Andrew Redoble
DAI 227 Rethinking Digital Visual Media
Week 15
1) In the article "Between a Blob + a Hard Place" Steven Skov Holt & Mara Holt Skov argue in the File InCA_Spring05.pdf (on page 20) that the 'blobject' phenomenon really took off in the ID (industrial design) profession in the 1990s. Why?
According to Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov, the ‘blobject’ phenomenon took off in the ID profession in the 1990s because of the increasing power of CAD, modeling techniques, new materials, and production methods and rapid prototyping. It was possible to apply these to push the expressive possibilities of plastic. The year 1998 included the release of many famous blobjects such as the new VW Beetle and the Apple iMacs.
2) Which year in the 1990s was a watershed?
The year was 1998.
3) What three other products were introduced this year that were good examples of blobjects?
Three products that were introduced in the year 1998 were the new VW Beetle, the “five flavor” Apple iMacs, and the Triax watch from Nike.
4) On page 29 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes when a 'gizmo' becomes a 'spime'. Copy the sentence here.
“Suppose, however, that you become genuinely interested in gadgets – not as symbols of wonder to be deployed as sci-fi stage props, but as actual, corporeal physical presences. It may dawn on you that you are surrounded by a manufactured environment. You may further come to understand that you are not living in a centrally planned society, where class distinctions and rationing declare who has access to the hardware. Instead, you are living in a gaudy, market-driven society whose material culture is highly unstable and radically contingent.”
5) On page 45 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes a defining characteristic of a Synchronic Society. Quote him here
“A synchronic society generates trillions of catalogable, searchable, trackable trajectories: patterns of design, manufacturing, distribution and recycling that are maintained in fine-grained detail.”
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