Blog Prompt 8
There are many similarities between the articles by Kahn and Gershenfeld. Each talks in a way about reactions to reality. Gershenfeld elaborates on inventions and how they need to be focused on the individual, while Kahn describes “man’s desire to express.� Both men have the idea that creation of art and fabrications should be focused inward, on the individual wants, desires, inhibitions of the individual person, rather than to the masses, or the common.
Gershenfeld speaks ill of the direction technology has been taking. He insists that technology can’t possibly be pleasing or useful to the individual, since it was made to be useful for masses. There is no uniqueness, no personality in this kind of technology. Inventions in today’s world don’t reflect personal feeling; they’re being made not for personal pleasure or self-fulfillment, but to make money. Gershenfeld feels that concentration on design needs to be felt by the person, without any regard for others’ opinions. Motivation needs to express feelings and desires; it needs to prompt technologies that could not possibly be mass-produced. These inventions would be so personalized that they wouldn’t be useful to anyone other than the person who made it. The joy brought to the creator can’t possibly be felt by any one other person since it was designed so intimately for the maker. Focus needs to be turned inward; motivation for expression more personally felt.
Kahn also elaborates on the idea of individuality of expression and design. He states, many different times and ways, that “desire brings the new need.� The “needs� that we have today are for money, profit, gain, and fame. We “make� only out of greed, when we should be focusing on how to express ourselves in a way that completely ignores the attitudes and judgments of others. We have to hold ourselves responsible for being true to our intuitions. We have to be in touch with our true desires to express our thoughts and feelings and learn to accept that as the only option for manifesting our ideas. We need to take into consideration that which is pure (without greed or blemish), our genuine individuality, and convince ourselves that the only way to express ourselves is to embrace that which is ours. We must allow our personalities and desires to shape the form.
Technology is headed down an ugly road, void of personality and filled with greed and “common-ness.� The only way to change this path is to accept and welcome the desires of the individual. We must not let go of that which makes us unique, the ability to express, rather than conform.