Many of the things we now live with do not take a purely physical form.
Objects such as smart phones, laptops and wearable fitness trackers are
different from our things of the past. These new digital forms are
networked, dynamic and contextually configured. They can be changeable
and unpredictable, even inscrutable when it comes to understanding what
they actually do and whom they really serve.
In Changing Things, Johan Redstrom and Heather Wiltse address critical
questions that have assumed a fresh urgency in the context of these
rapidly-developing forms. Drawing on critical traditions from a range of
disciplines that have been used to understand the nature of things, they
develop a new vocabulary and a theoretical approach that allows us to
account for and address the multi-faceted, dynamic, constantly evolving
forms and functions of contemporary things. In doing so, the book
prototypes a new design discourse around everyday things, and describes
them as 'fluid assemblages'.
Redstrom and Wiltse explore how a new theoretical framework could enable
a richer understanding of things as fluid and networked, with a case
study of the evolution of music players culminating in an in-depth
discussion of Spotify. Other contemporary 'things' touched on in their
analysis include smart phones and watches, as well as digital platforms
and applications such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.
