The idea was that modern living would mean that our electronic technology would fit seamlessly into our living spaces. That didn’t quite work out, and it’s getting even worse. Gadgets are stuck here and there, to our walls, sitting on tables, or displayed on racks looking like an electronics repair shop. Some are garish and out-of-place looking; most are black, and although that’s beginning to change the alternatives just stand out more. Sure some people can afford to have a custom home entertainment center or HT installation, with everything hidden behind doors and the speakers in the walls or ceiling, but that’s not a financial option for very many of us. Home receivers, TV displays, cars and refrigerators usually have all sorts of marketing statements emblazoned across them, such as “frost-free” or “Dolby/DTS/HDMI/ProLogic II” etc. (What if your sofa had “Exclusive Super-Cushy” printed across it?)
While a few loudspeakers almost qualify as fine sculpture, most are still in the “monkey coffin” category and if you want to see some examples of what would cause most females a heart attack just look at the online photo coverage of any audio show. If you thought wireless speakers might offer a solution to setting up a regulation 6.1 or 7.1 surround system, think again. In most living areas, the center rear speaker or speakers is going to be located right where people are entering the room, or directly in front of a sofa!
CES is the world’s biggest gadget show, and most of what is on exhibit is butt-ugly, yet it’s supposedly the industry’s best efforts on display. (Wired magazine recently called the absurdly monstrous and spread-out annual show “…a sprawling waste of time, energy and money.”) Stevens says our houses are often at war with the electronic gadgets we place in them. Manufacturers don’t seem interested in making our homes beautifully-designed environments. Sure, the public fascination with flat-screen video displays is ridding many living areas of big boxy TV sets, but there is still that big screen starring at you even when it’s off. Putting a giant picture frame around it is a nice touch, but the screen is still there. Most of the rapidly-expanding category of mobile electronics are equally ugly. Only a few seem to benefit from good design criteria, such as Apple’s products. As technological advances have made electronic gadgets smaller and smaller, you’d think it would be easier and easier to design them to fit into our lifestyles in a more integrated fashion, but that hasn’t happened. They must be wedged in, plugged in, with wires everywhere – even with the so-called wireless components (unless they run on batteries). How can we get the electronics coming into our homes to exhibit better taste?
