Consumer electronics has developed into being a central category of design. Products such as smartphones, activity trackers and mobile smart speakers have set new standards for high functionality and have dramatically changed patterns of habits and behavior.
Focus in the research has often been on optimization of functionality and new possibilities of interaction, but the question is, further, how consumer electronics products through their material design mediate technology and, further, create cultural perceptions of technology.
In conceptualizing and investigating the aesthetics of consumer electronics in a historical as well as contemporary perspective, we aim to obtain new knowledge of how material objects create access to and perhaps nurture a critical engagement with the possibilities of technology.
Contact:
E-mail: mnf@sdu.dk