Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects

2001 | Technical

Titel is published in cooperation with August, London Designers Dunne and Raby explore the revolutionary and uncanny impact of electronic technologies on our lives. Dunne and Raby investigate the real physical and cultural effects of the digital domain, demonstrating that mobile phones, computers and other electronic objects such as televisions profoundly influence people's experience of their environment. Dunne and Raby's ideas have important implications for architecture and design in this, their first major book, they introduce their extraordinary new way of thinking about objects, space and behaviour to a broad audience. The book is divided into three sections: 1. Manifesto, introducing the authors' ideas about electromagnetic space. 2. Conversations. Dunne and Raby talk to a variety of designers, architects and artists about the impact electronic technology has on their practice. 3. Placebo. The intriguing results of a project involving Dunne and Raby's working furniture prototypes, including a table with an integrated global positioning system and a chair that lets the sitter know when radiation is passing through his body.

Dunne and Raby are Research Fellows at the Royal College of Art; London. Dunne trained as an industrial designer, and Raby as an architect, and both lived in Japan during the 1980s, where Dunne worked for Sony, and Raby worked for Toyo Ito.

Anthony Dunne (Author)

Fiona Raby (Author)