Review of Objectified (2009) by Jean-Francois V — 11 Nov 2009

"Objectified" is a documentary about modern industrialised objects, the thought processes that go into them, and the impact they have on our lives. It is composed mostly of designers and design curators and editors from all over the world expressing their philosophies of design; explaining how specific objects such as a very early laptop computer or a pair of garden shears were conceived; or actually brainstorming about the way we keep our teeth clean, potentially leading to a revolutionary toothbrush or the end of toothbrushing itself.

At its best, the film evokes a zen-like mood with its shots of beautifully designed everyday things and its unobtrusive electro soundtrack, but some of the time it looks only like a cluttered reflection of our vain consumerist lives, beating the latest blockbuster in terms of intrusive product placement. One of the interviewees explains that most of what designers do is not solve users' problems with better thought-out models, but simply respond to manufacturers' demand for "more SKUs": "They want more stuff and they want more people to buy it." The environmental costs of our constant demand for the "very new" and the "very next" are also dealt with in the final part, where designers confess that virtually all they have ever produced is probably decaying in a landfill somewhere.

I may have had excessively high hopes about this documentary. I somewhat expected it to make me see the world in a new light, to transform my relationship to the ominipresent manufactured objects that surround me. It did strengthen my appreciation of the work conscientious designers do, the expertise they have ("we know better what people need than they do, in terms of ergonomics, design, etc.") and the validity of the values they try to embody in their creations (clarity, honesty, durability, consistency, etc.) but it didn't transform my perception of my manufactured environment.