“Lack of humanness” in electronics

A number of students studying Design and Media Interaction Design at ECAL Swiss University have explored many possible developments in the future of the “Smart Home”. The projects investigate “sensor based technology” within design and the “interaction between user and product”.

These projects connect with our ideas of a paper, space saving speaker. Our ideas of having a product that unfolds or pops up to become a functional electronic displays the need for human interaction in order for the speaker to work.

The final presented projects included a variety of interior electronic product designs that have “more tangible behaviours”:

“Mr Time by Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz is a clock that shows the correct time until someone stands in front of it, at which point the hands follow the position of the user's arms.”

“Bonnie & Clyde by Romain Cazier, Anna Heck and Leon Laskowski produces a playful interaction between a coffee cup and teaspoon.

The cup has a blue interior surface that is tracked by a camera suspended above the table, which sends a signal to a magnet mounted to a mechanism under the table surface. When the cup is moved, the magnet also moves to the same spot and causes the spoon to follow it.”

“Il Portinaio by Anne-Sophie Bazard, Tristan Caré and Léonard Golay is a curtain of suspended threads that reacts to the presence of someone standing in front of it. A disembodied hand moves along a raised track to their location and draws back a section of the curtain so they can walk through.”

“Cactunes by Pierre Charreau, Martin Hertig and Pauline Lemberger invites people to touch a series of cacti that each emit a different sound on contact.”

“The project was presented at Spazio Orso 16 in Milan's Brera district during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile” April 2014

I really like the playfulness within the projects. Each product creates narrative connections with the user, which therefore introduces an added quality to the pieces. The individuality in each design gives the work a bespoke feel, a market that we are not focusing on. It is the concept of the work that is intriguing, the interaction between humans and everyday electronic products.  

Dezeen (2014). Dezeen. Retrieved from http://www.dezeen.com/2014/04/15/ecal-students-interactive-products-milan/.