The Communications Room

The System of Objects by Jean Baudrillard certainly isn’t an easy read. It’s one of those books that will make the average person question their own intellect. So even with my massive heeed I had to accept that parts of this book flew slightly due north. There are loads of some gems amongst the academic guffawing that make it well worth sticking with. However, if you want the condensed version, good old Wikipedia can help you out here.

The general gist is focused on the social understanding of objects and how people & technological progress have become more complex than the objects themselves. Drawing relationships between the functional, sociological and the cultural understanding of objects everything from antiques to robots are covered in this book. Baudrillard argues that all objects signify something socially and people’s needs from an object ‘are constructed rather than innate’.

Considering this was written in 1968 it is still a must read and whilst it is extremely flouncy there are many great insights into the future that are scarily accurate and very relevant today. Such as people’s ever growing need for objects to automate their lives being one such instance.

I like the idea of looking at the things we sell as objects rather than brands and products, mainly because it feels like a better way to generate thoughts and ideas. Its way more flexible, cuts out all the crappy marketing speak , unhelpful research and sort of makes you think about what you selling from the perspective of how people use it and feel about. I guess it’s a more user centric term than a brand centric term.