Roundtable about the future of the Internet of Things and interaction design. In the spectacular Futuro House
UAL Research Fortnight March 2016
The long awaited promise of the Internet of Things is still far from mainstream reality. Debates about smart devices seem high-jacked by either techno-philia (the machines will save us) or techno-dystopia (the machines will take over), by the banality of a fridge talking to a phone, or the anxiety about privacy and control. It seems clear that if the Internet of Things wants to grow it needs a robust design-led vision, able to stay clear of technodeterminism. What is design’s role in shaping the new hybrid landscape of the physical and the digital? Can design lead in the search for a critical-practical framework that articulates the new relationships between the human and the nonhuman?