This chapter explores the poetics of everyday objects, and their abilities to elicit meaningful interactions. Our focus is on a special kind of everyday objects: a chosen set of “augmented” chairs and tables, especially designed to gently disrupt usually associated emotional/social responses, and to shake habitual ways in which people interact with – and through – furniture. We address the physical, relational, and cultural qualities of these objects in terms of the objects’ “presence” and “personality”, and we discuss their abilities to engender amusing incongruities. We conclude by speculating on the need of using exploratory, non-mainstream design methods as a means to understanding and thinking through innovations in human-computer interaction. Several cases of augmented furniture will be presented to illustrate the raised points: i) therapeutic furniture (Robotic Massage Chair and Squeeze Chair) and ii) furniture that mediates human transactions and aides self-reflection (Conversation Table, Stealing Table and Table Childhood).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
1The German word for uncanny is unheimlich, the opposite of heimlich (homely) and heimish (native), the opposite of what is familiar. We are tempted to think that the uncanny is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar. Yet not everything that is new and unfamiliar is frightening. We can only say that what is novel holds the potential of being frightening. In this paper we use the world “uncanny” as a non-frightening incongruity, or gentle “disruption”. In Freud, S. The Uncanny. 1925.
- 2.
The 2 Familiar Strangers research project (Intel Research, Berkeley) explores often ignored yet real relationships with familiar strangers. Experiments and studies derived from Milgram (1972) have lead to the design of a personal, body-worn device called Jabberwocky. Retrieved on 20 April 2006 from http://berkeley.intel-research.net/paulos/research/familiarstranger.
- 3.
3It seems essential for designers, say of learning toys, to take responsibility for their products by not assuming – to caricature the constructivist's stance – that, no matter the external form, people will use it as Rorschach stains and project their own experience, or alternatively that the intent of the author is what prevails through a design. Any creations, once launched, may well speak to others in ways not intended. It too takes on a life of its own.
- 4.
4Early manifestations of suspension of disbelief appear in a child’s fantasy or pretend play, and in her urge to invent/converse with imaginary companions. They also appear in the ability to tease and joke.
- 5.
5Ultimately, even a mundane doorknob could be delightful if, beyond getting us through a doorway, it could retain our attention, suspend our breath and – why not? – slow down our steps. It too could evoke feelings about passages and thresholds, and enrich our experience of moving between places. It too could speak a language that reaches our inner most aspirations.
- 6.
6John Gloag (1966) states that “[n]early all articles of free-standing furniture are variations of two basic shapes: a platform or a box. Stools, benches, chairs, couches, beds and tables are platforms elevated on feet or legs or underframing, on which you sit, lie, or put things; chests, cupboards and wardrobes are boxes for storing anything from linen and clothes to food, wine, drinking vessels, documents or money.” (pp. 3–4)
- 7.
7According to Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, “[o]bjects are not static entities whose meaning is projected on to them from cognitive functions of the brain or from abstract conceptual systems of culture. They themselves are signs, objectified forms of psychic energy (page 173).
- 8.
8Thanks to Mark Meagher for pointing out this example during the CAIF 2005 workshop.
- 9.
9Baudrillard continues by stating that the same obsession exists for the opposite, aesthetic approach to designing objects: “As for the opposite, ‘aesthetic’, approach, which omits function altogether and exalts the beauty of pure mechanism, this ultimately amounts to the same thing. For the inventor of the Concours Lépine, the creation of a solar-powered boiled-egg opener or some other equally dotty gadget is merely an excuse for obsessive manipulation and contemplation.” (Baudrillard 1996, page 114)
- 10.
10An autonomous object is self-governing, independent, not ruled by external law or force. For detailed discussion on autonomy see Winner (1977).
- 11.
11Thanks to Dana Cho from IDEO for pointing out this example during the CAIF 2005 workshop.
- 12.
12Michael Mateas writes about the differences between cultural production in the arts and artificial intelligence (AI). Whereas the arts rely on poetics, audience perception, specificity and artistic abstraction, the focus in AI is task competence, objective measurements, generality and realism. (page 149) Mateas, Michael. Expressive AI: A hybrid art and science practice. In Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for Arts, Sciences, and Technology 34 (2), 2001. 147-–153.
- 13.
13One of the Living Memoryproject partners was the Communications Department at the Queen Margaret College from Edinburgh, UK. They closely worked with human factors specialists from Philips Design in Eindhoven.
References
Ackermann , Edith. 2005 Playthings that Do Things: A Young’s Kid’s “Incredibles”! Boulder, Colorado. In IDC , June 8–10 2005,
Baudrillard, Jean. 1996. The System of Objects. Verso, London & New York:
Cranz, Galen. 1998. The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design. W. W. Norton & Company, New York:
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Rochberg-Halton, Eugene. 1981. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK:
de Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles:
Dunne, Anthony. 1999. Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical Design. Royal College of Arts CRD Research Publications, London:
Dunne, Anthony and Raby, Fiona. 2001. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Birkhäuser Publishers, Basel:
Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Penguin Classics, 2003.
Gloag, John. 1966. A Social History of Furniture Design from B.C. 1300 to A.D. 1960. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York:
Grandin, Temple. 1995. Thinking in Pictures. Vintage Books, New York:
Herdeg, Klaus. 1983. The Decorated Diagram: Harvard Architecture and the Failure of the Bauhaus Legacy. MIT Press, Cambridge:
Höök Kristina, Sengers Phoebe, and Andersson, Gerd. Sense and Sensibility: Evaluation and Interactive Art. In 2003 Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI), 2003.
Intel Research Labs, Berkeley. Familiar Strangers research project. Retrieved on 20 April 2006 from http://berkeley.intel-research.net/paulos/research/familiarstranger.
Jacob, Wendy.Squeeze Chair. Creative Capital Channel web site, 2000. Retrieved on 11 February 2006 from http://channel.creative-capital.org/project_311.html
Kaplan, F. Poupées: Des enfants qui apprivoisent des robots. In Machines Apprivoisées. Paris Editions Vuibert, 2005. Chapter 13, pages 219–241.
Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation. New York: Dell, 1964.
Laurel, Brenda. Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.
Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Maines, Rachel. 1999. The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London:
Maines, Rachel. 2001. Socially Camouflaged Technologies: the Case of the Electromechanical Vibrator Pursell, Carol (editor). American Technology. Blackwell Publishers, Malden: (pages 117–143)
Mitchell, William J. 2003. ME + + . MIT Press, Cambridge:
Nikolovska, Lira. June 2006. Physical Dialogues with Augmented Furniture, PhD dissertation. MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Cambridge:
Norman, Donald. 1988. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New York:
Piaget, Jean. 1962. Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood. W. W. Norton and Company, N.Y.:
Sengers, Phoebe and Gaver, Bill. Designing for Interpretation. In Proceedings of Human-Computer Interaction International Conference, 2005.
Steinmeyer, Jim. 2003. Hiding the elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear. Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York:
Winner, Langdon. 1977. Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought. MIT Press, Cambridge:
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Simon Schiessl for technical consulting (programming and electronics) for the Stealing Table project. The making of the Stealing Table was funded in part by a grant from the MIT Council for the Arts.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nikolovska, L., Ackermann, E. (2009). Exploratory Design, Augmented Furniture?. In: Dillenbourg, P., Huang, J., Cherubini, M. (eds) Interactive Artifacts and Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work and Learning. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series, vol 10. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77234-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77234-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-77233-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-77234-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)