zu spät

I just found this exhibition called "universal connections" (via). The design collective dialog05 (Christian Busse, Roman Gebhard, Markus Mayer, Jochen Scholer and Ina Seng) presented in Munich this amazing dialoge on how objects become meaningful through their adoption by the people.

This is an example of technology being clearly understood and accepted by the general public. something democratic evolves and develops and therefore often even receives a totally different usage than was originally intended. given the current, often exotic use of USB, it would even be argued that there is a 'USB subculture'!

Well, that's not necesarely a subculture.... but one of the elements building a whole culture. Stewart Hall calls the schemes that define the processes of formation or construction of culture through social practices, activities or rituals as "discoursive formations". In my words:

• Meanings are not automatically present in an object because of its colour or shape. It's the social practices and the users that make products meaningful.
• Elements determined at production (design) are adapted (decoded) by use. Other meanings are imposed (encoded) by the users.

ciao