Perception
Electronic Objects and Their People is a body of work, which pursues the question: What is the electronic objects’ impact on us regarding our general perception? With my four projects (“Anthropomorphism”, “The Preferred Object User”, “I Wish”, and “I Am You Need To Be”) I try to get closer to the bottom of: How do e.os on the one side influence our social actions (our communication and interaction) within the domestic space? On the other side how do they shape our perceptions and conceptualizations, which than appear in our language in form of metaphorical images and also trigger new forms of shorter communication practices. For example: “LOL - laughing out loud”, “BRB - be right back”, “hahaha - natural laughter”6, “AFK - Away from keyboard”, FAIL - computer error for something going wrong but also used in human language”, “Cannot compute—computer/robot-like when something is confusing or overwhelming”...
Daily metaphorical comments like “I lost my girlfriend to the iPhone” or “His computer is his second girl friend”, for instance are strong enough to raise questions and scenarios. All of this has a charming and amusing side to it, but more than this I feel there is a certain mismatch: It appears as if these verbal images try to bridge the gap between the inanimate and the human by linguistically equating these e.o.s with human beings. At first this also seems contradictory and exaggerated but on second thought and further investigation we see that there is some truth. And some of our perceptions have already shifted. You don't know what I am referring to? Dear reader, lets see how much your perception has shifted already. Does this sound familiar to you: Do you cuddle with your toaster and upgrade your roommates?!
If you need some inspirations and insights please look at my visualizations from the perspective for perception.
- http://www.answers.com/topic/lol-californication-episode
Californication: LOL, Season 1, Episode 5. Meredith uses the phrase 'LOL' which causes Hank to state that although he does not have a problem with the word, he believes every time a person uses it, they are "contributing to the death of the English language."