Raby on Products Influence Reality
Fiona Raby had a hell of a time with Apple’s PPT replacement. It failed on every video. And her presentation was 90%videos. Mind you, she did tell us all that she did not test it ahead of time. It made me laugh. We were part of the experiment. How does Apple influence reality in a crowd of 450 designers?
Fiona Raby is a partner in the design practice Dunne & Raby. She presented different art installation that she had created that test the ideas of how there is an influence of products in your reality. She had a radio that was tuned to the BBC and reported deaths in different categories as they were reported. For example it would report the number of deaths in car crashes and then count out 1,2,3,4. Another installation tried to make long distant events more alient by having an air bag explode in your apartment when something aweful happened in a country half way around the world. She ended with examples from several of her students.
So how do the influence of products change your reality? Do you watch the news everyday? Do you feel a little paranoid? Did you ever think it could be the TV and the news programs you are watching? Does your cell phone make you jumpy? Can you ever relax without your phone? Or are you tethered?