MIT Press releases new book, Non Object, as an iPad App simultaneous to the paper edition. Claims levels of interaction with subject not available to hardbound book.
What happens when we think beyond the object… think beyond the business plan…think beyond what we think we know about design? In Nonobject, award-winning designer Branko Lukic takes us on a tour of the charged spaces between people and the objects they use. View a series of visionary explorations of objects from the future, derived from as-yet-undiscovered materials, imagined manufacturing processes, and invented rules. These “nonobjects”–including a “superpractical” cell phone with keypad, speaker, and microphone on every surface; a digital camera that captures the scene and what’s behind the scene; and a faceless watch that keeps us in touch with our inner clock–shimmer, spin, and star on the iPad screen. Tap an icon and a man’s dress shoe expands and contracts according to price (how much is a product experience worth?). Tap another icon and see the “square against air” zero emission nUCLEUS motorcycle get ready for action; tap another and change its materials and character scheme. Watch the iEat diet spoon collapse before a dieter can overeat. See a table (dinner or conference) configured for dictatorship, compromise, or democracy. Text by design theorist Barry Katz guides us through the mysteries of this immaterial reality. In the Nonobject journey, product design meets philosophy, poetry, and the theater of the imagination. The nonobject fills us with surprise and delight.