Human beings and objects are indeed bond together in a collision in which the objects take on a certain density, an emotional value, what might be called ‘presence’.
Jean Baudrillard
Object Plus (+)
Sustaining the Human-Object Relationship
We shape things and things shape us. There are many objects we interact with on a daily basis which help us meet our basic needs, which we take for granted. We recognize them only for the role they play to help us satisfy our needs but there is something more in between!
Based on the Emotionally Durable Design theory presented by Jonathan Chapman, the current state of consumer culture has negative impacts on product design. Through our modern fixation with technology, we lost the poetic aspects of objects and there is a gap between our expectations of material culture and the reality of products which leads to a shallow perception of material things. Objects are powerful means to characterize, communicate, and develop our sense of self. But in modern society, the meaning of ‘need’ is changing and the ongoing process of consumption and infinite social desires for newness as an illusion of need is becoming an increasing concern .
My thesis work, explores objects and ways by which design can help highlight emotional aspects of our interaction with objects and value them for more than their functionality. This research is based on my personal understanding of the agency of objects, exploring the gaps and design for longevity.
Objects are storytellers. They resonate with us for different reasons. There is sometimes a deeply personal reason to feel an attachment to an object and sometimes it is hard to find a reason and explain it. We may adore a specific object for how it looks, or the way it feels, or just the materiality. Objects may serve a very specific function; they may help us speculate about possible futures or they are just made to enjoy. There is an acknowledgment that in order to take on the challenges that this world is facing, we need to take something different; a new approach, a little creativity. These imitations do not come without hesitation. Designers should take a risk to help people think differently (Wies, 2019). This is the responsibility of design.
AGENCY
Janet Hoskins in Agency, biography and objects (2006) argues that ‘agency is deliberately not restricted to persons, and may include spirits, machines, signs and collective entities’ (p. 74). Objects, she also states are made to act upon the world and to act upon other persons. Even nonfunctional objects are created to influence the thoughts and actions of others. So, objects indeed possess an innate agency given to them by humans (as creators and users) that allows them to create change (p. 75). But based on my experience (my summer project) there is a point where object gain independency from human, and their capacities and agencies is not restricted to human intentionality. Sometimes objects go beyond what is expected of them and this is the reason that encourage us to create more of them. This is a subject that may question the human centric approach in design which is one of the most significant notions in contemporary design.
MATERIALITY
What is the role of the materiality of objects in creating emotion? Is the presence of a touchable material a reason for creating emotional commitments? We look upon the past and present self that we wish to be through attachments to material things. Material positions are used as symbols of what we are, what we have been and what we are attempting to become (Schultz, S. E., Kleine, R. E. and Kernan, J. B. 1989 p. 1).
The specter of modernism and postmodernism design as ‘Platonism’ changed the state of matter in objects. In this view, products are reduced to their function or their meaning and materiality (and consequently physical characteristics of products) is of secondary importance. This results in a loss of attachment to products; if our attachment only concerns these immaterial characteristics of objects (and not the object itself), it can easily be replaced at any time by another artifact with the same immaterial quality. ‘we should not be able to obtain meaning and objects separately. Only then will products themselves be durable, and not just our need for meaningful objects to fit our lifestyle’. what is important is considering the ‘own weight’ of the product as an artifact which backs to the objects themselves and is more than language, more than symbol, meaning, function, or icon. Durable material culture, can only arise when matter matters (Verbeek & Kockelkoren, 1977, pp. 100-115).
AESTHETICS & PERCEPTION
Design is not just problem solving. It is about solving aesthetic problems. Many of challenges we face today are unfixable and the only way to overcome them is by changing over values, beliefs, attitudes and behavior (Dunne & Ruby, 2013, p. 2).
We value our world based on our perception. So, perception creates meaning. Aesthetic defines a big part of our experience of objects which is ‘referring to sensory perception and understanding or sensuous knowledge’ ___ ‘it is interpretation of the event or situation, rather than the event itself, which causes the emotion (Hekkert, 2006). Whitfield (2005) argues that ‘aesthetic finds expression in the design appearance of everyday things’ and provides similarities between aesthetic and emotion: ‘a distinctive feature of aesthetics, like emotion, is that it results from an engagement with normal objects __ though like emotion to a greater or lesser extend’ __ ‘characteristics that aesthetics shares with emotion are diffuseness and the fact that they cannot be evaluated for correctness’ __ ‘It can be argued that aesthetics is fundamental to human life simply by observing the extent to which people design their environments. There exist a powerful drive to control the visual appearance of all artifacts, habitats, and selves’ and ‘ it is virtually impossible to find manufactured objects without a designed aesthetic component. The urge to control the appearance of surfaces __ color, shape, pattern, and texture is so endemic that it cannot be overlooked’ (p. 4-12).
We define a framework for physical aspects of objects as ‘shape’, ‘color’, and ‘texture’. But do these features introduce the inherent qualities of objects?