Behind things

Production: FONDATION 93, ENSCI-Les Ateliers Digital Workshop, AFPD
Coordination: Sylvie LAVAUD, Jean-Louis FRECHIN (ENSCI), Daniel VERON, Thibault NARMAND, (FONDATION 93), Mustapha WAFRA (AFPD)

The things that surround us, the factory-made objects, have been designed in the first place by companies that aimed at developing equipment to improve people's quality of life by addressing basic needs: cooking, food preservation using cold, clothes washing, house cleaning… These companies mass-produced objects so that they be accessible to as many people as possible.

Today, the idea is to produce objects that respond to a variety of expectations, to each person's specific needs, as we are not all alike. We have gone from the production of an object for all to the production of an object for each. Objects with a purpose, that are very useful, or useless objects, that are trivial but that provide fun, emotions, laughter, games… Unique objects or objects for me and my family… Objects for my pleasure, objects to be different from others, objects to be the same as my pals…

"Actually, the things I prefer are Playstation games; they are things, but they are not objects…" Antoine, 11 years old

Design arose from the history of objects and of the people for whom they are made. It begins with people's desire to fulfil basic needs, to attain comfort and progress. It continues with people's need to differentiate themselves from one another and to have products that are "good" for them.

Design can be defined in multiple ways and involves differentiated practices related to an object creation system. Design is about expressing ideas through imagination, creation and shapes while responding to explicit or implicit needs of the contemporary world. It expresses how science and technology developments transform our daily life.

Yet, design is an activity children would not think of doing.

Beyond drawing and shape, design carries within itself an imagination present in every child, that of the children who endeavour to discover the world around them : it is about "doing things" or "building treehouses", when the child becomes an inventor, a do-it-yourselfer, a builder, a dreamer.

By choosing to address the impact of science and technological progress at home through objects, we wish to give concrete expression to this approach through use, creation, dream and poetry.


Part 1 — Introduction - Daniel VERON / Part 2 — Scenario - Jean-Louis FRECHIN