Design Noir – Interview with Anthony Dunne

Excellent interview with Anthony Dunne (and his work with Fiona Raby) — Design Noir, Dunne and Raby wrote in their 2001 book Design Noir, “Beneath the glossy surface of official design lurks a dark and strange world driven by real human needs.”…. via Beyond the Beyond.

In one well-known project, Dunne and Raby designed an inflatable pillow with an LCD screen imbedded in it. The pillow responds to changes in the local radio frequency environment within a range of about 200 meters, detecting the presence of mobile phones, pagers, and even baby monitors. These changes are registered as visual patterns that drift across the screen. Of course, all the waves that are passing through the pillow are also passing through our bodies. Which raises the question: What effect are they having on us? The only clue that Dunne and Raby offer is a selection from an interview with an elderly lady who “adopted” the pillow. Far from resolving the issue, this lady says the pillow reminds her of a dead pet, “It’s sort of like my little dog I used to have except my little dog was black and brown.”