Poetry, Habitat, and Light: Reflection and Conclusion
A poetic experience is not created through a product; it transcends the metal, plastic and wiring required to manufacture and enable it. Poetry, by definition, is a work of literature, but poetry as a concept in interactive product design embodies the power embedded in this rich literary creation and brings it into everyday use. Creating a product that evokes a poetic experience involves thorough understanding and immersion in not only the product's domain, but also that of the user, the intended context, and most importantly influential cultural and social manifestations.
Poetry is not something that can be handled and manipulated, but through understanding of tangibility and its interaction with the undulations of context, it can be implicated and predicted. We embraced this ethereal goal, and with it under our wing evaluated the specific domain of home style to create a marriage through a new interactive product.
Experience occurs when a person and another person, object, or place interact over a period of time. It is the impulses between our brain's synapses; and though it is not something we can quantify, it is something we can understand, nurture, and expect. Within every experience there is opportunity for poetry, and given the right formula of context and behavior, it can be encouraged to exist.
Poetry lies in the same realm as epiphanies; it is understood by everybody, but incapable of being defined by any formulation of verbal vernacular. Epiphanies have the power to excite and motivate us, or inversely to indicate our misjudgement and realize our errors. Both epiphany and poetry are creative energies that we all have, and they both affect how we perceive and react to reality. They infer meaning, and allow us to experience, if even for a milli second, our individuality.
So, how does product design relate to this concept? Products exist to be handled and used by people. This fact alone establishes them as potential catalysts for poetic experiences. Every product is used to complete a task, and every task requires a certain amount of physical or mental energy to execute. During this kinetic period, our mood is heavily influenced by many factors, a lot of which are directly related to our use of the product. If something goes wrong and we don't understand why, we become upset or confused; if something goes right, we either maintain our mood or it becomes more positive. This is the window of opportunity for a poetic experience to happen, and the design of the product or environment being used has a strong presence in determining whether or not one happens.
By gaining an understanding of poetry we have enabled ourselves to design a product that can serve a function while also evoking an experience through its use. If we can apply this understanding towards future problem solving, then can we can continue to design products with an element of humanism, and in turn create new opportunities for poetic interaction through product design.
A poetic experience is not created through a product; it transcends the metal, plastic and wiring required to manufacture and enable it. Poetry, by definition, is a work of literature, but poetry as a concept in interactive product design embodies the power embedded in this rich literary creation and brings it into everyday use. Creating a product that evokes a poetic experience involves thorough understanding and immersion in not only the product's domain, but also that of the user, the intended context, and most importantly influential cultural and social manifestations.
Poetry is not something that can be handled and manipulated, but through understanding of tangibility and its interaction with the undulations of context, it can be implicated and predicted. We embraced this ethereal goal, and with it under our wing evaluated the specific domain of home style to create a marriage through a new interactive product.
Experience occurs when a person and another person, object, or place interact over a period of time. It is the impulses between our brain's synapses; and though it is not something we can quantify, it is something we can understand, nurture, and expect. Within every experience there is opportunity for poetry, and given the right formula of context and behavior, it can be encouraged to exist.
Poetry lies in the same realm as epiphanies; it is understood by everybody, but incapable of being defined by any formulation of verbal vernacular. Epiphanies have the power to excite and motivate us, or inversely to indicate our misjudgement and realize our errors. Both epiphany and poetry are creative energies that we all have, and they both affect how we perceive and react to reality. They infer meaning, and allow us to experience, if even for a milli second, our individuality.
So, how does product design relate to this concept? Products exist to be handled and used by people. This fact alone establishes them as potential catalysts for poetic experiences. Every product is used to complete a task, and every task requires a certain amount of physical or mental energy to execute. During this kinetic period, our mood is heavily influenced by many factors, a lot of which are directly related to our use of the product. If something goes wrong and we don't understand why, we become upset or confused; if something goes right, we either maintain our mood or it becomes more positive. This is the window of opportunity for a poetic experience to happen, and the design of the product or environment being used has a strong presence in determining whether or not one happens.
By gaining an understanding of poetry we have enabled ourselves to design a product that can serve a function while also evoking an experience through its use. If we can apply this understanding towards future problem solving, then can we can continue to design products with an element of humanism, and in turn create new opportunities for poetic interaction through product design.
