After watching the documentary Objectified by Gary Hustwits, I was left feeling extremely nostalgic about certain technological creations like the iPod (more like iPod Video) and the digital camera. Back during the MySpace days, you'd need to have a digital camera to get those selfies juuuust right. And the iPod! It can hold over 2000 songs? Shut up and take my money.
These two items certainly defined the early 2000s and paved the way for some of the better developments we have today.
Karim Rashid, a designer from New York, expressed his opinion about revisiting old archetypes, in particular the digital camera. He pontificates that, "their format and proportion, the fact that they're a horizontal rectangle, are modelled after the original silver film camera. So in turn it's the film that defined the shape of the camera. All of a sudden our digital cameras have no film.
So why on earth do we have the same shape we have?"
I found this observation to be so interesting. While the digital camera may not have changed much in terms of its design, our portable audio players have. Remember Walkman's? Granted, you may or may not be old enough to know what I'm referring to... but those things were so clunky. You'd plop in your favourite CD, close the lid, and pray that the songs didn't jog during your walk. To think of running with that thing would be a nightmare!
But then Apple came along and designed this extremely sleek, sexy, chic version of it. It looks nothing like the audio players of yesteryear. It has a revolutionary iconic track pad. And yes! You can run with it. Unreal.
This documentary was made in 2009 and a lot, in terms of cameras, has changed since then. We now have smart phones that can do everything a phone, camera, iPod, and laptop can do.
Personally, I like the overly exhausted archetype of the camera. It's design is perfect and I think that photography enthusiasts would agree that it is here to stay.
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