Objectified: Interaction of Form and Content

Objectify: To express something abstract in a concrete form, to degrade to the status of a mere object

The film “Objectified” provides viewers some insight into the industrial design process, something we rarely hear or think much about. Using Lauer’s principles of form and content we can start to decide what is the ultimate concept of “Objectified.” What message is being delivered?

 Specifically, the “content” refers to what is being told or communicated to the viewer, and “form” refers to the techniques or visual elements used to share the content with viewers. Within this film, form and content interact on multiple levels. First is the broader level; the overarching theme (content) speaks to the audience through a series of interviews with designers and video clips/images of the design and production process with narration in between clips (form). Second is very similar but a bit zoomed in; each individual segment makes its own points on what design is through music, images, interviews, and voice overs.

Looking at the form and content of the broader version (the movie as a whole), I felt the movie did well to provide us viewers with a really unique look at the design and production of everyday objects like potato peelers and toothpicks. Video clips of designers in their studios creating their projects leaves the viewers in awe, fascination, and confusion. These moments are interrupted by commentators making statements to make us think a little harder, to move past a state of awe into analyzing the bigger picture. It really impacted me when a woman mentioned that now form bears no relation to function in objects. The invention of the microchip has allowed designers to create items like the IPhone which is a calendar, a phone, a computer, and a camera all in one, but based on appearances alone seems to be none of those things.

 The final message or concept is somewhat ambiguous. The two competing messages seem to be this; 1) Design is constantly improving objects, and industrialization improves our means to share those designed objects with the population at large and 2) Inherent in this mass production industrial design model is waste, designing for the sake of creating more rather than creating better. I think the film does a good job of presenting these two sides through a balance of designs and designers represented as well as through the commentary. Each of us are then left to interpret the final message for ourselves...and I am sure many of us left the film focusing on a slightly different overarching concept.