Imagine a world where objects compete for our attention and evolve for human interaction. The home is the battleground for product superiority and attention of the human figure—and on managing newness, human desire, and waste, the product sphere has entered a crisis of behavior. For the human gaze is an empowering force—we wield the power to create, and make waste, of objects around us. Instead of having to force attachment to products which we do not enjoy using, we should instead have the products we use designed to adapt to our attention.

Here I have created eight toasters; a metaphor for wasteful objects in the home, and present a future in which our appliances use personality to compete for our attention, lest they be thrown out and neglected.

Design Team

Designer - Leon Brown

The Cradle Toaster - Domesticated Object

Crumb Toaster - Domesticated Object

Free Toaster - Commensalistic Object

Free Toaster - Commensalistic Object

Charge Toaster - Commensalistic Object

Detect Toaster - Predatory Object

Lift Toaster - Predatory Object

Latch Toaster - Parasitic Object

Service Toaster - Parasitic Object

Simply put, how can design for objects in the home explore a wider spectrum of interaction in a way that slows down our culture of waste?

Each of the eight toasters is designed around an evolutionary characteristic—domestication, commensalism, predation, and parasitism. So many of our daily appliances are designed with one-dimensional characteristics that bore over time—these eight toasters instead explore a wider spectrum of relationships we could have with objects within the home. A parasitic toaster may outlast a predatory toaster; or a domesticated even more. The design of this exploration is intended to push the boundaries of emotionally durable design and force outward-thinking on the concepts of interaction design in the home.

Eight Toasters Concept Video: https://vimeo.com/245879455

Learn More About This Projectx