Object Analysis Assignment

Mihael Ruja

First Year Integrated Seminar 2

Constructed Environments

Bridge 1: Inquiry

Object Analysis Assignment

Due Feb 7th.

 

Object Analysis: The AirPod

 

The EarPod and its modern counterpart the AirPod are unique objects of design that appear ubiquitous to the contemporary social landscape. The AirPod was brought to the consumer market by Apple Inc. on September 7th, 2016–after the patent for wireless earbuds was secured in 2011 by Jorge S Fino–with the function of giving users the experience of an unprecedented wireless audio experience. Wireless earbuds are not a necessity, but they do target a utilitarian luxury. Complementary to their uniqueness, within a design history context of audio listening devices, AirPods and EarPods do more than just exist as practical objects. Specifically for the AirPod, it symbolizes stature and derives a standard for social access. At the price of $159, people are paying for more than just the experience of listening to music; that would cost $15 on Amazon. This myth of the object has made it a node of emotional experiences such as grief, jealousy, and insanity. To be in the absence of this object is to desire the imaginative life of the other and to have is to take part in this social production of class and speculation.