Objectified: Study of Content and Form

Gary Hustwit's documentary Objectified features a series of interviews with designers and design critics in which they discuss their ideas about design. One of the basic interactions we have with design lies in the interaction between form and content, which are discussed extensively throughout the movie.

The two main types of form are explained well by Alice Rawsthorn, a design editor at the International Herald Tribune. She separates types of form into two categories: analog and digital. Analog design constitutes things that tell us what they do by what they look like: an alien coming from another planet could guess what to do with a chair or a spoon. Digital design centers around the microchip: an MP3 player's form gives very little hint as to what it is used for. Analog products by nature give some hint as to what they are used for, but the microchip has annihilated this theory; form does not need to give a hint of content.

Karim Rashid describes his design aesthetic as "techno-organic"; he seeks to create a "physical interpretation of the digital age." He believes that the design of our surroundings should reflect the growing technology of our times. Rashid compares our less technological furniture designs, like wooden chairs, to using a horse-drawn carriage rather than a car. Digital cameras are still shaped in a rectangular form, which was created to house the rectangular film: why do we continue to create cameras this way? Rashid emulates the question of digital form; his creations emulate the desire to move away from traditional forms, continuing the quest for something new.

This concept connects with my last post as well-- technology is changing the way we design. Technology creates a new medium with which to design; it also creates a desire for the futuristic, as we look toward what is next. Lastly, technology creates a new relationship between content and form, one where designers have more opportunity and flexibility with their designs.