From electric devices to electronic behaviour

Stijn Ossevoort

pp. 392-402

in: Randy Adams, Steve Gibson, Stefan Müller Arisona (eds), Transdisciplinary digital art. sound, vision and the new screen, Berlin, Springer, 2008

Abstract

In this paper I give a brief overview of the role electronic devices have played in our daily lives. A century ago electric devices where hailed as a curiosity, soon they became an everyday object, now they have become submerged as embedded devices. In the present day and certainly in the future the ongoing integration of electronic devices will have a profound effect on human-product relationships.In order to guide directions in the future we need to know more about the way we relate to our products. Through my project, "Wearable Dreams", I will illustrate how we can reveal our existing user-product relationships and how these can be used to create unique electronic devices. This line of thinking paves the way for electronic products to become user-inclusive in which the users are an essential part or co-producer of the meaning of an object.