Does what you own own you?
Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica, debuted his second feature film, Objectified, last week at the SXSW Film festival.
Objectified is a documentary in interview form with 30+ product designers. Each telling how they came up with their idea and little appreciations of those products that we commoners may have never noticed. From the rubber gripped potato peeler to the first laptop and onto the iPhone.
Just having had a conversation with someone about materialism before I read about this film, timing couldn’t have been better. As technology and even household items are becoming more advanced, surely people are going to have a closer attachment to their belongings, causing some to worry they’re becoming too materialistic.
Does Objectaphilia (a person who is sexually attracted to objects) really exist? An episode of Boston Legal shows a woman who leaves the man she is dating for an iPhone. Jokes were of course made that I would do the same. With mobile phones & laptops now becoming a common extension of ourselves, would we really want to let them go?
The film isn’t about people in this day and age being too materialistic, but rather it’s about the appreciation for the products we love and why we love them.
The question I’m putting forward to you is the same asked at one point in the film: The hurricane is coming. You have 20 minutes to grab the objects in your house that are most important to you. What do you reach for first?
For screenings check here