Product Description

Now published in a new, larger format, the latest title in the "V&A Contemporary" series explores the increasing use of experimental interactive design in our living and working environments. Spaces that interact with the people who use them or pass through them have in a very short time become ubiquitous. From an installation in a London shopping centre that registers the presence of passers-by with patterns of coloured light and sound, to an interactive artwork in the boardroom of the TV channel Five, the projects featured in this book engage with our wishes and bodily sensations, fusing inventive design with interactive media and technologies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191199 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From the Publisher
Graphic designer: Graphic Thought Facility

From the Author
Book excerpts:

'While in the public educational context of museums and visitor attractions, as well as in corporate environments such as Bloomberg's headquarters, designers and artists contracted for specific projects need to identify the best ways to dovetail and communicate concepts, artefacts, data and experiences. Those working to self-briefs (for speculative installations that may find their way in to a range of contexts) use technology more speculatively. Technology is deployed as a means of understanding and commenting on paradoxes within culture, especially the unquestioned ubiquity of corporate technologies, as well as to make visible or to translate invisible phenomena ranging from sounds to pollution, electromagnetic waves and the paranormal'.

'If intelligent spaces were truly intelligent, we might not like them, because we want them to be intelligent but acquiescent. The power of many of the responsive environments in this book is precisely that they are not purely reactive or entirely predetermined. Both they and their users learn from experience and redefine their sense of space. In the process of their engagement they construct new meanings of personal as well as group significance'.

Lucy Bullivant

From the Inside Flap
Design is an essential component of everyday life, in ways that are both apparent and imperceptible. But who are the authors of the things that surround us? What drives the thinking behind the development of new products? From cutting edge experimentation to the restyling of mass market goods, designers leave their imprint in a diversity of ways. They shape the objects with which we furnish our homes, the tools with which we communicate and the environments in which we live, work and play.

The V&A has played a role at the heart of design culture since it was founded in 1852. Part of its mission was a commitment to the understanding of contemporary design, and this mission remains true today. The V&A now embraces all aspects of design in contemporary life, from fashion, graphics, photography and digital media to craft, architecture and product design.

The V&A Contemporary series explores the designer's role in shaping products of all kinds - from the one-off to the mass produced, from objects in three dimensiosn to digital environments. The series celebrates creativity and diversity in design now, highlighting key debates and practices, and confronting us with questions about the future of our designed world. Each title takes a critical and informed look at a particular field, built around interviews with designers and commentaries on selected products and projects. We hope these studies encourage us all- designers and consumers alike - to look with fresh insight at the objects and images around us.

Jane Pavitt, V&A Contemporary Series Editor