1'1 ACHI NE is a powerful piece of

'unoincial' deSIgn and shows how an

industr~al object can embody complex
;deas through invenrion as a form of
socia! cnriclsm.

~-~~~

By ~ y DvNI'tb

FIG. 3.2
This DRINKING CANE
from the Saint·Etienne mail-order
catalogue of 1910 operates in a context
where etiquette assumes such
Importance that the object must be
made to maintain It in a 'socially
dangerous' Situation,

ECCENTltIC .:lJECTS: :PAltA·FUNCTIINALITY AN. NIN·:DESIGN ...

01

Some naive, curious or eccentric objects. outside the world of conventional design,
unintentionally embody provocative or poetic qualtties that most product designs, even
those intended to provoke. seldom achieve. Although industrial designers playa part in
designing instruments of death (weapons) and pleasure (sex aids) these extreme areas of
material culture rarely enter design discourse. Yet ]ac\<Kevorkian's SUICIDE !'lACHINE, a
powerful 'unofficial' design which materialises complex issues of law, ethics and self­
determination, shows how an industrial invention can be a form of criticism (FIG. 3.1).
Critical of a legal system that outlaws euthanasia, Kevorkian has his machine to overcome
this. Hs ambiguous status between prototype and p~oduct makes.it more disturbing than
pure artworks by blurring boundaries between the everydayness of industrial production
and the fictional world of ideas. It suggests a role for design objects as discourse where
functionality can be used to criticise the limits which products impose on our actions.
At the other extreme is the world of antique walking stiCks. A DRINKING CANE, designed for an
alcohol merchant who must spend much of his time visiting the bars of his customers,
discretely siphons off his drink while his host is not looking; a trigger later releases the
drink into a ~utter (FIG. 3.2). It satisfies etiquette and exploits the walking stick's inherent
potential for connection to other objects and contexts: hand, bar, glass, and gutter.
Walking sticks that become a card-table or seat (FIGS. 3.3-4) show how simple portable props can
transform architectural spaces. They conceptually colonise the functional pOSSibilities of
pre-eXisting spaces. The user becomes a protagonist in a new narrative where a lobby or
park becomes a casino.(o,)
A third device, used by detectives in the [940S for protecting fingerprints on a steering wheel, is
beautIfully absurd and surreal (FIG. 3.5). Sigmund Freud cites G. Heymans' explanation
that a joke works through bewilderment succeeded by illumination. <OZl The word that
is the vehicle of a joke often appears at first to be wrongly constructed, unintelligible,
incomprehensible or puzzling. In thiS double steering wheel a similar unintelligibility is
evident; its comIc effect is produced by solVing this bewilderment by undersranding
its function. This is also the case with 'Chindogu' (FIG. 3.&). Their individual elements
are recognisable, bur the reason for combining them is at first bewildering.
 FIGS. 3.3·4
The T liD L E CII NE. patenteo in England in .89'.
and ':ow seat cane' are examples of how Simple portable
props can frRnsform an archirectural space.

FIG. 3.5
A steering wheel. used by
detectives during the '9405 to
drive recovered vehicles back to' •. '.
the pollee station without smudging
the thlefs fingenprlnts.

.,. The meaning behind the object is derived from 'sense-fiction', the ends. pfovidE
~

make functional sense. but are still useless.(o3J Baudrillard h,

FIlt:lI• • EN EMITIINS: l'AltA-FUNCTIINALITY AN. :aESIGN rationality go

[n a review of an exhibition of work by Intermediate Unit 3. OBJECTS IN THE LIINDSCIIPE. at London's po~es of kitsc
Architectural Association. lrie contrast's the "electronic devices essential to contemporary ~~ The surrealist

•
urban existence", the means whereby "information. entertainment and fantasy are transgression.
promoted - and controlled", with the unit's "virus-like prototypes" (FrG. 3.7) that "invade nevertheless p
and disrupt such networks. and propel minds and bodies into a hectically deregulated ~. universal mar
~' '
world of fragments - fragments of ideals, of illusions. of sensory impressions". The use of -'. and dedicate"
strange inventions by architects is not uncomrT!0n and, although they have lost much of unreal and aI,
their potency through over-use, their deployment in this instance as "bizarre monsters", push this prin
designed to challenge the banal reality supported by consumer durables, emphasises the. the case of th
need to identify how electronic products can offer alternative expressions of their own"
functional logic. [n a field where "product design is thoroughly integrated in capitalist.
production, [and] bereft of an independent critical tradition on which to base
alternative".(o4J only a few designers use the function of products as criticism. absurd. Garr
For example, Penny Sparke cites Gaetano Pesce: (FIG. 3.1) his "use of distortion and exaggeratiOn "-, strange psy,
[are] 'absurd' devices for commenting upon his observations. Rather than interaction
alternative media. Pesce uses the language of deSign to make its overtly sat
commentary".(os) but his objects do not incorporate fl,lnctionality as a primary undermines
component. When functionality does enter, it is often jokey and closer to the playful one­ of mock-up
off multiples created by Fluxus. During the 1980s ~nis Santachiar'!.j!nd Philip Garner. presenting
developed approaches that merit a closer look. Santachiara, who developed a distinctive -_" ...... ~~~~o.;;.~

approach over many years, aims to raise the aesthetic quality of mass-produced everyday ,~·~r.;,.~~.."r.I;.1':'*-Jl~;
objects such as domestic appliances by developing their pOSSibilities of animation. ThiS
could be seen as little more than a desire to use technology to give object~ a personality Witty accl

by making them more expressive and quirky (FIG. 3.8). But ~.C-Qocern )L~WJ ..1jlt9~_~t.herlcs rransparen
of use which giv~. Qb.JE;ftskE _QL~t~ncti.y~ .. identity frQ!':1..J\1~linguistiCS of construction and "probably
---.-~--- - - --:-.-...--_.---- --~ - .

~c:.nufa,,~t..t::.~' SaDgr.hiE!r~.~~ver~s t~~b..~l~J~j,.w.:tL.ls;d5-e.s~direcrs.j~wards provot~tiVY~>

 . FIG. 3.7
Intermediate Unl!)'s 0 B J E CTSIN THE LAN DS CAP E (993) a[{he
ArchltecruralAssoClanon are deployed as 'bizarre monsters' designed to
challenge the reality supported by electrontc consumer durables In the home.

l'
,eel, used by
ring the 1940S to
'ed vehicles back to
'loon without smudgill!:
Igerptints.
FIG. 3.•
TIle individual elements of a 'chtndogu' are tecogntsable.
III rillS case, a clothes dryer and golf club, bur the reason
for rI,etr combination IS at fIrst beWildering.

)n': the objects ends, provides more than enriched interactivitYl_and.E~ises the complex i_SSu~?L~~at

Baudrillard has called the "crisis....Qf functionalism".

---
----- '.'-- .. ._" . .._- ---_._- ' - -
-,.. --
Baudrillard argues that the acceptance of functionalism as an arbitrary but dominant
rationality gave rise to an irrational counter-discourse which moves between the two
.London's poles of kitsch and surrealism:
d to contemporary The surrealist object emerges at the same epoch as the functional object. as its derision and
and fantasy are transgression. Although they are overtly dys- or para-functional, these phantasmic objects
i.3.7) that "invade nevertheless presuppose - albeit in a contradictory sense - the advent of functionality as the
ically deregulated universal moral law of the object, and the advent of this object itself, separated, autonomous
ssions". The use of and dedicated to the transparency of its function. When one ponders it, there is something
unreal and almost surreal in the fact of redUCing an object to its function: and it suffices to
push this prinCiple of functionality to the limit to make its absurdity emerge, This is evident in
=s, emphasises the ~~~-;~_~~~ the case of the .toaster, iron or 'undiscoverable objects' of Carelman.
sions of their own - j. 8AUORILLARO, FOR A CRITIQUE OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE SIGN

:rated in capitalist'': _,_

"hich to base Santachiara's work is often closer to kitsch than Garner, who is closer to surrealism and the
riticism. absurd. Garner's proposals for products are a form of industrial design that taps into the
I and exaggeration strange psychological and social narratlV.es arising from the objects themselves and
~r than turning to interaction with and through them in a consumer-oriented society, Although their
,<:e! Its own self- overtly satirical and whimsical ch'atacter, often simply visual puns or jokes,
-' lty as a primary, ·~,."it,•••• =.~_~ undermines the viewer's suspension of disbelief (FIG. 3.11), they demonstrate the power
to the playful one- ':. . of mock-ups, scenarios and fictitious narrative over working prototypes as a way of
Philip Garner~_~~-.,
_
a dlstinctIve- .
presenting this kind of fiction. The success of both his books confirms that pe9pie
-._. --
~---'_._--' ~~- -. _. -~. -­
.. , understand
----_-..- .
and relate
'---,,-
-~-----
to the narrative behind
- ...
the
---_.---~--_.
work without haVing to use the objects.
)roduced everyday .- ~;-:-. Sanrachiara and Garner operate within the realm of the gadget, the opposite of the
of aI1lmation, This INell-designed object. The term 'gadget' here denotes a curious, original and
-jects a personality witty accessory of no real use, as opposed to the 'gimmick' which is too
; with an,"§.~2.tJ;.~li0 transparent in its effort to impress and attract attention Giulio Ceppi remarks that
-_..1
--- "prol:lably the gadget has never been considered, by, official design CLtlture,
, --~ .j,,~, r'lnilhle of revealin~
 which sparks when" is passe
[hrou~h. is an example of his
with an aestherics or use whe
Ulvention IS used to gIve obje
a distinctive Identity that mo'
from the lingulSrics of consrn
and manufacrure.

FIG. 3.1
GaeUlno Pesce's furniture for Cassina dUring the early 1960s uses
the iar,guage of design to communica,e his observanon thar people
Ivill always be aliena,ed from objects as long as consumption Is
the pnmary reason for an object's existence.

!
..... interesting technical features or of influencing peoples behaviour" and that: [Samuel Be
The most important phenomenon caused by the gadget is, however, a psycho-behavioural complete t
factor: wonder... The fact that wonder and surprise are two variables that rarely enter into the absurdity.
design of industrial objects has induced the development of a clandestine niche in which such author's at
forbidden emotions can be found. anything u
G. CEPPI, PLAYING' WITH TECHNOLOGY
---------------
HETElt.T'l'IAN GA:DGETS: l'AltA-FUNCTIINALITY AN» AltT.:aJECTS two
For examples that explore the aesthetics of this "clandestine niche" of forbidden emotions it is 'failure, pi
necessary again to move away from industrial design, and begin with literature: not the weaving t(
gadget-ridden world of science-fiction but a world where writing itself is a gadget in that about the
it celebrates the workings of language. The heterotopia described by Michel Foucault inappropr
illustrates what a literary gadget might be like: this sensit
Utopia: afford consolation.: although they have no real locality there is nevertheless a strange d(
fantastiC, untroubled region in which they are able to unfold; they open up cities with vast machines
avenues, superbly planted gardens, countries where life is easy, even though the road to them alternativ
is chimerical. Heterotopias ar~ disturbing, probably because they destroy 'syntax' in advance, 'Pataphysi
. .
and not only the syntax which causes words and things (next to and also one another) to 'hold , What happens wh(
together~ This is why utopias permit fables and discourse: they run with the very grain of­ space? Th
language and are part of the fundamental dimension of the fabulous; heterotopias the same
(such as those found so often in Borges) desiccate speech, stop words in their tracks, artists lik
contest the very possibility of grammar at its source; they dissolve our myths and sterilise the rationalitj
lyricism of our sentences. about the
M. FOUCAULT. THE ORD'ER OF THINGS desire, thf
dull realit

• David Porush, uses terminology that invites comparison bet~een th~ poetics of real machines and
strange inventions, and literary gadgets:
successful
highlight '.
words anc

{-: t,
.C-.:;.4"
d that:
psycho-behauioural _~:~
rarely enter into the
.'
, niche in which such "
lNG' WITH TECHNOLOGY
.:lJECTS
idden emotions it is
;'failure, probability and doubt". These two rhetorics are at odds with each other and their
h literature: not the
weaving together prOVides the qualities of this text, "an allegorical world of pure fiction"
:jf is a gadget in that
about the "perception of the mute resistance of worldly objects to our vain and
by Michel Foucault
re is neuertheless a
1 up cities with uast
J.gh the road to them
'syntax' in aduance,
one another) to 'hold
th the uery grain of
'ulous; heterotopias
rds in ,their tracks,
Iths and sterilise the
~.ER
OF THINGS
r real machines and
, fIG, 3,! ,
, Deni, Santac"iar" PO RTAL E (1989)
",iIltn sparks when it is pas~ed
.[/trOU~ll, is an example of his concern
wHh an aesthetics of use where
[nvenrion is used to give objects
a disdncuve identity that moves away
from me IInguislJcs of construction
and manufacture, ­
FIG. 3.11
Philip Gamer's A LIE NAT URE (985) demonstrates me power of
mock-ups, scenarios and Itctlrious narrative over working prorol'/pes
as a way of presenting this kind of fiction.
[Samuel Beckett's] Lost Ones is a palpable fiction which, euen as its inuentor attempts to
complete the blueprint, colfapses into impossible meaninglessness, self-contradiction, and
absurdity. The faffibifity of the cylinder machine lies in ,the fact it is constructed in words; the
author's attempt to describe it precisely becomes an exercise in the futifity of trying to describe
anything using language.
D. PORUSH. THE SOFT MACHINE
Beckett uses two kinds of language, a precise technical/mathematical one, and a language of
inappropriate attempts to attach names to them". Paul Klee seems to have incorporated
this sensibility into his draWings: for example THE TWITTERING MACHINE (FIG. 3.11), where a
strange device hovers in the ima$inary space of the draWing. suggesting a realm where
machines do not simply mirror, rationality through nonsensical functions but embody
alternative physical laws to ours, like Marcel Duchamp's 'Large Glass' and the
'Pataphysics' of Alfred jarry.
What happens when this sensibility moves from the page and canvas to become part of everyday
space? The sculptor Panamarenko is interesting in this respect as his machines embody
the same' ambiguity as the,literary and painterly gadgets of Beckett and Klee. Whereas
artists like' je~n Tinguely have constructed useless machines that comically mirror
rationality, Panamarenko's objects rarely work (FIG. 3.12), provoking the viewer to think
about the nature of invention and the desires that motivate it. They are about flight,
desire, the limits of knowledge and the transition from wondering and dreaming to the
dull reality of realisation, By'denying that last step and conventional practice they hover
successfully between the imaginary and the real. His scientific theories on flight also
highlight the fictional nature of scientific knowledge and blur the boundaries between
words and things.
 t"ttUt t\lt:t::) l n l:. 1. L I I c:. r\ '" 110 n rt ..... , • I. I,;,

('922) shows a strange device hovering in the imaginary space

o( the drawing. suggesting a realm where machines do not
simply mirror rationality through nonsensical (unctions.
PAUL Km, THE TWlmRING MACI1'"E (19Zz). COPYRIGHT OACS '999.

FIG. 3.12
Panamarenko's V0 Y A6 E
other pieces, does not aCll
about the nature of invent
. . . . ~ .. J-

""
The inventor-artist Steven Pippin meditates on photography. He coats with photographic
chemicals the interior surfaces of everyday objects like washing machines, toilets and'
SICIAL·FICTl
AI though often

II bath tubs, turning them into cameras. His ingenious experiments interweave the host beneath
object's originall' functionality with that of a camera, resulting in objects that occupy a the worl
~

difficult conceptual space outside the usual polarisation of functionalism and surrealism. of the s

!!
II
i'~ _
They
- "do-produce
'---
understand
.. abollt
..
-.--.-.~--~
sens~ •. anq '!Ie understand them, bY.,tit.is hard to say what exactly we

them. They
-~-
differ from
- .. -. ..'
the ;yn;-boliC
~_._------ .

machines-~~ddevices ~f Rebecca
-----.... -­
outside

~
.
i •
Horn (FIG. 3,13), where things do what we expect but the company they keep surprises. awarenE
Pippin creates conceptual gadgets that render useless our expectation of what things and rna.
ought to do; they turn knowledge itself into a gadget and allow us to catch glimpses of unusual
how knowledge works and wonder at its beautiful but useless mechanisms. style an
'I The objects procuced by inventor-artist Philippe Ramette occupy a different part of the space the mar
I
between ideas and things. They resemble in atmosphere the design proposals of Philip us, thro
, I
1 on obje
I Garner but are less ironical in their straightforward presentation of function through the
, I
nostalgic language of antique scientific instruments. Meyer Rubinsteinco6,'describes them positiVE
I as "prostheses of the spirit"" aids to thought and contemplation. As with many of the are an i
Ii
I II 'Jhe architects K
objects described in this chapter, the emphasis on functionality focuses the viewer's
attention on the space between the experience of100king at the work and the prospect of about I

using them. Here the emphasis is on the body and its relationship through the senses to 'analogI

the space that contains it. Although fully working,' many of Ramette's objects cannot be to atm
used because they can hurt or worse: for example OBJ ECT TO KAKE YOURSELF BE STRUCK BY politica
LIGHTNING, or INTOLERABLE OBJECT whose lens focuses sunlight onto the top of the head. Christo
But not all his objects are threatening. In a world of artificial objects shaped almost chair m

entirely by functionalism, devices like an OBJECT WITH ltHICH TO SEE THE WORLD IN DETAIL early a~
do not attempt to escape the dictates of functionalism but instead work from within, the en

extending it to include the poetic and playfully subversive (FIG. 3.14). archite
thinkin
functio
in cone
 1,-.

;e

- FIG. 3.12
Panamarenko's V0 YAGE TOT HEST A RS (1979) like many of hIS
other pieces. does noe actually work. This provokes the viewer to think
about the nature of Invenlion and the des"es that motiv.te it.

FIG. 3.13
The UN CONS C lOUSN ESS 0 F f EELlNGS (98))
by Rebecca Hom Is a symbolic machine where things do
what we expee;, bu, the company they keep surprises.
REtlECCA HORN. THE UNCONSOOUSl<£1S OF fEW"GS (198)).
COPYllIGHT DACS '999.

Nith photographjc SICIAL-FICTI.NS: :PAltA-FUNCTI'NALITY AN. CltITICISM

:hines, toilets and' . Although often threatening, Ramette's objects do not shock. Their critical content is hidden
terweave the host beneath the poetry of construction and the humorous appreciation of their function. But;
=cts that occupy a the work of the artist Andrea Zittel shocks by usingjbe fa~~LC.Q1l1e.x!.s-1)Ltbe...hQ.Q'Le,~T
;m and surrealism. ~f the system of production and consumptioC1,_J9 .0Dq~ti~~.Jllternatjve values that are U
. ..----­ .. --. --..- Ii
y_ ~~IY we ~;;.::-:' "-._ ~tside notions of the fl,!jur~...Quast but sit unc~~i~a_blyalongside 'n~)W'. They suggest <Ii
levlces of Rebecca ~':. r;" ..
~.:.y .
~ are may 09J..-btil:1e._o.nly~s.sibility. They initiate a questioning and !­
ey keep surprises. awareness that helps unravel the 'one-dimensionality' that characterises present times ~
In .of what things and maintains 'the impossibility of the possible'.(oT> Zittel's COKFORT UNITS suggest an
catch glimpses of
,ms.
part of the space
roposals of Philip
Iction through the
)61 describes them
with many of the
lses the viewer's
ld the prospect of
ugh the senses to
Jbjects cannot be
'ELF BE STRUCK BY

top of the head.

:s shaped almost
W2.R_ DETAIL

t • within,

in conditioning our responses to the environment.

,Ii
FIG. 3.15
Andrea Zitte!"s CD'" FOR TUN ITS (I99-V suggest an

;l
I
unusual way of thinking about the role of furniture.
Her emphasis shifts from LSsues of style and image to
their psychological use as tools for. inhabitation.

I
FIG. 3.14

I The emphasis placed on functionality in Philippe Ramene's

OBJECT WUH WHICH TO SEE THE WORLD

IN DE TAI L (1990) focuses Ihe viewer's anention on the

space between the experience of looking at me work and

the prosPe<lt of using it.

Another architectural practice, Diller + Scofidio, designs and builds architectural gadgets that
. work on a critical level. PARA-SITE, an architectural exploration of the impact of private, it (
"""""-- .

electronic media on architectural space, is relevant here because of the equal it and imaj

importance it gives to electronic' and conventional media. Electronic objects such as freedom of

televisions and Video Cameras are not repackaged or redesigned but integrated into new power in rf

hybrid objects (FIG. 3.11), transforming these boring and familiar devices into an a limited. I

architectural intervention. Diller + Scofidio deploy technology intelligently, using it to community

reveal, enable and criticise, intervening in not only the abstract space of the bUil.ding but My persona

also its social and practical use. first attem

PARA-SITE is one of many critical interventions in public spaces by architects and artists. One of dominated.

the best known is Krzysztof Wodiczko's large scale projections onto public bUildings. He words and

has written: "My socio-aesthetic research and experiences deal with 'strategies' for private voi,

making public art critical, non-official art". He studied on the graduate programme of non-existei

industrial design at the Akademie Sztuk Pieknych in Warsaw under a former collaborator exhalting 5

of Le Corbusier, jerzy Soltan, who advocated a '(post)-avant-garde' strategy of critical

engagement with and infiltration of, the institutional structures of industry and culture.
On graduation he worked in Warsaw as an industrial designedor UNITRA, a manufacturer public

of electronic products. One of his first pieces of art was done in 1969 while still an known ob

industrial designer there: PERSONAL INSTRU"'ENTC08l (FIG. 3.!!). He was assisted in this functions
houses a ~
by technicians from the Experimental Music StudiO in Warsaw:
The instrument transforms the sounds of the environment.
batteries,

The instrument functions in response to hand movements.

its proxirr

The instrument reacts to sunlight.

relationst

The instrument is portable.

alien, cor

The instrument can be used any place and any time.'

It is an in

The instrument is for the exclusive use of the artist who created it.
in the cit)

The instrument permits him to attain virtuosity.

the 'broac

K. WODICZKO, INSTRUMENTS, PROJ ECT IONS, VEHICLES

 FIG. 3.17
K/1< Research',: C ~ I 6 -6A TIC (1986) is
a prototype for a push--chair made from 'stee!
(they felt chHdren needed to be .xposed
to hard matenals from an early age), It was
eqUipped with measuring equipment so
that the child might interact with the
envlronmellt on the go.

FIG.3.U
KlK Research's 6U R EAU -D I C TO
('989) is an ICOnic 'analogue' for
archItectural Ideas consisting of an
assemblage of found'machine pans.

ctura] gadgets that"," Wodiczko has said that "the instrument's magic silence is its socio-poLitical message", Although

of the impact or'" private, it depends on a public space as a source of sound, and so that others can gaze at

luse of the equal it and imagine how it works. "It was a way to shape a metaphor for the limits to the

tic objects such as" , " freedom of the individual Pole, to the ways he could exercise this freedom, and to his

. ~ ~-

,.;.~

r
.-a . --" '~~~.
ntegrated into new
. , into an ',-.;_
,', ':'':f
~
power iii relation to public spaces". It was not deSigned for mass production nor even for
a limited edition "and yet h was intended for the whole world as a metaphor for

igently, using it to .'•• ~ r community life and the nature of public spaces in Poland":

of the building but My personal instrument proved to be the point of departure for all my public works. it was my
first attempt to provide a metaphorical definition of man's position as a 'citizen' of a
and artists, One of dominated public space. It was also the first time I attempted to hint at the 'strategy' of taking
ublic buildings, He words and using space as medium in which to speak them, even though the right to use a
i th 'strategies' for private voice in space that was totally 'socialised' (politicised) by the government was utterly
ate programme of non-existent. I proposed the technique of speaking silently, reticently or by grotesquely
)rmer collaborator exhalting silence.
;trategy of critical K. WOO/CZKO, INSTRUKENTS, PROJECTIONS, VEHICLES

lustry and culture.

lA, a manufacturer
Wodiczko's public projections and homeless vehicles continue this research (FIG. 3.2')., A less
16 9 while still an known object, the ALIEN STAFF, shows how industrial design, through conceiving new

s assisted in this
functions and their configuration as 'accessible' products, can function criticalily. The staff
houses a small LCD television, while a small video player, a CB radio or walkie-talkie, and
batteries are in a shoulder bag. The small size of the display, its p.osition at eye level and
its proximity to the alien's face are all important. Once somebody has been attracted, a
relationship is perceived between the face within the screen and the actual face of the
- alien, conceptual barriers are destabilised, and real communication may begin:
It is an instrument that gives the individual immigran.t a chance to 'address' directly anyone
in the city who may be attracted by the symbolic form of the equipment and the character of
the 'broadcast' program.
,CTIONS, VEHICLES K. WOD/CZKO, INSTRUMENTS, PROJECTIONS, VEHICLES
 ImpOl'tance to el~ctromc and conventional medla, ElecTronic objects such
as TIs and vIdeo cameras are nor repackaged or redesigned but are inrc2rared FIG. 3.18
Into new hybrid objects. Krzymof Wodlczko's PER
INS T R U" EN T (1969), al
private, depends on a publ;
as a source of sound, and s
others can gaze at it and iIT
how it works.

., ....

lC
Wodiczko's designs show how simple electronic technologies can challenge preconceptions, but illegally
are at the margins of design. Although I see them as design proposals not artworks it tuned intc
seems tha~, to hold a design view where electronic objects function as criticism, one must bedroom I

move closer to the world of fine art because the design profession finds it difficult to The radio scanner
accommodate such research. Objects such as PERSONAL INSTRUMENT and ALIEN STAFF, with sell it but,
their use of simple electronics and their emphasis on invention and social and draws att€
cultural content, are rare examples of how product design and the electronic object can space but
fuse into critical design. eavesdrop
becomes c
HEltTZIAN PATHILIGIES: owner is I
PAItA-FUNCTIINALITY AN» ELECTItINIC I:aJECTS with the ~

People like to play lotto and people like to use the ATM. Why don't you make it an option in the musician F
ATM to say put your money in and say, I'ff bet a little bit and see if I can get a little more out, To Scanner,
so you ask for twenty doffars, and you push the button, and you could get twenty-five or beenbuildi.
you could get fifteen. the worfd t
IEFF KIPNIS. IN 0 F F RAMP coffection 0

fabrication
Another zone of activity outside that of even the exiled designer is 'anonymous design', where
alternative conceptual models already find expression through electronic artefacts.
'Patho[ogica l' gadgets are examples of life outside the normal conception of reality; they
are design fictions, deviations and failures and help to maintain the 'impossibility the visible
il of the possible'. categories
Many of these devices concern communication. Most communication technology' is oriented ~~~~'
towards the individual; it cannot yet support or even encourage more complex social ~ ,
situations. Jt is point-to-point, one-to-one, not place~to-place. Yet most of thiS narrow'.," • low-cost ve
form of communication takes place within that vast field of telematicpossibility, the.. component
electromagnetic spectrum. The tools and devices limit the possibilities, not the medium. ~'~:' black box, I
Ironically, many of the more interesting possibilities can be found in 'pathological' .~;
products based on paranoia and suspicion. Many are designed to 'open up' one-to-one..";.<_~.
channels, transforming private situations into public ones. Scanners, bugs, and detectors' > ;~,,~~~~it~·..; see invisibJ,