“What people don’t realise is that from the moment they wake up almost everything that fills their world has been designed.” Alice Rawsthorn in ‘Objectified’One of the most wonderful side effects of taking up a visual artistic practice, (in my case, photography), is that it reshapes the mind – you begin to see the world differently – form, composition, the sculptural nature of people, of creatures, of nature and of objects becomes apparent.
That’s also one of the of the effects of watching ‘Objectified’, the new documentary by Gary Hustwit, (the director of Helvetica, the most entertaining documentary about a font you’re likely to see for quite a while).
‘Objectified’ is sedate, but not slow – peaceful yet thought provoking – it’s a reverie on the nature of the designed elements around us. Comprised of interviews with many the worlds leading designers and commentators on design the pic is a reflective – exuberant in a minor key – paean to both the practice of design and its effects on us.
The film been criticised for a lack of energy but I think that misses the point. Its pace and framing are deliberate – designed to get one to focus on the object – to assist one in stripping away that which is not necessary, (just as in the opening sequence a computer driven blade takes away material to form the title of the film); it’s a meditative piece and in that way it would make an excellent teaching tool.
It opens your mind up to the idea that we live in world of design and that we can and do, deliberately and with both reserve and passion, shape that world to fit our own dreams, to fill that missing space in our minds and hearts – and what can be more fulfilling than to make our dreams real around us?
In ‘Objectified’ all roads lead to Apple. This makes sense of course – Apple, with its visionary Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Johnathan Ive has changed the look of our ‘now-future’ as surely as Bladerunner has, (as I type this a distinctly iPodesque robot is vacuuming the floor in my office).
Ive is from the UK, and there is a well known national trait in design – some things ‘look Italian’ for instance. Do the iPhone and iMac seem British to you in look and feel? I wonder – with its globe trotting ‘Davosesque’ vibe, the film lets us sample design from across Europe and a few other places as well – this internationalism, as well as the focus on Apple and its introspective tone lead me while watching to think of Steve Jobs.
Jobs has been ribbed in the computer community throughout the years for his strange attraction to the form of the cube in computer design. For instance, look below at his strikingly designed, (by that legend Paul Rand), NeXT Computer from 1988:
Twelve years later Jobs unveiled the PowerMac G4 Cube – a computer remarkably similar in shape to the NeXT:
I always wondered about that – why the desire, why the itch, to design a cube – to will into being this shape?
It was while watching ‘Objectified’, with it’s gentle parade of designers from around the world – each one with a different sensibility and possible ‘nationally influenced’ style, that it hit me.
Jobs was adopted.
His birth father? A Syrian Arab.
Is it possible, whether through biology, or unconscious yearning triggered by learning of his father’s heritage, that Jobs was trying to make somewhere – to use design to travel to a place forever out of reach?
‘Objectified’ made me see that design is not just all around us – it’s in us as well.
‘Objectified‘, recommended to anyone even remotely interested in design and to all those who seek to understand how we’ve made the world as it is now, available on I-Tunes: Click Below to Preview and/or Buy:
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Director Gary Hustwit’s Blog – and on Twitter
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This film was interesting but not what I expected. For whatever reason — maybe the title? — I expected it to move past the idea that we live in a designed world and offer some reflections, possibly some arguments and criticisms, about the pros and cons of this. That is, I was expecting an analysis of design and its implications for the world, and less a straight celebration of design.
I should probably form expectations of films based on something more than the title, but then again, titles are 'designed objects' and they therefore involve elements of persuasion, arguably 'social control.'
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't necessarily have accepted or even declined to snigger at high-minded theorists waxing on about how Apple's, Ikea's, and Target's design choices are implicating humankind in oppressive totalizing metanarratives or whatever. But I thought there would be some perspectives that go beyond “design is awesome!” and I think the film would have been better with such.
Also: design is awesome. It's hard to watch this film without walking away understanding why people get passionate about it.
I don't disagree Dale – actually i think most people's criticism of it comes from their preconceived notion of what the pic would be – but i enjoyed it on it's own terms, ya know?
This film was interesting but not what I expected. For whatever reason — maybe the title? — I expected it to move past the idea that we live in a designed world and offer some reflections, possibly some arguments and criticisms, about the pros and cons of this. That is, I was expecting an analysis of design and its implications for the world, and less a straight celebration of design.
I should probably form expectations of films based on something more than the title, but then again, titles are 'designed objects' and they therefore involve elements of persuasion, arguably 'social control.'
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't necessarily have accepted or even declined to snigger at high-minded theorists waxing on about how Apple's, Ikea's, and Target's design choices are implicating humankind in oppressive totalizing metanarratives or whatever. But I thought there would be some perspectives that go beyond “design is awesome!” and I think the film would have been better with such.
Also: design is awesome. It's hard to watch this film without walking away understanding why people get passionate about it.
I don't disagree Dale – actually i think most people's criticism of it comes from their preconceived notion of what the pic would be – but i enjoyed it on it's own terms, ya know?
Objectified was a great documentary. You should also check out the two other movies in this trilogy. The first one is about typography and the last one about city planning.
Interesting to see the comparisons between the things Jobs was involved in designing. As is clear from his biography he was a perfectionist, even making sure that the inside looked beautiful.