Objectified is
a documentary about our products and who or what lies behind them. It is the second
installment of three-part series on
design by Gary Hustwit. The film has no narrator
but weaves its narrative through vignettes of thought from designers from
around the world. While not all of these designers are well known, several are
staples of the design community: Eames, Dieter Rams, David Kelly, Chris Bangle.
Each of the designers gives the viewer insight about their ideas on design. By
hearing a variety of designer thoughts, each one's individual design process
and beliefs begins to appear. My criticism of the film is the lack a of unified
message about design. Some of it just the ramblings of designers about the most
ridiculous things; the Bouroullec brothers ranblings ("I am like a fox,
and he is like a porcupine"), and
the unhelpful comments from Hella Jongerius and Fiona Raby. Perhaps this is
partly intentional. The documentary is shot in Cinema Verite style. There is
not a narrators voice to guide the film, but instead it as if the viewer has
stumbled through the doors of the designer's studio and struck up a
conversation. The film documents the creative processes of some of the
world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they
make impact our lives. Although it features specific products the real topic of
the film seems to be what these men and women think about design.
One of
the most interesting topics from the film was the ongoing struggle between new
product design and the need for sustainability. Karin Rashid
remarks, "If the average shelf
life of a high-tech object is less than eleven months, why on Earth does
anything have to be built to be permanent? It should be all 100% disposable.
You know, I think my laptop should be made of cardboard, or my mobile phone
could be a piece of cardboard, or it could just be made out of something like
sugarcane or bioplastic." One story about being confronted the sustainability
of their personal design came from the IDEO team. They described how they had
designed a better toothbrush and not even a year later one of them encountered
it washed up on the beach: trash.
Every design choice has the potential to change our
relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design
them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes
to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and
re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal
expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. Near the end of the film, Rob Walker
(from New York Times Magazine) had an interesting comment about our obsession
with buying and designing new objects. Basically, while we all want the latest
gadgets, it's only your truly meaningful possessions—the ones that define who
you are—that you really care about. For example, if there was a hurricane, what
object(s) would you grab on the way out of your house?
The film
ends with showing the very objects with which it was made; a silent but powerful
point about our products power.
Designers
Featured in this film:
Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)
Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)
Tim Brown (IDEO)
Anthony Dunne (London)
Dan Formosa (Smart Design)
Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)
Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)
Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)
David Kelley (IDEO)
Bill Moggridge (IDEO)
Marc Newson (London/Paris)
Fiona Raby (London)
Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)
Karim Rashid (New York)
Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)
Davin Stowell (Smart Design)
Jane Fulton Suri (IDEO)
Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)
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