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Dec 2006, Bangalore @ Srishti
The project aspires to look at an alternative view of Interaction Design, which is propelled by the absence of a pre defined system of functions and uses, or rather, which is driven by the 'noise' or randomness induced in the system.
Created/ designed a catalogue of device concepts that illuminated some of my insights on this approach to interaction and that have 'studied' gaps in interaction propelling users towards a different level of interaction with the objects in their world.
My final year diploma project is a reflection of the work that I would like to do in the future. Exploring object/tech -human relationships and interactions interests me. What started as a fun project made me ask some very interesting questions about interaction design and go into basics of human responses. Through the course of the project i became very keen to delve deeper into the field of design interactions.
Srishti Graduation Show @ Aliance France, Bangalore, Dec 2006
I started by looking at my everyday interactions with objects and observed that the nature of my interactions with some old and even almost dysfunctional objects were actually richer than some well designed sleek modern equipment. As I delved into what began as a thought bubble, I entered what I like to call the realm of the 'un-useless'.
Un-uselessness can be said to lie in the grey area between usefulness and uselessness. A ‘un-useless’ object is in a state of flux. It’s irrational and rational at the same time, its functional yet non functional, it defines yet confuses. All objects do that at a certain level but what happens if the very idea behind an object is to confuse the user in order for the user to contextualize and make meaning in their own worlds.
Minus the Manual, is an attempt to induce this element of 'un-uselessness' or 'noise' into existing objects. Noise induced into systems can produce strange and fascinating behaviors. Instead of isolating the user from the underlying structure of an object by exposing him/her to just the sterile, defined interface; the user is intentionally made the external influence or the disturbance to the existing object system. The objects be designed in such a way that there are gaps and open spaces that the user has to intervene and this outside intervention changes the meaning and the function or even the form of an object continuously over time according to different contexts and individual needs.
The unpredictability or randomness created by this noise can take our everyday interactions from pre-defined, mechanical role playing to creative or more meaningful thought processes.
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