Wilson Miner – When we build

After watching the talk given by Wilson Minor I saw a bit more clearly that objects, no matter how nice or well designed are simple  “empty vessels to fulfill our desires” that we accumulate to gain some kind of sense of belonging or to be appreciated by others due to our material possessions. It makes me think of phones – how they are always being upgraded and how companies are always coming out with a newer, ‘better’ version that we ‘must’ have and how many of us fall prey to this. Weirdly enough the talk made me think of the song ‘Never enough’ in the greatest showman – no matter what we have or get, we will always want something else, it will never fulfill us or make us whole.

“we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan. What he is trying to say is that things can create a new environment, changes outlooks and attitudes in societies, it affects everything. The light bulb lengthened the work day and changed how we interact; cars changed our environment, we had cars so we needed roads, so we needed highways and so on.

I may not fully realize the extent of the change or impact an invention or design might have on the world – with the right tools anything is possible. Phones changed completely how we interact we each other and created a divide between generations – smartphones, for example, are all someone born in 2000’s has ever known, its a central point of our society, work and method of communication. This tells me that the things we surround ourselves with shapes us.

Everything I create as an Interaction designer should be designed to last and evolve with the time. Things that were important, relevant or revolutionary 100 years ago are now irrelevant or improved upon so much and changed it would be hard to know that the originated from that ‘outdated’ design or technology. The world is constantly changing and if we don’t want to be left behind then we must change with it.

 

 

 

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