Glowing Tableau: Making a stand on technology

Saint Étienne – Product designer John Kestner bridged the gap between the digital and real life at the Saint Étienne International Design Biennial 2010 through his ‘anti-computer experience’ Tableau.

A photograph is placed in the drawer of the Tableau bedside table, a photo printer and scanner with a connection to Twitter. It is then automatically scanned and posted to Twitter. Similarly, digital images uploaded to Twitter appear in the drawer as physical photographs.

‘Technology has reconnected us to some extent, but we fiddle with too many cables and menus, and those individual connections are drowned out,’ says Kestner. Instead of receiving Twitter updates, users will know about their message through a glowing knob on the Tableau drawer.

As we explore in our Conviviality Culture report, consumers are tired of simply updating their social network status, they want real-life events.