Blob - Useless Machine
Sight of an object
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Concept: Merve Akdogan, Selin Dursun, Yinghou Wang
Time: September 2023
Role: Object Design, Fabrication, Concept Design, Physical Computing, Visualization
Instructor: Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez
A conversation begins when we make eye contact.
What about our conversations with the objects around us?
What can an eye-contact invoke with an object?
According to Latour's Actor-Network theory, objects are not passive entities but 'actors' with agency and the ability to influence human actions and decisions. When we make eye contact with objects, can we reveal their social consciousness? Can we offer a new experience of interaction in a network where people and objects are essentially equal participants?
Our intention is to step into a world where the object has a memory and carries social and cultural data, as opposed to the general consciousness that tries to see the object as mostly passive. We aim to activate the passive interaction between human and machine by evaluating this with an interaction that seems meaningless at first glance but activates the object and presents a new way of communication.
