In addition to our new book Newsgames, the Fall 2010 MIT Press catalog (PDF) includes a wonderful new title called NONOBJECT, by designer Branko LukiÄ? (frog design, IDEO) and writer Barry M. Katz (California College of Design).

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I paste the press’s blurb below in its entirety, it’s so lurid and wonderful.

The “objective” world is one of facts, data, and actuality. The world of the â??nonobjectâ? is about perception, experience, and possibility. In this highly original and visually extravagant book, Branko Lukic (an award-winning designer) and Barry Katz (an authority on the history and philosophy of design) imagine what would happen if design started not from the object but from the space between people and the objects they use. The â??nonobject,â? they explain, is the designerâ??s personal experiment to explore our relation to the observable world.

So they show us an umbrella that puts us in a harmonious relationship with nature by sending falling rain rushing through the handle from an upturned top that resembles a flower; a spoon with a myriad of tiny bowls that allow us to savor our soup; a â??superpracticalâ? cell phone with keypad, speaker, and microphone on every surface. They imagine the ideal material, â??Thinium,â? incredibly thin and incredibly strong, environmentally and aesthetically beneficial. They show us clocks and watches that free us from time told by artificial demarcation and consider the possibility of a digital camera that captures the part of the scene we didnâ??t see.

In NONOBJECT, product design meets philosophy, poetry, and the theater of the imagination. The nonobject fills us with surprise and delight.

Sounds fantastic; I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Incidentally, the entire catalog is full of amazing new books, including Bill Moggridge’s Designing Media and Don Norman’s Living with Complexity. I’m rather humbled to be in the front of the catalog next to these big guns.

published April 30, 2010

Comments

  1. Federico Fasce

    Hey, the link to the PDF catalog appears to be wrong. Still, I can’t wait to read your book 😉

  2. Ian Bogost

    Thanks Federico. I fixed the link.