Sunday, April 23, 2006
Flashing Lights
Was amused by this quote from a book discussing functional design and technology - could easily apply to so many ‘models, values and systems’:
“The enslavement is not, strictly speaking, to machines, nor to people who build and own them, but to the conceptual models, values and systems of thought the machines embody… For instance, camcorders have built-in features that encourage generic usage: a warning light flashes whenever there is a risk of ‘spoiling’ a picture, as if to remind the user that they are about to become creative and should immediately return to the norm.”
(Anthony Dunne [1990] Hertzian Tales, Aesthetic experience and critical design. London: Royal College of Art, p14.)
“The enslavement is not, strictly speaking, to machines, nor to people who build and own them, but to the conceptual models, values and systems of thought the machines embody… For instance, camcorders have built-in features that encourage generic usage: a warning light flashes whenever there is a risk of ‘spoiling’ a picture, as if to remind the user that they are about to become creative and should immediately return to the norm.”
(Anthony Dunne [1990] Hertzian Tales, Aesthetic experience and critical design. London: Royal College of Art, p14.)
