John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

ased design and fabrication tools to create objects that respond to their
audience as participants in the experience. Both the object and the audience
can act as subjects in this relationship.
Figure 38: ‘Autotelematic Spider Bots’, 2006. Ken Rinaldo
We can derive a value for the sophistication of an object thus: Sophistication =
Production (1-3) + Adoption (1-3) + Relationship (1-3). We can also derive a
value (Total) based on the combined complexity and sophistication of the object
thus: Total = Complexity (1-3) + Sophistication (3-9). This gives a scale (4-12)
which was used to give a basic structure to the database of objects so further
analysis could be conducted to indicate common properties of objects and to
identify relationships between ‘types’ of objects.
Three further categories were added to the database. These were records of the
technologies used (Tools) in the production of the objects. Also recorded was
whether the object was produced as part of a commercial or non-commercial
venture (Enterprise). So for example Keith Brown’s ‘Geo’ (above) would be a
non-commercially produced object and Unto This Last’s ‘Wavy Chair’ is an
example of a commercially-produced object. These simply allow further
distinctions and clustering to be made.
The final category (Designed Object) also allows for further distinctions to be
made and the objects to be clustered into types. This was derived from the
systematic structure that evolved out of the categorisation described above. Six
broad categories of types of designed object were discerned (see Table 11).
Three categories make distinctions based on the functional capabilities that are
built into the objects (augmented, autonomous and responsive) and three make
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