three hundred seventy

Mechanicals/Design Fiction – Perception. Manipulation.

Found artifacts – from a past, present, future society – used for the manipulation, control, and/or influence of its citizens through their perception of reality.

Am I hearing what I am seeing? Am I seeing what I am hearing?  Is it true? Oh, I can alter either in way that better supports my “reality.” Less of this and more of that. Tell me what I want to hear. What I want to see. Tell me what I should see.”

Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand the environment. However, perception does not equal reality. Each individual has a unique perception of the world based on their experiences and interests. We live in “parallel worlds” of perception, meaning what one person sees or experiences may differ from another’s viewpoint.

Perception becomes conscious only when we actively pay attention to what we are perceiving. This awareness plays a critical role in how we interpret and understand the world around us.

Our perceptions significantly influence our actions, reactions, and decisions. The way we interpret situations, form attitudes, and make judgments is all shaped by our perceptual lens.

But perception can be manipulated through propaganda, media, or other external influences. Control over perception can, therefore, lead to control over behavior, actions, and even reality as we know it.

Our judgments and awareness are also influenced by our perceptions. The more conscious we are of how perception works, the better we can navigate decisions and interpretations in our lives.

And the easier it is to not be manipulated, controlled, and/or influenced.

The term Design Fiction is a tech and design specific term that talks about the role of make believe within the world of functional design. Ideas generated within Design Fiction can be whimsical, inventive and off kilter though not by necessity, but what Design Fiction does is through its use of a prop or a device or a structure – say a thing – presents the “thing” in everyday life as if it’s real. As such it is accepted as fact – it just is – in order to spark the imagination so it can be talked about and bandied about as if it were already real. The Mechanical Series can be considered as Design Fiction in that we’re not sure what it is, what it does, or if it does anything… but it very much exists. These seemingly once-functional objects look like they belong in our world, but we just don’t know how or what happened to them to get to the point where they are today. And that lends them a bit of mystery.

For more on what these Mechanicals and Design Fictions, do go HERE