Downstairs I think they've got a big-screen TV. Either that or some big stereo system, I think thot affects it. There's no overhead power lines here, but I don't know where the underground power lines ore. Sometimes, unaccountably, it'll just start really going and you can't

Did you try any experiments?

it near it, underneath it, perhaps touching the ontenna underneath to see whether that would make any difference. We've tried it with tape

Some people will soy things like Furby and the Tamogotchi ore gadgets and slightly gimmicky. The charm of this chair is that it's disqualified from being in the Furby category because it's not presented as a gadget. It's completely conceoled When we first got it, it didn't even have a switch. It's not gadget-like at all. It wouldn't be neorly as attractive if you could change the sensitivity, or progromme it to come on at different times or it had on alarm clock built into it. It would just be another gadget. But presented as it is, it's something completely different. Do you find yourself regularly checking on it? Yes. We charge it whenever it needs it, and I notice pretty wickly if it's not working. I don't have to really check it because I'm owore of it anyway, probably more so since Sophie went back to Canado. You're partly aware of it but ot the same time it's not really a distraction. Hos it made you thlnk obout furniture in a different way7

Yes, but none of the reasons that I like this chair has anything ta do with any of the reasons I like gadgets.

I think this object would encourage me, if I did buy any furniture, to customise it in some way, so that you can form a different kind af relationship. Maybe I'd feel differently about this chair if I knew that there was more than one, if it was mass-produced.

Why do you like gadgets? I don't know what it is. With most gadgets, a microsecand after you've bought them you regret it, because you know it's not going to give you what you want. Quite what it is I want when I buy a gadget, I don't know. I suppose it's that element of control over something. If you buy an electronic organiser you think it"s going to transform your life, but all it does is remind you how disorganised your life really is. This seems to be different.

electronics into something, does that become the main thing? I don't know of anything at the moment that is both a functional piece of furniture and has some other thing that it could do as well.

Maybe that's why it's a good thing to give to people who like gadgets? Has the experience of looking after the object had an effect on the way you think about electromagnetic waves?

I don't think gadgety people would like it. Well, maybe they would. But I would have thought one of the big things about electronic gadgets is the interface, and this doesn't have one. I think gadget people would want to be able ta programme the megacycles and stuff.

Yes. I know about electromagnetic waves - there's this whole network, all these interfering signals which come from different things. becoming much more complex. So many things are using electromagnetic

If we were to redesign the object, what recommendations would you make, or how would you like to redesign it? this whole complex of interchange of energy that's going on and we don't really know anything about it. If you had to give the object to somebody else, who would you give it

I would give it to somebody who I think would appreciate it. It's that cat thing again: you wouldn't give your cat to just anybody to look after. Perhaps it would be different if it was a chair that you just had to plug in to the mains, but because it's a chair that you have to feed, you hove to plug it in every couple of days, I'd want to

What kinds of people might want to own an object like this?

I like the chair, but I wouldn't give the chair to a person like me

I would like to keep it like this. I wouldn't want to put any kind of interface on to it. I like that the workings of it are a mystery. !

There's not a big electronic bulge sticking out or any evidence of wires or anything You could do that, but I think yau would run the risk of turning it into something completely different. It might as well be made out of grey plastic. It's definitely a manufactured object, but it's not trying to be a gadget. Gadgets seem so impersonal. If it had no sound at all, how would that change the chair? It would be very different if you just had the vibration of the nipples without the noise, because when it gets faster it sounds more urgent, like it is getting excited or worried. I guess I just respond to it on a stupid level. I do think of it as having this little personality, sad person that I am. Is there a place for objects like this in people's lives?

I really think so. What's attractive about it is that it gives you information about our environment, living conditions, about the noise that we're generating of various kinds. I suppose it puts us in touch with these invisible changes which are happening.

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How many children in y w r househol

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Plwrc dewribs ploscr in your home whcm you Ihink you might likr lo krrp Ihr object and -on3

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Have you had any prrvious rlecmmsgnaic crpcncnccr?

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M r m did you hurnboulthir projecl?

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Fr,. Jul 20.2001.430 Pm 1

I've always thought that tv detector vans never really made sense. Surely, to spend all that time and money; developing the technology, ..

holder's address from every address in the country, to glve you rne few remaining addresses that don't have a licence? Then they could just nlp round there and listen at the front door or something? Michael

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