MFA DESIGN

GUSTAVO FRICKE

Hermeneutic // to interpret, interpreter. Object // Tangible thing, something perceived or pre-sented to the senses - to present, oppose.

Design needs to question and help us cope with our technological advancements.

Industrial Design came to life in the advent of our first Mechanical Age, in the advent of the Industrial Revolu-tion. Back then people migrated to the cities in search of jobs. A new landscape emerged as a consequence of this new way of life. Design was supposed to humanize production. It used aesthetics to introduce mass produced objects into our everyday life.

But we can use aesthetics in a different way, to create different layers of meaning, of disclosure. In this ap-proach, aesthetics might facilitate our understanding of technology and shift the balance of “effect:” instead of

Hermeneutic ObjectMFA Thesis

products influencing unconscious behaviors; we use design to mold the product to conscious behaviors. Aesthetics could thus act as an awareness-raising mediator between man and object, dedicated to free-form customizable objects that are more in synch with our needs.

Visibility helps us understand our digital environment. When we understand it, we can manipulate it, use it as a material; but what can we do with this virtual mate-rial? Could we create architecture and design spaces? How could this affect us?

The Hermeneutic Object is a procedural object that creates a space in which to reconsider the way we design, produce, and consume electronic products.

In this page: from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Extended Reality. Stereoscopic video display.

2. Electro-Parasite. Microcontroller and radio.

3. EMF Detector. Microcontroller that is able to detect the sur-

rounding electromagnetic field.

4. Visible / Invisible. 3D projection and glasses.

5. Detecting EMF. Stop photography of EMF detection.

6. Subverting the Media. TV iteration with camera.

Introduction

Objects not only “dematerialize” into software in response to miniaturization and replacement by services, but liter-ally dematerialize into radiation. All electronic products are hybrids of radiation and matter. Anthony Dunne

Telecommunication has changed the way we interact with each other– allowing us, to see and hear each other on screen while being on opposite sides of the planet. My concern resides in the designed object that mediates our connection.

Throughout the development of my thesis, I have at-tempted to address the following question:If technological mediation creates behaviors, invisibly immersed within objects, can these objects be recon-ceived in such a way that the concealed behaviors are revealed instead?

I’m interested in making evident, that is “seeing,” these behaviors.

I believe through these explorations into “seeing” we can begin to consider object design, specifically Industrial and Product Design, through a fresh lens.

My aspirations for the Hermeneutic Object include that it will enable designers to:

- Evidence hidden psychological and social mecha-nisms embedded within products.

- Make visible the technological mediation that we experience with products.

- Raise awareness and spur critical analysis.

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Three-Dimensional visualization of the EMF that my laptop emits. Detecting Electro-magnetic fields (2010)

There is a world that we cannot see. It exists in parallel to our material world as a Digital Environment. Our electronic objects and the networks that enable them cre-ate this environment. The Electro Magnetic spectrum is measured in Hertz (Hz).

Visible / Invisible

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Our environment is filled with information. I am interested in making our digital environ-ment visible. I believe that visibility creates awareness thus influencing our behavior.

The projection is a representation of an EMF Field in our environment. The 3D movie allows us to perceive what it will be like if we could actually be capable of looking at the Electromagnetic Fields that surround us.

Extended Perception

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How can I enable a higher resolution of my memories? Photography enables us to remember a specific moment or person in our history. Stereoscopic photography has a higher resolution, allowing us to see a three dimensional representation of this memory. What will happen if we enable video into a stereoscopic viewer?

I recorded videos around San Francisco using two cameras attached to one another. Then I uploaded each video into a different display. By doing this I’m able to visualize a stereoscopic image in movement. The distance between our eyes allows us to per-ceive volume and light differently. The image is later re-combined in our brain. This iteration allows me to understand the inner workings of our depth of field perception.

My interest is to make visible the hidden mechanisms that enable erratic behaviors. Through understanding the way that our perception works I might be able to further understand the visibility of the mediation that we have with our digital environment.

Electro-parasite

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Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host. The parasite copies the characteristics of its host, imitating its main behavior. The host is part of a bigger system, for example a radio. It transmits the signal from the station, thus its connected and forms part of a bigger system. A cell-phone, a television or a com-puter connected to the Internet behaves similarly.

The microcontroller acts as the parasite, copying the behavior, in this case the sound that the radio emits. It records five seconds and then it reproduces the sound, creat-ing an extra layer of sound.

GUSTAVO FRICKE

In a word, every machine functions as a break in the flow in relation to the machine to which is connected, but at the same time is also a flow itself, or the production of a flow, in relation to the machine connected to it. This is the law of production of production. Deleuze and Guattari

I wanted to evidence the law of the production of production by creating a parasitic relationship between the analog and the digital object.

Subverting the Media

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For the development of this project I choose an object that is defunct, extinct. An object that implies a relationship were the transmission of a message is fed to a non-contestant receiver. I want to challenge this relationship. Imagine if back then we could have created a two-way communication? How would it look like?

With that in mind I started exploring the aesthetic dimension of the TV within a temporal context.

In this exercise I feed the TV with the signal that it’s emitting. I did this with a camera. It results in an infinite loop; within this constant there are changes. These changes are expressed with variations in color and shape.

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SUBVERTING THE MEDIA

The technological plane is an abstraction: in ordinary life we are practically uncon-scious of the technological reality of objects. Yet this abstraction is profoundly real: it is what governs all radical transformations of our environment…it is starting from this language, from this consistency of the technical model, that we can reach an understanding of what happens to objects by virtue of their being produced and consumed, possessed and personalized. Jean Baudrillard

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Re-Active Space

Our devices, such as our cell-phones, connect to different networks, invisible, within our environment. There is a delay within this “connection”, where the transmission and the reception of the signal are affected. In this exercise we are able to experi-ence the latency within a created system that replicates this type of communication.

A camera is placed in front of the projector, creating a feedback loop. There is a space to walk between the camera and the screen, allowing us to be captured within this loop. Every movement is recorded and fed back to the projector; this takes time, allowing us to visualize the latency. Everything seems to slow down, as you track your movement.

As technology advances and becomes more ubiquitous, our spaces will transform and become part digital. How will we react to this? How will this affect us?

Detecting EMF

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This exercise allowed me to visualize the electromagnetic field (EMF) that my com-puter emits. I used a detector developed by Aaron Alai (http://www.aaronalai.com/) that visualizes the intensity of the EMF through an LED light. I placed the LED at the end of the antenna. I created different iterations using different media. The stop animation allows me to visualize, in an additive fashion, the space detected by the device. The second iteration was developed using long exposure photography. Now I can visualize and further understand the EMF that our products emit.

GUSTAVO FRICKE

RE-ACTIVE OBJECT

This micro-controller based detector allows you to read the intensity and location of the EMF field. I designed an object that will react to the presence of EMF, thus making you aware of this invisible environment. The form of the object was designed through an EMF Simulator. (From top to bottom: 1, 2, 3)

2D TO 3D

To visualize the Electromagnetic Field that my computer emits in 3D I photographed it from two different sides. Then each pictured was feed into Processing and resulted in a three-dimensional map of the environment. (From top to bottom: 4-9)

GUSTAVO FRICKE

To present my conclusions I developed a short film. Within this work I explore possible scenarios of our relationships mediated through our devices and the ef-fects of this within our environment. Designed objects, interfaces that produce behaviors and spaces, enable the story. To develop these objects and my film’s narra-tive, I created a theoretical foundation.

THE HITCHCOCKIAN OBJECT

Slavoj Zizek uses Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to investigate the role played by objects in Alfred Hitch-cock’s films.

Zizek’s observations, and the theoretical tools provided by Jaques Lacan, have help me narrate my own story, that of the human-machine-digital environment rela-tionship and of its possible consequences.

The Hermeneutic ObjectShort Film

In the short film, The Hermeneutic Object, the object of exchange is the device that enables social exchange. It is like a prosthetic necessary for social relations. It encompasses the convergence of different technolo-gies that enable inter-dependence and interaction. The designed product is a medium of social relations.

The McGuffin in my film is the “augmentation” pro-duced by the device. It compensates for the absence of the other, introducing an extra layer to reality, virtual and artificial.

Electronic objects and the networks that enable them create a “digital ecology”. We are not even sure of the possible physical consequences of the electro-magnet-ic fields. The digital ecology is presented in my film as the object Phi, the return of an inescapable presence, ubiquitous and oppressive.

Jaques Lacan developed this diagram in his Seminar Encore in 1975. It is interpreted that:The Imaginary is the beginning. The Symbolic refers to exchange. The Real refers to what is impossible for us to apprehend, that which is outside of language and fantasy.

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THE OBJECT OF EXCHANGE

The design of the object will require the user to wear it, becoming a prosthetic, nec-essary for social relations and a normal interaction with the surrounding environment. The object enables a number of extra layers to reality.

THE MCGUFFIN

It is the extra layer of information and visualization produced by the device.

THE OBJECT PHI

It is created by our electronic objects and the networks that enable them. To repre-sent this object I developed different iterations, with the hope these could suggest representations of what it would be like if we were able to “see” this environment.

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PRE-PRODUCTION

The story was developed in a storyboard. This allowed me to structure the objects (Object of exchange, The McGuffin and The Object Phi) as characters. The story was developed in two scenarios: a utopia and a dystopia.

These scenarios allowed me to explore the effect that a design intervention could have in the future. The development of the scenario shows the behaviors that result from the object. The scenarios exist in parallel but the consequences of the use of the object in each are very different.

Scenario AUtopia

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In my film the OBJECT OF EXCHANGE is the device that enables social exchange. It is like a prosthetic, necessary for social relations. It encompasses the conver-gence of different technologies that enable inter-dependence and interaction. The designed product is a medium of social relations.

The MCGUFFIN is the augmentation produced by the device. It compensates for the lack of the other, enabling the addition of an extra layer to reality, virtual and artificial that allows us to communicate.

Scenario BDystopia

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Our electronic objects and the networks that enable them create the OBJECT PHI. To represent this object I developed different iterations, with the hope these could sug-gest representations of what it would be like if we were able to “see” this environment.

A particle-based object was developed in three-dimensional animation software. The particles are randomly dispersed allowing for an effect that signals more subtle and organic movement. Then these particles were animated and layered onto the film.

I also developed a characteristic sound for the object. I based it on infrasounds and a frequency of 60 Hz (the frequency of the sound of the neon light bulbs). These sounds were generated, layered, and composed to match the movement of the particles in the film.

0:00:00

The story begins in the Imaginary realm.

The Imaginary is the beginning. It is when we first perceive ourselves visually, we become aware of our contained separateness and, by extension, aware of our rela-tionship with others; Lacan calls this developmental moment the mirror stage.

We introduce our characters in this mirror, by divulging the ever-presence designed object. That exists in within the Symbolic realm.

The Symbolic refers to representation for exchange, as exemplified in language.The exchange of words, the gift of speech–the symbolic is essentially a linguistic dimension. JAQUES LACAN

Zizek makes a connection with Hitchcock between these orders. The object of exchange, which exists between the Imaginary and the Symbolic orders, sets the action in motion around which a story may be organized. It is the designed object that enables social exchange.

The McGuffin sets the story in motion. It has a deep meaning for the characters in the story. This represents the connection between the Real and the Symbolic: between the signifier and unattainable desire. It is the “augmentation” produced by the device. It compensates for the absence of the other, introducing an extra layer to reality, virtual and artificial.

It compensates for the lack of the physical being of the other; that exist somewhere else, maybe not far away. This raises the question of our relations mediated through virtual spaces.

It is a pure semblance: in itself it is totally indifferent and, by structural necessity, absent; its signification is purely auto-reflexive, it consists in the fact that it has some signification for others, for the principal characters of the story, that is of vital importance to them. JAQUES LACAN

Electronic objects and the networks that enable them create a “digital ecology”. We are not even sure of the possible physical consequences of the electro-mag-netic fields within our bodies. The digital ecology is presented in my film as the Object Phi, the return of an inescapable presence, ubiquitous and oppressive.

A particle-based object was developed in three-dimensional animation software. The particles are randomly dispersed allowing for an effect that signals more subtle and organic movement. Then these particles were animated and layered onto the film.

I also developed a characteristic sound for the object. I based it on infrasounds and a frequency of 60 Hz (the frequency of the sound of the neon light bulbs). These sounds were generated, layered, and composed to match the movement of the particles in the film.

GUSTAVO FRICKE http://gfricke.com/

GUSTAVO FRICKE

Wrap Up

Design needs to question and help us cope with our technological advancements.

Industrial Design came to life in the advent of our first Mechanical Age, in the advent of the Industrial Revolu-tion. Back then people migrated to the cities in search of jobs. A new landscape emerged as a consequence of this new way of life. Design was supposed to humanize production. It used aesthetics to introduce mass produced objects into our everyday life.

But we can use aesthetics in a different way, to create dif-ferent layers of meaning, of disclosure. In this approach, aesthetics might facilitate our understanding of technol-ogy and shift the balance of “effect:” instead of products influencing unconscious behaviors; we use design to mold the product to conscious behaviors.

Aesthetics could thus act as an awareness-raising media-tor between man and object, dedicated to free-form cus-tomizable objects that are more in synch with our needs.

Visibility helps us understand our digital environment. When we understand it, we can manipulate it, use it as a material; but what can we do with this virtual mate-rial? Could we create architecture and design spaces? How could this affect us?

The Hermeneutic Object is a procedural object that creates a space in which to reconsider the way we design, produce, and consume electronic products.

http://gfricke.com/