Objectified

Huswit's film, "Objectified" shows the relation between form and content by showing us the world of industrial design. The goal of industrial design was to create forms that were able to become mass-produced, and widely available to the public. Made most famous by Ford and his assembly line, Ford tells us that "every object tells a story if you know how to read it."

In the beginning, we think of "form" as directly related to "function". This is best illustrated as if you were an alien to our planet Earth. When you pick up a spoon, the design tells us a general idea of what to and what not to do with it. But as design evolved, the form no longer had such a bold and direct relation with function/content. The best example shown in the film is the iPod/iPhone devices where you wouldn't be able to associate all the applications to the simple rectangular shape/form.

As designers we must look to the future- one where since form and function no longer have a distinct relation to one another we have to look at the form applying to human interaction with the object. Only in this way does form and the content reintegrate together and work off one another as it did when function was a part of the very idea of looking at a spoon.

for more information on the film, please visit http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/