3. Design Hacking


This is where animation could begin to borrow from the idea of design hacking. Hacking has traditionally been thought of in the digital sense, where weaknesses in software structures are exploited for unintended purposes. But recently, with the increase in manufactured goods and a decrease in personal creation, there has been a surge of people hacking physical objects in response to the impersonal linear relationship between consumers and the objects designed for them. For instance, Ikea Hacking takes the preset materials provided by Ikea and reconfigures them into new objects with more personality and potential uses (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 Yonoh. Ikea Hack

Traditionally, a designed object has had a direct relationship between its form and its function. On one side of the spectrum the designer creates a specific form for a specific set of functions for the consumer on the other end of the spectrum. By hacking a system or object we’re able to insert our own ideas into the space between the defined form and its predetermined function. Like in animation, by adding details to this space between we are able to add a sense of personality to an otherwise rigid and lifeless object. Scott Burnham explains hacking as  “a ‘middle process’ between creation and consumption, creating an opening for new design processes which are not about the use of new resources, but about the ingenuity to expand the potential of existing ones.”

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