Tuesday, March 31, 2009

As Technology Disappears

Slowly but surely our devices will disappear. Why do you need visible video machines, dvd players, computer boxes, TVs, remotes, speakers etc?

The lounge becomes like the drawing room or sitting room of old, with the technology hidden away for when it is needed. A wall that becomes a screen when required, but otherwise is a painting, or a window with a view, or just a wall.

To extend it, maybe walls start disappearing as super strong glass comes along. A house serves the purpose of providing warmth and comfort. For that, we used to need big thick opaque walls. Maybe nature starts coming indoors more than before?

When you think of the future, comic books would suggest lots of gadgets. Maybe the gadgets are so effective they disappear.

But what happens when the gadgets make other tangible things disappear. Your lounge is no longer filled with the books, CDs and DVDs that 'define' you?

Will art replace bookshelves? Or will books become the art that is there? A French Friend complains that he loves the look of a large bookshelf. There is something romantic about that. The problem with things like 'virtual bookshelves' or 'virtual bookcovers' for ebooks, and similar things for DVD and CD preferences which give your lounge character in a way that makes your living space an extension of who you are... is that they are explicitly designed for that purpose rather than being a byproduct.

Maybe this is more a question for interior designers and architects. How do you make your space reflect your personality when the tools you used disappear.

For me, the idea of a lounge filled with paintings, or ceramics, or sculpture... or musical instruments seems a fair replacement. But that does limit the 'facets of character on display'.

I still get an uneasy feeling about the idea that these things are 'signals'. That makes them sound shallow, but I guess that is what they are. Maybe they aren't signals but tangible marks of yourself on the outside world. Ones that tell something about who you are. That help tell your story.

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