‘What do Objects want?’ offers two tales that explore the relationship and companionship between humanity and the objects we create. These two tales are embodied in the form of two publications, ‘Illegible objects’ and ‘What Do Objects Want?’.

‘Illegible Objects’ is a collaborative publication that tells us a story of a humanity that saw itself in the things it made. We developed a sense of ownership and relationship with these objects, and viewed them as an extension of ourselves. It is a story of how we believed we had complete agency over the objects we made, and by extension ourselves. This publication is an on-going enquiry, where I take an object that (is seemingly Illegible) has no apparent function and allow people to interpret it, mold, and manipulate its image and thereby redefine its function.

‘What do objects want?’ tells us a very different story; one that provides a contrasting shade to the first one. It is about how we never really had much control over these objects. When humans design objects they assume that they have complete control over it, but in reality these objects have not only intervened into our lives, but have demanded that we change the way we live our lives to accommodate them. Objects present themselves as serving Humanity, but their real intention is to redesign the human. This publication attempts to dig deeper into the inter-relationships objects form, to understand their position in the world, and by extension our own.

The two books together tell a story of a humanity that was collaborative. We find ourselves permanently suspended in a web of cause ad effects; of designing and being designed by the systems that surround us. Through this project I want to appeal for a slow reading, and further a slow knowing of the world around us.