Tangible Media
Electronic mediation of human action has been established for several decades now. The traditional means for communicating with one another, observing natural phenomena, making economic transactions - even dating - are now commonly negotiated with electronic devices. As designers, we can address such phenomena in a utilitarian manner: by creating new designs that succeed as functional solutions. Another approach is to investigate these systems for a deeper meaning: designs working as experiments for understanding phenomena. How are complex electronic systems different than biological systems? What manner of attenuation or transduction must occur for fundamentally different systems to communicate? Why do humans imbue objects and interactions with feelings/projects that are simply not there? These questions represent the latter approach for how designers may work with electronics to understand the world we live in in a broader sense, which in turn, will inform how we create more design solutions in the more specific sense.