Design used to let us wander; modernity replaced that wandering with efficiency — now, every product decides where you’ll end up before you do.
Living within the ‘rush’
Initially, I noticed this as an absence, rather than a symptom; rushing through chores on an evening with no plan, moving towards a destination on the map as if the walk there is a task, reading a page over and over without anything of value being left behind — all wanting occupation and efficiency over experience. None of these came from a particular fatigue or boredom, more so muscle memory, or perhaps I’d picked up an unwanted hitchhiker somewhere; my private life was starting to be, albeit quietly, rebuilt in the shape of the work I do for a living.
What I wanted, in the hours that belonged to me, was somewhere without an objective; and so, in the past few months, that desire became four small worlds in the shape of digital experiences, each without a template for where to go or where to arrive, albeit at a juvenile level towards where I wanted to take this idea. No menus between you and the noise, searches that answer questions with webs instead of lists, books that hand you poetry rather than optionality; no…