Talk to me2011
design and the communication between people and objects
by Paola Antonelli
"Whether openly and actively or in subtle , subliminal ways, things talk to us. As the purpose of design has, in past decades, shifted away from mere utility toward meaning, objects and systems that were once charged only with being elegant and functional now have personalities. And thanks to the digital revolution, they have become very communicative, making our world newly interactive: a wristebad notifies us when we're getting dehydrated, animated creatures hide in the shadows of the objects on our desks, a wheat field calls out a salutation. Contemporary designers, in addition to giving objects form, function and meaning, now write the initial scripts that are the foundations for these useful and satisfying conversations. With nearly two hundred projects ranging from the...