Changing Things - by Johan Redström & Heather Wiltse (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Many of the things we now live with do not take a purely physical form. Objects such as smart phones, laptops and wearable fitness trackers are different from our things of the past. These new digital forms are networked, dynamic and contextually configured. They can be changeable and unpredictable, even inscrutable when it comes to understanding what they actually do and whom they really serve.

In Changing Things, Johan Redstrom and Heather Wiltse address critical questions that have assumed a fresh urgency in the context of these rapidly-developing forms. Drawing on critical traditions from a range of disciplines that have been used to understand the nature of things, they develop a new vocabulary and a theoretical approach that allows us to account for and address the multi-faceted, dynamic, constantly evolving forms and functions of contemporary things. In doing so, the book prototypes a new design discourse around everyday things, and describes them as 'fluid assemblages'.

Redstrom and Wiltse explore how a new theoretical framework could enable a richer understanding of things as fluid and networked, with a case study of the evolution of music players culminating in an in-depth discussion of Spotify. Other contemporary 'things' touched on in their analysis include smart phones and watches, as well as digital platforms and applications such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Review Quotes

"Reading Changing Things, you have the sense that until this book, we have been drifting when it comes to digital interaction design, inadequately translating how we make physical things to a realm with very different dynamics. Wiltse and Redstrom offer not just a guide for designers crafting coherent interactions in connected and flowing contexts, but the beginnings of an ontology of digitally-enabled or -located experiences." --Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at the University of Technology, Sydney

"Things have never been stable. Yet, they have never been as fluid as they are today. By enriching our understanding of contemporary objects, Redström and Wiltse offer designers a new vocabulary to discuss how things exist and are expressed in a digital world." --Elisa Giaccardi, Professor and Chair of Interactive Media Design at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

"In Changing Things, Redström and Wiltse develop a critical, rich and compelling new theory of things that is essential for thinking, designing and living in a digital age. Their concept of fluid assemblages is a vital contribution for making sense of the networked and dynamic nature of designed digital things today as well as in the multiple possible futures that we may design. Most importantly, they invite us to join the conversation, paying close attention to the ways in which our shifting relations with things are as important as those we have with one another." --Laura Forlano, Associate Professor of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

About the Author

Johan Redström is Professor and Research Director at Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden.

Heather Wiltse is Assistant Professor at the Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden.