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Home " Article " Oltre atomi e corpi: una post-riflessione su
AE 2016 / Beyond atoms and bodies: a
post-reflection on AE 2016
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Italiano [English below]
Oltre atomi e corpi: una post-riflessione su AE 2016 /
Beyond atoms and bodies: a post-reflection on AE 2016
Giorgio Cipolletta
A R T I C L E I D E A S R E V I E W S
https://noemalab.eu/category/ideas/
https://noemalab.eu/category/reviews/

Ars Electronica 2016.
Per una ricerca alchemica radicale del nostro tempo e la perdita
di equilibro.
Una post-riflessione oltre gli atomi e i corpi
La rivoluzione digitale ha riconfigurato e decodificato il nostro
mondo immerso
tra il bagnato del biologico e il materico dei bit, modificando in
maniera radicale la
nostra percezione. Chi sono gli alchimisti del nostro tempo?
Con Radical Atoms
and the alchemist of our time, anche questo anno il Festival Ars
Electronica a Linz
(8-12 settembre 2016) ha provato a riflettere sul nostro tempo,
la società
contemporanea e il rapporto sempre più imprescindibile tra le
arti e le scienze.
Attraverso il processo alchemico che l’arte e le scienze crea, si
edificano nuovi
territori fluttuanti e ubiqui e soggetti ibridi. L’alchimia non è
altro che una sorta di
filosofia, – ci ricorda Marcel Duchamp, – un tipo di pensiero
che porta ad un

modo di comprensione. L’alchimia è pratica derivata dalla
mescolanza
“consapevole” tra arte e scienza. Pensiamo all’arte robotica, ai
droni, alI’Internet
delle cose, ai wereable device, alla bioarte e alla telematica ecc.
Dal calcolo
digitale al mondo quantico, dall’ingegneria genetica fino alla
biologia sintetica, le
tecnologie aumentano la nostra abilità di manipolare le
fondamentali leggi della
natura. Delusioni, desideri, sogni e le speranze dell’essere
umano sono tutti
ingredienti necessari affinché nuovi immaginari possano
permettere di
sperimentare nuove idee speculative creando dei momenti
straordinari. Infinite
sono le domande che sorgono durante queste occasioni di
confronto a Linz. Ogni
http://www.aec.at/radicalatoms/de/
anno l’Ars Electronica diviene una piattaforma di dibattitto sul
concetto di vita
nell’era dell’ingegneria genetica, sull’intelligenza artificiale
che aumenta il nostro

mondo fisico dove persino le informazioni biologiche alterano
spesso le forme di
comunicazione e determinano un mondo immerso tra la
rivoluzione digitale e
l’evoluzione culturale e sociale.
L’Ars Electronica si pone quindi nuove sfide per comprendere
inedite frontiere e il
compito dell’artista è quello di amalgamare il mondo
disincarnato dei dati digitali
con il mondo fisico dei nostri corpi. Artisti, designer, scienziati
hanno imparato a
collaborare insieme attraverso discipline variegate come le
neuroscienze, le
biotecnologie stimolando nuovi percorsi di interazione tra
tecnologia e natura. I
ricercatori e scienziati hanno sviluppato abilità e
predisposizioni del tutto nuove,
lavorando sul futuro. Le nuove soggettività che nascono da
questa fusione sono il
risultato di una vera e propria unione di linee di ricerca e
mescolamento di stili e
linguaggi plurali.
Davide Quayola ad esempio con il suo Sculpture Factory ci
consegna

un’architettura visuale tra la scultura rinascimentale dell’idea
del “non finito
michelangelesco” e le sequenze algoritmiche di un braccio
robotico che riporta
alla luce la tradizione artistica e l’evoluzione tecnologica. Il
reale e l’artificiale si
mescolano nel progetto Common Flowers /Flower Commons di
Georg Tremmel e
Shiho Fukuhara (BCL – Artist lab) dove i fiori recisi vengono
clonati, utilizzando
metodi di coltura di tessuti vegetali, mentre Joe Davis con
Bombyx Chrysopoeia
http://www.quayola.com/captives-series/
realizza una seta di falena geneticamente modificata, contenente
silicateina, una
proteina che si trova nella spugna marina Tethya aurantia.
Alessio Chierico con
Trāṭaka invece tramite le sofisticate interazioni basate sulle
Brain Computer
Interface sperimenta un diverso modo di “meditazione
tecnologica”. In questa
installazione interattiva si rileva l’attività cerebrale basata
sull’attenzione

attraverso una tecnica di meditazione che mira a stimolare il
chakra che è
responsabile dell’attività del cervello stesso.
Radical Atoms è stato il tema della trentasettesima edizione
dell’Ars Electronica e
nonostante tutto anche quest’anno (forse con scarso successo) si
è tentato di
consegnare nuove visioni, ma Linz sembra essersi trasformata
più in una vetrina
popolare di intrattenimento, dove si è sostituita quasi tutta la
ricerca con il
divertimento, perdendo quelle linea guida dell’innovazione e
soprattutto della
ricerca stessa.
Non nego invece l’interessantissima location (PostCity) che ha
ospitato la zona
centrale dell’Ars Electronica, ossia l’ex struttura logista Postal
Service austriaca
che è divenuta cornice fluttuante, labirintica e profonda (a volte
persino cupa,) e
allo stesso tempo anche spazio di rinnovamento.
In questo immenso luogo, situato accanto alla stazione
ferroviaria centrale della

http://www.chierico.net/trataka/
città austriaca, l’Ars Electronica ha dedicato una particolare
attenzione al design,
all’abito che ha trasformato persino il senso dell’abitare
attraverso nuove
sensorialità aumentate. L’abito in questo contesto si è
trasformato in un
dispositivo multisensoriale e spaziale, mentre il corpo è
diventato laboratorio di
sperimentazioni, assumendo nuove metriche e configurazioni.
Qui il digitale e il multimedia hanno trovato una sorta di
dialogo “immateriale”
dove il corpo e i sensi sono diventati i nuovi dispositivi. I
materiali attuali ci hanno
dato la possibilità di proiettare il nostro immaginario verso un
futuro anteriore
prossimo, connettendo l’essere umano, la tecnologia e
l’ambiente. Ad esempio
Maria Castellanos e Alberto Valverde con il progetto The
Enviroment Dress 2.0
hanno creato un dispositivo indossabile capace di sintonizzare
le variazioni della

temperatura, dell’inquinamento, e della pressione atmosferica.
La raccolta di
questi dati costruiscono una geografia emozionale della città,
mentre l’abito
segnala attraverso variazioni luminose lo stato di “disturbo
ambientale”. Questo
progetto ha conquistato la nomination Start Priz’16 al Festival
di Ars Electronica.
L’abito si configura quindi come una sorta di seconda pelle
persino attraverso la
costruzione di materiali biologici modellati sul corpo nel
progetto Myco TEX di
Aniela Hoitink. L’artista olandese crea abiti, cambiando il modo
di usare i tessuti. Il
tessuto infatti è costituito da forme discoidali del corpo
vegetativo del fungo
chiamato micelio che diviene materiale biodegradabile per la
realizzazione di
prodotti e tessuti.
http://mariacastellanos.net/?/=/seccion/projects/entrada/environ
ment_dress_eng
http://neffa.nl/portfolio/mycotex/
Altri interessanti progetti di design sono stati quelli di Karina
Wirth e Natalie

Peter con il progetto Trans.Fur dove si sono sviluppati dei
“tessuti intelligenti”
capaci di alterare la permeabilità dell’umidità regolando le loro
strutture
superficiali. Questo tessuto intelligente che emula la pelle
umana cambia la sua
struttura adattandosi alle condizioni dell’ambiente, ad esempio
quando il
materiale viene bagnato, esso si restringe. Un altro progetto
interessante e
stimolante proposto sempre dall’Artist Lab Artificial Skins and
Bones, che
raccoglie un gruppo di giovani designer con base a Berlino, è
stato Visible
Strenght. L’ispirazione di questo progetto prende le radici dalla
struttura del
polipo creando tessuti che modificano il colore della superficie
attraverso l’attività
muscolare. I creatori Jhu-Ting Yang e Lisa Stohn plasmano così
una sorta di
seconda pelle con possibilità interattive e visuali.
C’è addirittura chi ricorre ai campi magnetici per foggiare
scarpe e gioielli come

Magnetic Motion di Iris Van Herpen.
L’artista olandese crea sculture “viventi” reattive, combinano
computazione
avanzata, biologia sintetica e ingegneria meccatronica.
Attraverso tecniche come
lo stampaggio a iniezione e il taglio laser su strutture
architettoniche labirintiche
e intricate, Van Herpen crea abiti, giacche, pantaloni, gonne e
camicette dalle
forme dinamiche e superfici che ricordano il movimento del
corpo.
https://vimeo.com/155512545
https://skinsandbones.de/
http://www.irisvanherpen.com/womenswear#magnetic-motion
http://www.irisvanherpen.com/
La natura tridimensionale e la stratificazione dei capi danno
loro volume. La
struttura controllata dei vestiti è compensata da quella caotica
degli accessori,
scarpe, cinture, collane e pochette sagomate utilizzando i campi
magnetici, in
modo da creare una collezione in cui nessun pezzo è uguale
all’altro. La

caratteristica del lavoro della Van Harpen è quello di giocare tra
natura e
tecnologia.
Sempre l’Artist Lab Artificial Skins and Bones con il progetto
The Aesthetics Of
The Uncanny di Carmina Blank e Sandra Stark riflette su come
le protesi possono
avere effetti indesiderati (perturbanti) estetici, quasi
inspiegabili. Ispirati dal
fenomeno dell’Uncanny Valley di Masahiro Mori del 1960, The
Aesthetics of the
Uncanny esplora il delicato confine tra il design protesico e le
perturbazioni che
esse provocano. Lo studio si basa proprio sulla concezione di un
materiale che
possa aiutare e comprendere questo fenomeno perturbante.
Proprio dal punto di
vista estetico modificando colori e aspetto dei materiali si cerca
di intervenire in
modo da diminuire la soglia di incertezza e perturbamento.
Da menzionare è lo stimolante lavoro di Robertina Sebjanic con
Aurelia +1 Hz
attraverso una performance sono-visiva di straordinaria
pregnanza concettuale.

L’artista slovena presenta una costante ricerca scientifica,
analizzando il mondo
delle meduse. L’Aurelia non è altro che una specie planctonica
che si trova
nell’Adriatico. Le meduse, nell’era della sesta estinzione, dopo
essere vissute nei
mari e negli oceani del mondo per oltre 500 milioni di anni,
senza mai subire dei
danni appaiono oggi l’archivio perfetto dell’evoluzione,
fornendoci delle
https://starts-prize.aec.at/en/artifical-skins-and-bones/
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masahiro_Mori
http://robertina.net/aurelia-1hz/
indicazioni potenziali che il futuro, con il progresso
biotecnologico e medico-
molecolare, può far proprio. Infatti alcune specie di meduse
hanno questa
particolare caratteristica dell’eterna giovinezza e
dell’immortalità. Le migliori
condizioni di vita in un mondo tecnologicamente avanzato ci
permettono di
orientarci verso una vita significativamente più lunga di quella

del passato.
Sicuramente questa ambizione di lunga vita è amplificata
dall’uso ossessivo dei
farmaci ridefinendo persino la critica dei valori sociali.
Robertina
Sebjanic concepisce e realizza una performance sonora dove i
suoni sono
generati e trasmessi dalla medusa Aurelia Aurita, mescolati
assieme a quelli
registrati tramite un archivio di reminiscenze temporali,
raccolti durante il tempo
degli esperimenti di sonorizzazione. Sia i suoni registrati che i
suoni live
costituiscono un nuovo paesaggio sonoro e insieme ci
conducono ad
un’esperienza immersiva sono-visiva.
Anche Lucy Mc-Rae, l’architetto del corpo offre la sua visione
sul futuro
dell’essere umano con tre documentari. The Institute of
Isolation, Make your
Maker e Future Day Spa, riflettono tutti sulle possibilità del
corpo, da un lato si
evidenzia la condizione di isolamento e la capacità di aumentare
gli aspetti

fondamentali di umana resilienza, dall’altro Lucy Mc-Rae mette
in scena
immagini macabre tra corpo e cibo (inseparabili) attraverso la
manipolazione
genetica e la clonazione umana. Infine in The Future Day Spa,
Mc-Rae ricrea un
centro benessere progettato per preparare le menti e i corpi dei
partecipanti per i
http://www.lucymcrae.net/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/lucy-mcrae-art-science-fiction-
future
http://www.lucymcrae.net/make-your-maker/
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/lucy-mcrae-
explores-space-prep-through-art
viaggi spaziali. Attraverso una camera a vuoto che conduce al
rilascio
dell’ossitocina nel cervello, l’artista australiana studia il
cambiamento delle
emozioni umane.
La tecnologia riproduttiva e l’ingegneria genetica trattano la
vita come un codice
computazionale, ossia è possibile fare il sequenziamento del
DNA e rimuovere o

creare tratti desiderabili e progettare la specie umana.
Michael Burton e Michiko Nitta con Instruments of the
Afterlife, presentano una
riflessione sulle future generazioni attraverso nuovi strumenti
basati sulla
biologia sintetica e la nanotecnologia per delineare un futuro
post-spreco.
Nell’installazione teatrale Human Study#1, 3RNP di Patrick
Tresset viene
delineato invece un soggetto umano da parte di un gruppo di
robots che fungono
e sostituiscono gli artisti.
Uno studio di ricerca di design nomade Unknown Fields
Division diretto da Liam
Young e Kate Davies con la loro opera Rare Earthenware
riflettono invece sulla
catena di rifornimento globale delle tecnologie moderne. Il
progetto segue le
radici delle componenti elettroniche di lusso fino ai siti
minerari dove elementi
terrestri rari vengono rubati dal pianeta. Non mancano nemmeno
i droni con la
performance del sound artist Sam Auinger, Drone 100 –
Spaxels over Linz.

http://www.burtonnitta.co.uk/InstrumentsOfTheAfterlife.html
http://patricktresset.com/of-installations/
http://prix2016.aec.at/prixwinner/21751/
http://www.soundstudieslab.org/author/sam-auinger/
http://www.aec.at/radicalatoms/de/drone100/
http://www.aec.at/press/files/2016/08/DRONE-100_Spaxels-
over-Linz_fin_TM_en.pdf
Coinvolgente invece la perfomance di Louis-Philippe Demers e
Bill Vorn con il
lavoro Inferno proponendo un’interessante interazione tra
esoscheletri e
partecipanti. Inferno è un progetto di performance robotica
partecipato dove il
pubblico è invitato a indossare degli esoscheletri, i quali
ordineranno agli
spettatori/attori movimenti fisici del corpo. Una sorta di
“punizione” a cui il corpo
è sottoposto, non violenta, ma determinata da forze esterne
provenienti da un
intelligenza artificiale. Questo lavoro offre una riflessione
sull’impatto della
tecnologia su nostri corpi e sulla società, focalizzando
l’attenzione sul rapporto
umano-macchina e la relazione distruttiva tra la natura e

l’automazione in una
scenografia di rumori, suoni tecno e movimenti robotici.
Non convince a mio parere l’attribuzione del Golden Nica
all’opera Can you hear
me? di Christoph Wachter e Mathias Jud per una riflessione
superficiale e mal
funzionante sulla sorveglianza e lo spionaggio, né tanto meno le
menzionate
Open Surgery di Frank Kolkman e Parasitic/Symbiotic di Ann
Kathrin Krenz,
sistemi robotici diversi per fini, ma uniti nella mancanza critica
dei lavori, da un
lato la chirurgia low-cost open source e dall’altro un sistema di
interazione tra
algoritmi e natura.
Il Prix Forum quest’anno è stato dedicato a Jasia Reichardt,
nella categoria
Visionary Pionieri Media Art Nobel. Si ricorda l’autorevole
critica d’arte e curatore
per l’importante mostra pioneristica nel 1968 presso l’Institute
of Contemporary
Arts di Londra, dal titolo Serendipity cibernetic, dove gli artisti
si sono mescolati

nella relazione profonda tra il computer, le macchine, algoritmi
e la mente umana.
http://www.fondation-
langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=261
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/10/movie-frank-kolkman-
hacks-3d-printer-diy-surgical-robot-open-surgery/
http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/parasitic-
symbiotic-nature-and-technology/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasia_Reichardt
http://cyberneticserendipity.net/
Radical Atoms è un’edizione che raccoglie probabilmente
progetti innovativi, ma
da un lato si soffre dell’incapacità logistica di legare tutti gli
eventi che il festival
offre e soprattutto è mancata una teoria critica e stimolante
come lo era molti
anni fa.
Sicuramente è stimolante lo studio di Hiroshi Ishii e del suo
team Tangible Media
Group che consegna l’etichetta a questa edizione di Ars
Electronica di Radical
Atoms. Gli esseri umani si sono evoluti nel percepire e
manipolare il mondo fisico
attraverso il digitale. Proprio Hiroshi Ishii presenta
un’interfaccia utente tangibile

(TUI) che si basa sulla nostra destrezza incarnando
informazioni digitali nello
spazio fisico. Radical Atoms ci offre una visione tra le
interazioni umane e
materiali fisici che sono computazionalmente trasformabili e
riconfigurabili. In
altre parole l’informazione digitale avrà una manifestazione
fisica, tale da
permetterci di interagire direttamente. Il professore del MIT ci
consegna una
prospettiva dell’interazione tra uomo e macchina in cui tutta
l’informazione
digitale ha una manifestazione fisica, così da poterci interagire
direttamente.
L’incorporazione fisica di funzioni digitali avvicina di molto la
computazione alle
nostre vite di ogni giorno.
Linz ogni anno offre senz’altro una panoramica interessante, ma
a volte si fa
fatica a seguire un percorso processuale di ricerca e si sente
sempre meno la
dimensione teorica, derivante molto probabilmente da una
mancanza di fondi, in

questo periodo di acuta crisi economica.
http://tangible.media.mit.edu/person/hiroshi-ishii/
http://tangible.media.mit.edu/
Atomi, molecole, elettroni, bit spaziano liberi, vaganti nei
dintorni di Linz. Nelle
ultime edizioni si è creato anche un senso di disagio e
disorganizzazione logistica
degli spazi dislocati forse in maniera caotica rispetto alle
edizioni precedenti. La
ricerca dovrebbe in maniera radicale come gli atomi, dettare
nuove idee originali,
affinché esse possano persino traumatizzare, provocare uno
shock, uno scontro-
incontro.
Forse è proprio questa condizione “perturbante” che manca
oggi, per poter poi
tornare al dibattito (quasi nullo in questa edizione 2016). Il
mito dell’alchimia si
riflette nella misteriosa rappresentazione dell’opus dell’artista.
L’alchimista crea e
trasforma la rozza materia celando il risultato dell’opera alla
trasformazione
conoscitiva. L’artista, come l’alchimista, è dunque colui che

sublima la realtà per
trovare la verità che essa cela in un’azione di di-svelamento
continuo: l’utopia di
un riscatto operato dalla fantasia sulla opacità della realtà.
Forse l’alchimia tanto
conclamata ha fallito il processo di trasformazione, più che il
tentativo di
trasformare i metalli in oro, l’idea ha lasciato spazio ad una
esposizione fragile e
spesso superficiale.
Forse abbiamo smarrito la facoltà della serendipità tanto
festeggiata e ricercata,
è stata perduta, così come la pietra filosofale.
Senza dubbio viviamo in uno straordinario luogo e in uno
straordinario tempo, ma
ciò che manca è la straordinarietà degli eventi micro e
macroscopici fino ad
averne le vertigini.
Proprio, il poeta francese decadente Rimbaud in relazione al
processo
dell’alchimia (in questo caso del verbo) scriveva:

Una vertigine sicuramente evocata, ma purtroppo neanche gli
atomi con la loro
A me. La storia di una delle mie follie. / Da molto tempo mi
vantavo di
possedere tutti i paesaggi possibili e trovavo irrisorie le
celebrità della pittura
e della poesia moderna. / Mi piacevano i dipinti idioti,
sovrapporte, scenari,
tele di saltimbanchi, insegne, miniature popolari, la letteratura
fuori moda, il
latino di chiesa, i libri erotici senza ortografia, i romanzi dei
nostri nonni, i
racconti di fate, i libretti per bambini, le vecchie opere, i
ritornelli semplici, i
ritmi ingenui. / Sognavo crociate, spedizioni di cui non si
hanno documenti,
repubbliche senza storia, guerre di religione soffocate,
rivoluzioni di costumi,
spostamenti di razze e di continenti: credevo a tutti gli
incantesimi. / Inventai
i colori delle vocali! A nera, E bianca, I rossa, O blu, U verde.
– Regolai la forma
e il movimento di ogni consonante, e, con ritmi istintivi, mi
illusi d’inventare un

linguaggio poetico accessibile, un giorno o l’altro, a tutti i
sensi. Tenevo in
serbo la traduzione. / Fu dapprima uno studio. Scrivevo dei
silenzi, delle notti,
annotavo l’inesprimibile. Fissavo vertigini.
(
(
radicalità ci hanno potuto salvare in questa fase, dove persino la
creazione manca
della sua azione e del suo nucleo vitale e perturbante. Ma
continuiamo con
coraggio a navigare nell’oceano delle domande e delle
contaminazioni in un
futuro così lontano, così vicino.
Perfino Hitchcock si stupisce in questa spirale infinita e
delicata perdita di
equilibrio. Come funamboli gli artisti cercano attraverso la lente
d’ingrandimento
uno spiraglio e la scienza le sue traiettorie.
English
Ars Electronica 2016.

For a radical alchemical research of our time and loss of
balance.
A post-reflection beyond the atoms and the bodies
The digital revolution has reconfigured and decoded our world,
it is absorbed
between the wet and the organic material of the bits, changing
our perception in
a radical way.
Who are the alchemists of our time? This year, Ars Electronica
Festival in Linz (8-
12 September 2016), entitled Radical Atoms and the alchemist
of our time,
reflected on our time, on contemporary society and the
increasingly inescapable
http://www.aec.at/radicalatoms/de/
relationship between the arts and sciences.
Art and science create this alchemical process and they build
new floating and
ubiquitous territories, as well as hybrid subjects. Alchemy is a
kind of philosophy,
as Marcel Duchamp recall us; it is a kind of thought that leads
to a way of

understanding. Alchemy is a practice comes from the
“conscious” mixture
between art and science.
Let’s think about robotics art, drones, Internet-of-Things,
wearable devices,
bioart and telematics etc. From digital computing to quantum
world, from genetic
engineering to synthetic biology, technologies increase our
ability to manipulate
the fundamental laws of nature.
Disappointments, desires, dreams and hopes of the human being
are all essential
ingredients for a new imaginary that can afford to experiment
with new
speculative ideas creating extraordinary moments. Many
questions arise during
such occasions in Linz.
Every year, Ars Electronica becomes a platform of debate on
the concept of life in
the era of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence that
increases our
physical world where even biological information often modify
the forms of

communication, setting a world absorbed between the digital
revolution and the
cultural and social evolution.
Ars Electronica offers new challenges for understanding such
original boundary,
where the artist blends the disembodied world of digital data
with the physical
world of our bodies.
Artists, designers, scientists learn to work together across a
variety of disciplines
such as neuroscience and biotechnology, stimulating new ways
of interaction
between technology and nature. Researchers and scientists have
developed
entirely new skills and predispositions, working on the future.
The new
subjectivity that arises from this fusion is the result of a true
ensemble among
lines of research and mixing of styles and plural languages.
For example, Sculpture Factory made by David Quayola, gives
us a visual

architecture of the Renaissance and the idea of “The Unfinished
Works of Michelangelo” and algorithmic sequences of a robotic
arm, bringing to
light artistic tradition and technological evolution. The real and
the artificial blend
into the project Common Flowers / Flower Commons by Georg
Tremmel and
Shiho Fukuhara (BCL – Artist lab), where they cut flowers and
clone them, using
plant tissue culture methods. Joe Davis’ project Bombyx
Chrysopoeia creates
instead a genetically modified silk moth, containing silicatein, a
protein found in
the marine sponge Tethya aurantia. Alessio Chierico presents
Trataka, creating a
sophisticated interactions and “technological meditation” based
on a Brain
Computer Interface experience. In this interactive installation,
brain activity is
stimulated on the basis of attention, leading to a meditation
technique that aims
to stimulate the chakra that is responsible for the brain itself.
http://www.quayola.com/captives-series/
http://www.chierico.net/trataka/

Radical Atoms was the topic of the thirty-seventh edition of the
Ars Electronica
and this year (perhaps unsuccessfully) it attempted to deliver
new visions, but
Linz looks a popular entertainment
showcase and a loss of the research and guideline of innovation.
I do not deny however the interesting location (PostCity) which
hosted the central
area of the Ars Electronica, the former place of the Austrian
Postal Service
logistics, which has become the floating frame, labyrinthine and
profound
(sometimes even dark), but at the same time also a renovation
space.
In this vast area, located next to the Linz’s Main Station, Ars
Electronica has
devoted special attention to the design, the dress that turned
even the sense of
living through new sensory increased. The dress in this context
has become a
multi-sensory and spatial device and the body has become a lab
for experiment,

taking on new metrics and configurations.
Here the digital and multimedia have found a kind of
“immaterial” dialog where
the body and the senses have become the new devices. The new
material gave
us the opportunity to project our imagination towards the Near
Future
connecting the human being, the technology and the
environment. For example,
Maria Valverde and Alberto Castellanos with The Enviroment
Dress 2.0 project
have created a wearable device that can tune variations in
temperature,
pollution, and atmospheric pressure. The collection of this data
should be
http://mariacastellanos.net/?/=/seccion/projects/entrada/environ
ment_dress_eng
building a emotional geography of the city, while the dress
signals through light
changes the status of “environmental noise”. This project has
won the
nomination Start Priz’16 to the Ars Electronica Festival.
In the Myco TEX project by Aniela Hoitink, the dress forms a

sort of second skin
even through construction of biological materials that shaped
the body. The
Dutch artist creates clothes, changing the way for use the
textiles. In fact, the
textile is constituted by combining mycelia with textiles, in
order to create flexible
composit products.
http://neffa.nl/portfolio/mycotex/
Exciting was the design project Trans.Fur by Karina and Natalie
Peter Wirth, they
have developed the “smart textiles” capable of altering moisture
permeability by
adjusting their surface structures. This intelligent textiles which
emulates the
human skin change its structure by adapting to the conditions of
the
environment, for example, when the material is wet, it shrinks.
Another interesting and challenging project was proposed by
Artist Lab Artificial
Skins and Bones, which includes a group of young designers
based in Berlin, with

their Visible Strength. The inspiration for this project comes
from the roots of the
polyp structure by creating fabrics that change the color of the
surface through
muscle activity. The creators JHU-Ting Yang and Lisa Stohn
produce a sort of
second skin with interactive and visual possibilities.
https://skinsandbones.de/
Furthermore, there are artists who use even magnetic fields to
create shoes and
jewellery, like Magnetic Motion by Iris Van Herpen. The Dutch
artist creates
“living” reactive sculptures combining advanced computation,
synthetic biology
and mechatronics engineering. Through techniques such as
injection molding and
laser cutting of labyrinthine and intricate architectural
structures, Van Herpen
creates dresses, jackets, pants, skirts and blouses from the
dynamic forms and
surfaces reminiscent of the movement of the body, giving them
dynamic shapes

and surfaces that echo the body’s movement. The three-
dimensional nature and
stratification of the leaders give them volume. The controlled
structure of the
clothes is offset by the chaotic structure of the accessories,
shoes, belts,
necklaces and clutches, shaped using magnetic fields, no two
items are alike. The
Van Herpen work key characteristic is to play between nature
and technology.
Moreover, the Artist Lab Artificial Skins and Bones, with the
project The
Aesthetics Of The Uncanny by Carmina Blank and Sandra Stark,
show that
implants can have side effects (interferences) aesthetic, almost
inexplicable.
Inspired from the concept of Uncanny Valley by Masahiro Mori
during the 1960s,
The Aesthetics of The Uncanny explores the delicate boundary
between the
familiar prosthesis design and uncanniness. The study is based
on the conception
of a material that can help and understand this disturbing
phenomenon. Just

from the point of view of aesthetic modifying colors,
appearance of the materials
they try to intervene in order to decrease the threshold of
uncertainty and
disturbance.
http://www.irisvanherpen.com/womenswear#magnetic-motion
http://www.irisvanherpen.com/
https://starts-prize.aec.at/en/artifical-skins-and-bones/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masahiro_Mori
It is worth mentioning the interesting work by Robertina
Sebjanic with Aurelia +1
Hz through an extraordinary significance conceptual sound-
visual performance.
The Slovenian artist presents a constant scientific research,
analyzing the world
of jellyfish. In fact, the Aurelia is a species found in the
Adriatic. Jellyfish, in the
era of the sixth extinction, after having lived in the seas and
oceans of the world
for over 500 million years without being damaged, now seems
to be the perfect
evolution archive, providing the potential indications that the
future for

biotechnological, medical and molecular progress. In fact, some
species of
jellyfish have this specific characteristic of eternal youth and
immortality. The
improved conditions of life in a technologically advanced world
allow us to move
towards a life significantly longer than that of the past. Surely
this life-long
ambition is amplified by the use of redefining obsessive drugs
even critics of
social values. Robertina Sebjanic conceives and realizes a sound
performance
where sounds are generated and transmitted from the jellyfish
Aurelia aurita,
mixed together with those registered by an archive of temporary
reminiscences
collected during the time of the sound experiments. Both
recorded and live
sounds represent a new soundscape. Together they lead us to an
immersive
sound-visual experience.
Even Lucy Mc-Rae, the architect of the body offers his vision
on the future of the

bodies with three documentaries. The Institute of Isolation,
Make your Maker and
Future Day Spa, in these short films the Australian artist
reflects on the
possibilities of the body. On the one hand, she highlights the
condition of
http://robertina.net/aurelia-1hz/
http://www.lucymcrae.net/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/lucy-mcrae-art-science-fiction-
future
http://www.lucymcrae.net/make-your-maker/
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/lucy-mcrae-
explores-space-prep-through-art
isolation and the ability to increase the fundamental aspects of
human resilience,
on the other Lucy Mc-Rae showcases macabre images between
body and food
(inseparable) through genetic manipulation, human cloning and
even edible.
Finally, in The Future Day Spa, Mc-Rae recreates a spa
designed to prepare the
minds and the bodies of the participants for space travel.
Through a vacuum
chamber that leads to the release of oxytocin in the brain the
Australian artist

studies the change of human emotions. Reproductive technology
and genetic
engineering treat life as a computational code, you can make
DNA sequencing
and remove or create desirable traits and design the human
species.
Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta with Instruments of the
Afterlife, present a
reflection on future generations through new tools based on
synthetic biology
and nanotechnology to plan for a post-waste future. Instead the
theatrical
installation Human Study # 1, 3RNP by Patrick Tresset, a
human subject is
outlined by a group of robots that function and replace the
artists.
Unknown Fields Division is the results of a nomadic design
research directed by
Liam Young and Kate Davies, with their project Rare
Earthenware, where they
reflect on the global supply chain of modern technologies. The
project follows the
roots of luxury electronic components to the mining sites where
rare earth

elements are stolen from the planet.
http://www.burtonnitta.co.uk/InstrumentsOfTheAfterlife.html
http://prix2016.aec.at/prixwinner/21751/
There are even the drones with the performance of sound artist
Sam Auinger,
Drone 100 – Spaxels over Linz.
Engaging instead the performance by Louis-Philippe Demers
and Bill Vorn with
the Inferno performance, suggesting an interesting interaction
between
participants and exoskeletons. Inferno is a robotic performance
project in which
the public is invited to wear exoskeletons, which will order the
spectators/players
physical movements of the body. A sort of “punishment” to
which the body is
subject to non-violent, but determined by outside forces coming
from an artificial
intelligence. This work offers a reflection about the impact of
technology on our
bodies and society, focusing on the human-machine relationship
and the

destructive relationship between nature and automation in a
background of
noise, techno sounds and robotic movements.
In my opinion, it is not convincing the attribution of the Golden
Nica award to the
work Can you hear me? by Christoph Wachter and Mathias Jud,
because of a
superficial reflection and badly functioning about surveillance
and spying, neither
the mentioned Open Surgery by Frank Kolkman and Parasitic /
Symbiotic by Ann
Kathrin Krenz, several robotic systems for different purposes,
but similar in their
lack of critical reflection, respectively on the low-cost open-
source surgery and
on an interaction system between algorithms and nature.
The Prix Forum this year was dedicated to Jasia Reichardt, in
the category
http://www.soundstudieslab.org/author/sam-auinger/
http://www.aec.at/radicalatoms/de/drone100/
http://www.aec.at/press/files/2016/08/DRONE-100_Spaxels-
over-Linz_fin_TM_en.pdf
http://billvorn.concordia.ca/menuall.html
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/10/movie-frank-kolkman-

hacks-3d-printer-diy-surgical-robot-open-surgery/
http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/parasitic-
symbiotic-nature-and-technology/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasia_Reichardt
Visionary Media Pioneers Nobel Art. She was recalled for the
influential art critic
and curator for the important pioneering exhibition in 1968 at
the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in London, entitled Serendipity Cibernetic
where artists are
mixed in the deep relationship between the computer, the
machines, algorithms
and the human mind.
GUI – A graphical user interface only lets us see information
and interact with it indirectly, as if
we were looking through the surface of the water to interact
with the forms below.
TUI – A tangible user interface is like an iceberg: there is a
portion of the digital that emerges
beyond the surface of the water—into the physical realm—so
that we may interact directly with
it.
Radical Atoms – describes our vision for the future of
interaction, in which all digital information

has physical manifestation so that we can interact directly with
it—as if the iceberg had risen
from the depths to reveal its sunken mass.
Radical Atoms surely is an edition which collects definitely
innovative projects,
but on the one hand it suffered from the inability logistics
related to all the
events that the festival offers, and on the other it missed a
critical theory and
stimulation as it used to be many years ago.
Surely the study by Hiroshi Ishii and his team Tangible Media
Group is
stimulating, which delivers the label in this edition of Ars
Electronica Radical
Atoms. The humans have evolved to sense and manipulate the
physical world
http://cyberneticserendipity.net/
http://tangible.media.mit.edu/person/hiroshi-ishii/
http://tangible.media.mit.edu/
through the digital. Just Hiroshi Ishii presents tangible user
interface (TUI) based
on our embodying dexterity digital information in physical
space. Radical Atoms

offers a vision of interaction human and physical materials that
are
computationally convertible and reconfigurable. The material
can transform itself
to reflect and to look for changes in the underlying digital
model that serves as a
physical dynamic representations of digital information.
Every year, Linz certainly provides a stimulating overview, but
sometimes it is
hard to follow a procedural path and it feels less and less the
theoretical
dimension, deriving much probably by a lack of funds in this
scenario of economic
crisis.
Atoms, molecules, electrons, bits ranging free, are wandering
around Linz. In
recent editions they also created a sense of unease and
disorganisation logistics
spaces, perhaps located in a more chaotic than previous
editions. Radical
research on atoms should order new original ideas, so that they
can even
traumatize and just causing a shock: a crash-encounter.

Maybe it is really this “uncanny” condition which is lacking
today in order to
return to a real debate (almost invalid in this 2016 edition). The
myth of alchemy
is reflected in the mysterious representation of the opus artist.
The alchemist
creates and transforms the gross matter concealing the outcome
of work to
cognitive processing. The artist, like the alchemist, is therefore
the one that
sublimates the reality to find the truth it conceals, in an action
of unveiling: the
utopia of a ransom effected by imagination on the opacity of
reality. Perhaps the
alchemy so much declared, it has failed the transformation
process, rather than
an attempt to turn base metals into gold, the idea has given way
to a fragile and
often superficial exposure.
Perhaps we have lost the power of serendipity much celebrated
and valued, but
it has been lost as it happened with the philosopher’s stone.

Surely we live in an extraordinary place and in an extraordinary
time, but what is
missing is the an extraordinary micro- and macroscopic event
sup to feel dizzy.
Just Rimbaud, the Decadent poet, in relation to the process of
alchemy (in this
case of verb), wrote:
My turn now. The story of one of my insanities.
For a long time I boasted that I was master of all possible
landscapes and I thought the great figures
of modern painting and poetry were laughable.
What I liked were: absurd paintings, pictures over doorways,
stage sets, carnival backdrops,
billboards, bright-colored prints; old-fashioned literature,
church Latin, erotic books full of
misspellings, the kind of novels our grandmothers read, fairy
tales, little children’s books, old operas,
silly old songs, the nave rhythms of country rimes. I dreamed of
Crusades, voyages of discovery that
nobody had heard of, republics without histories, religious wars
stamped out, revolutions in morals,

movements of races and continents: I used to believe in every
kind of magic. I invented colors for the
vowels! – A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green. – I made
rules for the form and movement of every
consonant, and I boasted of inventing, with rhythms from within
me, a kind of poetry that all the
senses, sooner or later, would recognize. And I alone would be
its translator. I began it as an
investigation. I turned silences and nights into words. What was
unutterable, I wrote down. I made
the whirling world stand still.
Surely a dizziness is evoked, but unfortunately even the
radicalism of atoms
cannot be saved in this period, when even the creation of
missing its action and
its vital and uncanny core. Let’s continue with courage sailing
the ocean of
questions and contaminations, in a future so far, so close. Even
Hitchcock is
surprised in this endless spiral of delicate and loss of balance.
The artist, like
high-wire walkers, looks for a crack through the magnifying
glass and the science
looks for his trajectory.

Related
C... what it takes to change?
Una visione postcritica su/A
postcriticism vision about Ars
Electronica 2014
After the afterglow
(Transmediale14). For an
undisciplined research
Ars Electronica 25th
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Close and accept
Notopia
Beneath the glossy surface of offi cial design lurks a dark and
strangeworld driven byreal human needs.
Aplace where electronic objects co-star in a noir thriller,
working with like-minded individuals to
escape normalisationand ensure that eve n a totally
manufactured environment has room fordanger,
adventure and transgression. We don't think that design can ever
fully anticipate the richness ofthis
unofficial worldand neither should it. But it can draw
inspiration from it and developnew design
approaches and roles so that as our newenvironment evolves,
there is still scope for rich and complex
human pleasure.
Corporate futurologists fo rce-fee d us a 'happy-ever-after'
portrayal of life where technologyis the
solution to everyproblem. There is no roomfor doubt or
complexity in their techno-utopian visions.
Everyone is a stereotype, and social and cultural roles remain
unchanged. Despite the fact that
technologyis evolving, the imagined productsthat feature in
their fantasies reassure us that nothing
essential will change, everything will stay the same. These
future forecasters have a conservative role,
predictingpatterns of behaviourin relation to technological
developments. Theydraw fromwhat we
already know about people, and weave new ideas into existing
realities. The resulting scenarios extend

pre-existent reality into the future and so reinforce the status
quo rather than challenging it. Their slick
surface distracts us from the dystopian vision of life theywish
for. By designingthe props for the videos
produced to show us what the future could be like, design works
to keep officia l values in place.
An occasional glance through almost any newspaper reveals a
very different viewofeveryday life, where
complexemotions, desires and needs are played out through the
misuse and abuse ofelectronic
products and systems. Amother shoots her son after an argument
over which television channel to
watch; a parent is outraged bya speaking doll made in China
whichsounds like it swears; the police set a
trap for scanner snoopers- people who listen in to emergency
radio frequencies illegally- by
broadcasting a message that a UFO has landed in a local forest,
within minutes several cars arriveand
their scanners are confiscated. Many ofthesestories illustrate the
narrative space entered byusing and
misusing a simple electronic product, howinteraction with
everyday electronic technologies can
generate rich narratives that challenge the conformity
ofeveryday life by short-circuiting our emotions
and states of mind. Thesestories blend the physical reality of
place with electronically mediated
experience and mental affect. They form part ofa pathology of
material culture that includes
aberrations, transgressions and obsessio ns, the consequences
ofand motivations for the misuse of
objects, and object malfunctions. Theyprovide glimpses of
another more complex reality hidden
beneath the slick surface of electronic consumerism.
Amateur subversio ns and beta-testers

When an object's use is subverted, it is as though the
protagonist is cheating the sys tem and derivin g
more pleasure than is his or her due. Thesubve rsion offunction
relates to a breakdown of order;
something else becomes visible, unnameable, unable to fi nd a
correspondence in the material world.
This subversio n of function is related to not being able to find
the right word, leading to the coining of
neologis ms that bend language to accommodate something new.
Des ire leads to a subversion of the
6
environment creatingan opportunity to reconfigure it to suit our
'illegitimate' needs, establishing new
andunofficial narratives.
Some people already exploit the potentially subversive
possibilities ofthis parallel world ofiIlicit
pleasures stolenfrom commodified experience. They seekout
(ab)user-friendly products that lend
themselves to imaginative possibilities forshort-circuiting the
combinatorial limits suggested by
electronic products. This ranges from terrorists fashioning
bombs andweapons out ofmundane
everyday objects, many ofwhich are listed in the Anarchist
Cookbook, to Otaku magazines showing
Japanese gadget geeks how to modify standard electronic
products to squeeze extrafunctionality out of
them. There are no futurologists at work here. The main players
in thisworld are beta-testers, tweaking
andadjusting reality on a day-to-day basis. They are dissatisfied
withthe version ofreality on offer, but

ratherthan escaping or dropping out, theyadjustit to suit
themselves. Concerned withsoftware not
hardware, they invent new uses for existing technologies and
promote interaction with'designed'
objects that subverttheir anticipated uses. In doing so,
theychallenge the mechanisms that legitimise
the conceptual models embodied in the design ofthe product or
system and demonstrate behaviours
towards technology that invite othersto follow.
Beta-testers have learnt how to derive enjoyment from
electronic materiality, from rejecting the
material realities on offer andconstructing their own. They
display a level ofpleasure in customisation
currently limited to homeDIY andcustom car hobbyists. Many
specialist magazines andbooks are
already available that show readers how to modify or tweak
everyday electronic products. Most ofthem
area littletechnical, but only because knowledge ofelectronics
isstillnot as common asother forms of
practical know-how. After all, an ever-growing numberofhome
improvement magazines and TV
programmes thriveon the pleasure people get from modifying
their environments themselves - of
customising reality. Maybe in the future we wiII seepopular
electronics magazines that show us how to
turn our mobile phones into eavesdropping devices in three easy
steps?
Consumers as anti-heroes: some cautionary tales
The almost unbelievable stories reported in newspapers testify
to the unpredictable potential ofhuman
beings to establish new situations despite the constraints on
everyday life imposed throughelectronic
objects. We are interested in people who have assimilated

electronic technologies so fully intotheir lives
that they feel comfortable doing thingsotherswould think ofas
almost toosacred or highly charged for
technology. These individuals can bethoughtofas sad, based on
the view that playing out deeply human
narratives through technological objects isdegrading and
inferior to moretraditional media. Or they
canbeseenas early adopters, able to find meaning and recognise
the potential ofnew technologies for
supporting complex humanemotions anddesires.
Teenagers are now usingtheir mobile phones to intimidate
eachother. Anew form ofbullying has
emerged since Christmas 1999, when a huge numberofteenagers
in Britain received pre-paid mobile
phones as gifts. Earlier in the year, a 15-year-old was driven to
suicide afterreceiving upto 20silentcalls
in halfan hour. Theteenager left a suicide text message on her
mobile phone the nightbefore she died.
The fact that her suicide note was in the form ofa textmessage
ratherthan handwritten will seem even
more tragic to some, but to this girltextmessages played a
morevital role in her life than letters.
7
As a society weare strugglingto define and communicate the
safe useof new media to teenagers. Just as
wehave developed models ofsafe behaviour for the street and
for dealing with strangers in cars,wewill
have to do so for phonesand computers. It is not that these
technologies are in themselves harmful, it is
their use and misuse that we needto understand. Another
distressing example is that ofthe 16-year-old

schoolgirl raped bya man she chatted up with phonetext
messages. She swapped messages forweeks
before agreeing to meet the stranger in a car park. For many
teenagers, the mobile phoneis a gateway to
romance, and newhybrid services are fusing the lonely hearts
columnwith text messaging. It is onlya
matter of time before purely text-based romancingmatures as a
genre ofits own.
Amore humorous example is the man in Australia who married
his TV. Duringthe ceremony, he placed
a goldwedding ring on top ofthe TV set and one on his finger.
Heeven promised to 'love, honourand
obey' the product. One day it just occurred to him that his TV
was the best companion he hadever had-
he watched up to ten hours a day. It is easy to criticise people
whowatchso much TV, but in many ways
this formof happiness shows what might be in store for the rest
of us as society becomes even more
electronically mediated. Thoughit is not necessarily a good
thing, somepeople clearly find the
company ofelectronic productsmore satisfying than that of
people. These individuals are not rejecting
other people because oftechnology; they have found happiness
with technolgy instead. Before the
advent oftelevision and the web, they might have beenlonely.
Maybe these obsessive behaviours provide glimpses ofa
futurewhereelectronic products have been
fully assimilated into everyday culture and our psyche. They are
cautionary tales; they push our
relationship with the mediumofelectronic technology to the
limit.Thisis despite the design ofthe
products: in fact there is a contrast between the banaldesign of
many electronic products and the
extreme misuses they are subjected to. Products couldoffer more

complex and demanding aesthetic
experiences if designers referred to this bizarreworld ofthe
'infra-ordinary', where storiesshow that
truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and prove that our
experience ofeveryday day life lived through
conventional electronic productsis aesthetically impoverished.
Electronicproduct as neglected medium
The unique narrative potential ofconsumer electronic products
has received surprisingly little attention
from artists and designers. Even though industrial designplays a
part in the design ofextreme pain
(e.g.weapons) and pleasure (e.g. sexaids), the range ofemotions
offered through most electronic
products is pathetically narrow.
Whenthe SonyWalkman was introduced in the early 1980s, it
offered people a newkind of relationship
to urban space. It allowed the wearer to create their ownportable
micro-environment, and it provided a
soundtrack for travel through the city, encouragingdifferent
readings offamiliar settings. It functioned
as an urban interface. Nearly twentyyears on, there are hundreds
ofvariations on the original Walkman,
but the relationship it created to the cityremains the same. This
scenarioreflectshowproductdesigners
have responded to the aesthetic challenge ofelectronic
technology. Theyhave accepted a role as a
semiotician, a companionofpackaging designers and marketeers,
creatingsemioticskins for
incomprehensible technologies. Theelectronic product
accordingly occupies a strange place in the
worldof material culture, closer to washing powder and cough

mixture than furniture and architecture.
Form and texture are manipulated to evoke a worldoffantasy and
fiction , blurring distinctions between
everyday life and the hyper-realityofadvertising and branding.
Product genres
This isjust one approach to product design, one genre ifyou like,
which offers a very limited experience.
Like a Hollywood movi e, the emphasis is on easy pleasure and
conformist values. This genre reinforces
the status quo rather than challenging it. We are surrounded
byproductsthat give us an illusion
of choiceand encourage passivity. But industrial design's
positionat the heart of consumer culture
(it is fuelled by the capitalist system, after all) could be
subverted for more socially beneficial ends by
providing a unique aesthetic mediumthat engages the user's
imaginationin waysa film might,
without being utopian or prescribing how things ought to be.
Electronic products and servicescould enrich and expand our
experience ofeveryday life rather than
closing it down; they could become a medium for experiencing
complex aesthetic situations. To achieve
this, designers would have to think about products and services
very differently. There could be so
many other genres of product beyond the bland Hollywood
mainstream: arthouse, porn, romance,
horror - noir, even - that exploit the unique and exciting
functional and aesthetic potential of
electronic technology. Although many products already fall into
genres - Alessi products attempt
design as comedy, designs forweapons and medical equipment
can shock and horrify, sex-aids are
obviouslya form of design porn and white goods expressa

wholesome and romantic idea of sett led
domesticity - they do not aesthetically challenge or disturb.
45
Des ign No ir
Ifthe current situation in productdesign is analogous to the
Hollywood blockbuster, then an
interesting placeto explore in more detail might be its opposite:
Design Noir.As a genre, it would focus
on how the psycho logical dimensions ofexperiences offered
through electronic products can be expanded.
By referring to the world of product misuse and abuse,where
desire overflows its material limits and
subvertsthe function ofeveryday objects , this product genre
wouldaddress the darker, concept ual
models of need that are usually limited to cinemaand literature.
. ..v: ..
No ir products would be conceptual products, a medium that
fusescomplexnarratives with everyday
life. This is verydifferent from conceptual design, which uses
design proposals as a medium for
exploring what these products might be like. Conceptual design
can exist comfortably in book or video
form, it is about life whereas conceptual productsare part oflife.
Wi th this form ofdesign, the 'product'
would be a fusion of psychological and external 'realities', the
user would becomea protagonist and co-
producer of narrative experience rather than a passive consumer
of a product's meaning. The mental
interfacebetween the individual and the product is where the
'experience' lies. Electronic technology

makes this meeting more fluid , more complexand more
interesting.
Like in Film Noir, the emphasis wou ld be on existentialism.
Imagine objects that generate 'existential
moments' - a dilemma, for instance- whichtheywould stage or
dramatise. These objects would not
help people to adapt to existing social, cultural and political
values. Instead, the product would fo rce
a decision onto the user, revealing how limited choices are
usually hard-wired into products for us.
On another level, we could simply enjoythe wickedness ofthe
values embedded in these products and
services. Their veryexistence is enough to create pleasure.
Many interesting examplesof noir products already exist, but
they are not created by designers.
Thebest examplesofhow design responds to the psychological
and behavioural dimensionsofelectronics
can be found at the edges ofanonymous design. These products
and services work on a radically
differentaesthetic principal from traditional products: it is what
they do that creates pleasure, not how
they look and fee l. It is the thrillof transgression that counts
here. Even ifwe do not use them, just
imagining these objects in use creates a strong and perversely
enjoyable experience. They showhow
design productsand services can function as a mediumfor
producing complex psychological experiences.
The Truth Phone, a real product producedbythe Counter Spy
shop, is one example of howa No ir
product might work. It combines a voice stress analyser with a
telephone, and shows howelectronic
products have the potential to generate a chain of events which
together forma story. If you consider

products in th is way, the focus ofthe design shiftsfrom
concerns of physical interaction (passive button
pushing) to the potential psychological experiences inherent in
the product. Imagine speaki ng to your
mother or a lover while the Truth Phone suggeststheyare lying.
The user becomes a protagonist and
the designerbecomes a co-author ofthe experience, the product
creates dilemmas rather than
resolving them. By using the phone, the
ownerexploresboundaries between himselfand the paranoid
user suggested bythe product, entering into a psychological
adventure.
46
The Truth Phone and similar electronicobjects generatea
conceptual space where interactivity can
challenge and enlarge the schemethrough which we interpret our
experiences ofusing everyday
electronic objects and the social experiences they mediate. The
effect is not onlylimited to products:
as its name suggests, Ace-Alibi.corn is a service for creating
falsealibis.When you subscribe, you might
choose an option that involves being sent a letter inviting you to
a conference.The letter will be
postmarked with the correct area code, and you can alsoarrange
to leave a contact number whichwill
be answered in the correct regional accent. Franchises ofthis
service are available, although the people
behind the scheme are nervous about offering the service in the
Un ited States, in case theyare sued for
their part in helping employees bunk off work. We findthis
service interesting because it meets a real
need not fulfilledanywhere else. You maynot agreewith it or

choose to use it, but manypeop le use this
service. The pleasureprovided bythe existence ofa service like
this lies is in resolving the dilemmait
presents. It is as though the internet reflects human nature in all
its imperfections while the material
world of consumer products only reflects idealised notions of
correct behaviour.
Alongsimilar linesto Ace-Alibi.corn is the Alibi CD produced in
Germanyby Silenzio. It contains
recordings ofstreet sounds, airport announcements fromdifferent
countries, train stations, bars and
beaches. Designed for those 'little white lies in between', the
CD is intendedto be played in the
background while youare making a telephone call from a place
you should not be. This soundtrack CD
allows you to cut and paste reality. Its veryexistence triggers a
chain ofthoughts and narratives in the
imagination.
TERMS , CONDI TIONS & DI SCLAIMER
Doc umenta t i o n is issue d by Fa st Tra ck Se rvice s to t he c
l i e n t fo r
the purposes of s u b s t a n t i a t i n g an alibi to he l p ensure t
hat a
re lat i ons hi p r emai n s stab le and i s n o t to be u s e d i n
co nj u nct io n
with Ta x Re turns, Vat Pu r poses or f or a n y ot he r fi n a nc
ia l ga i n . Al l
docume n tat i o n is fictit ious in nat ur e, a n d as such , ca nno
t be u s ed
i n c onjunction with any c r i mi n a l act wh a t s o e v e r. Fast
Tra c k Se r v ic e s
wi ll not be hel d respon s ible for the br eak d own o f any re l
a ti on s hip

or a ny court a c t i o n or l i ti ga t ion wha t s o e ver . Fa s t
Tr a ck Serv ices
o f f e r a s ervice t o help p ro t ec t t he fa mi ly un it o r re
latio n s hi p fro m
di stress ca u s e d by e mot i o n a l or a ny o t he r turmoi l
which may o c c u r
due t o the dis cl osure o f a n y actions taking p lace ou t s i d e
o f the
n o r ma l relat i onship . Fa s t Tr a ck Servi ces d o n o t c
ondone o r disag r ee
wi th sa id actio ns. Al t ho u g h al l p os sib le saf eguards a n
d me a sur e s a r e
t a ken , no gu a r a n te e is given t o a n y member t o e nsure
that their
par t ne r will n o t b ec ome a ware o f " o t h e r" r el a ti on s
hips. No Re f u nds
whats o e ver a re g i ven u n de r an y circumstanc es.
47
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