We may not think about it consciously on a day to day basis, but objects around us are always talking to us in both explicit and implicit ways. There’s the obvious directive of a stop sign or a traffic cone, but there’s also the unspoken messaging conveyed via the ATM machine, the alarm clock, and that shiny new iPad. Objects have always been designed with the idea of communicating their use and meaning in mind, and it’s this relationship that MoMA’s Senior Curator of Architecture and Design, Paola Antonelli, seeks to explore in her upcoming exhibition, Talk to Me, slated for summer of 2011.Antonelli is one of the foremost authorities on the relationship between design, creativity, science and technology. Her 2008 show Design and the Elastic Mind forever changed the way we think about design’s place in our world and our lives, and deepened our understanding of the symbiotic relationship between science and design. In Talk to Me, Antonelli seeks to explore how technology is redefining the ever-evolving relationship between people and objects. Technology is humanizing objects, and designers are acting as intermediaries, helping us interpret technology and translate it into a language that we can more intuitively understand.We visited the museum to learn more about the exhibition, talked to Antonelli about some of the core themes driving this exhibition and got a sneak preview of a few of the objects to be included in the show.
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