Paint by numbers...
an impending age
of digital expression?

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( Fourth year industrial design thesis project.) EXERPT >>

In coming to terms with the impact of digital technology on everyday life, designers must re-align their roles if they are to make any meaningful impact on these new technological genres.

Beyond packaging electronic equipment using semiologically driven descriptions of a product's function, a designer must understand its role as mediator between humans and the world. When a product ceases to be viewed as a tool, and is instead, used in socialisation, it becomes an object we use to reference ourselves and communicate with.

If irresponsibly managed, these technologies can lead to an alienation of the human experience, and rather than being freed by technology, we become entrapped by it. On the other hand, these technologies could serve functional, emotional, and relational aspects of our lives and hopefully lead to enrichment of shared experience.

Speculation along these lines is an important part of the maturation process of design ideologies in this area. It offers a basis for debate over possible futures and serves as a guide, suggesting how digital object design might be approached in a range of possible circumstances.

What if, instead of being defined as a separate entity in space, digital products were embedded into furniture and architecture? Here the precepts of industrial design breakdown. Without recourse to meaning embodied in product form, the designer must create meaning by structuring information. In this climate, industrial designers must come to understand their role as a 'mediator between people and their environment.'