RENENS, Switzerland — Media and interaction design students at ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne) utilize connective technologies and virtual reality to create futuristic (dare I say eerie) versions of everyday objects like the broom, book and even a ceramic tea pot — each object with their own dreams and personalities.
Above image: ECAL/Salomé Chatriot, Ear Cup, 2016
The contemporary designs debuted at the 2016 Milan design week in the When Objects Dream series exhibition. As ECAL writes, the works offer viewers an unsettling experience and beg the following questions: Do objects dream about themselves? What if we could enter their dreams?
Each piece asks viewers to rethink the way we see them: not just as objects, but objects of our incumbent affection.
Ever since they appeared, we have been worshipping the objects around us while being extremely demanding of them. What if the roles were reversed for once? Instead of asking objects to make us dream, why don’t we consider their own dreams? Premonitory dreams that anticipate a possible future of objects?
The students tell Dezeen that their contemporary designs are more playful than sinister, asking viewers to weigh their distrust against the impending changes of the future.
In order for viewers to understand each object, they must physically interact with it. They must look to through a Virtual Reality head set to explore and experiment with their subtleties to perceive each piece’s personality. The process establishes an uncomfortable reality of creating and forming relationships with everyday objects. Other objects use activity sensors so the objects “make statements about their own existence” when visitors interact with them, Dezeen writes. For example, the teapot (pictured above) by Salomé Chatriot pours liquid whispers into a person’s ears.
How does our relationship to them change as they become capable of making a statement about their own existence, interact by using onboard sensors and grow increasingly connected to our communication networks? Do I see my toothbrush differently knowing that it records each movement in my mouth and therefore displays a form of consciousness? – ECAL
See the objects in action in this video. Watch as users interact with each object to explore their personalities.
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