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iEverything
by João Paulo Cavalcanti| Sao Paulo, Brasil
Thursday, 12 August 2010
tags: americas, categories, clients & brands, global vectors, making sense, technology
Have you noticed how many products have come around over the last few years sporting a tiny “i” before their names? Well, if you know not what I speak of, think iPod, iPhone, iPad, iGoogle, iMAX, etc. And these are only a few of the best known. A quick Google search returns over a thousand product names that follow the pattern of a noun preceded by an “i” that is almost isolated in its stately lower-caseness.
Internet! Yes. That seems to be the obvious word that justifies the fame of our little “i”. That seems to be the expression the letter seeks to contract, to simplify. And the trend just goes beyond: iWater, iFood, iHouse, iCity, iTaxes, iGlasses… It’s as if, in this abstract universe that is the internet, all human creation needed to be reborn, rethought, reconsidered, to become lighter, to become iMmaterial.
The “i” initiates and hides behind its challenging and friendly humility. It wants us not to notice it and so it stands humbly ahead of what we already know — while surreptitiously changing the entire genetics of the object. This is the new life of post-internet objects. A new life, its sins washed away by the “i” — the insignia that identifies objects that have been converted to the cult of the ultimate god of objects: the World Wide Web. The object unobjectified.
Objects which operate under different laws of physics. Free of weight, free of volume, free of time. That is to say, ticking to a different time. And all this is identified by our dearest little “i” — which is but the center of our vowels. The anthropomorphic letter that rises up to the global network heavens. But what does it want to tell us, other than "internet”?
Well… the “i” is a lonely letter. As lonely as I. The self-effacing I, that positions itself as an individual, that acknowledges its individuality, its independence. It is isolated, but adds itself to the object in order to become.
Perhaps the letter “i” has been the greatest gift the digital age has offered us: a way to restate, in a subtly stark manner, that we stand small, internet and all.
© João Cavalcanti 2010
29 August 2010 at 12:47 am
João Mognon says:
I didn’t know about iLohas. Beautiful. Great iDEA!
I will look foward to read your post about it.
28 August 2010 at 2:01 pm
Malcolm Evans says:
I have just seen something from Japan – a supposedly eco packaging innovation which combines this i- code with another pervasive trend (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability). The iLohas pack being used by Coca Cola among others. I’ll post this as a separate semionaut link.
25 August 2010 at 9:30 am
Gabriel Shalom says:
I vs. Wii
The emphasis on “I” in the popular brand image of Apple computers is indicative of an increasingly more individually focused world. We are led to believe more and more that our personal preferences and individual whims are of the utmost importance. Paradoxically this individualist ethic results in a homogeneous aesthetic taking the form of ubiquitous white ear buds which double as status symbol and techno-chic.
Perhaps in contrast to this is the idealistically named “Wii” — the new generation of Nintendo that focuses on a wireless sensor/gyroscopic interface design. The Nintendo executives see this as a way to involve the entire family in the video gaming experience. Incidentally, the first thing you think of when you see the sleek new white plastic controller is: “that looks like an iPod”. Yet this is probably more of an instance of a wolf in sheep’s clothing than just another icopycat.
When working on circuits and electronics around a table with others, the fundamental nature of today’s divide between analog and digital technology is revealed to be a problem of interface and human communication. Camaraderie and interaction is more likely when holding a soldering iron than a computer mouse. I think the long term survival of the new digital technologies will be predicated on improving user interface. Although we may spend time navigating windows, the laptop’s screen often functions as a wall.
***
This piece was originally published in July 2006 in a small edition of a printed zine edited by Heidi L. Cregge.
24 August 2010 at 1:15 pm
rodrigo v cunha says:
“i” may be lonely, but is has the power to connect us all. “i”, in its simplicity, unite the “we”. pure awe.
23 August 2010 at 2:04 am
Jozepe Mindelin says:
Even more ubiquotous than that.
16 August 2010 at 4:44 pm
Lucia Neva says:
Hi João,
While reading your text I couldn’t avoid connecting the ‘i’ with a sense of lightness and simplicity. I am just connecting the ‘i’ as a concept that relates to uncomplicated devices or ways of being (human and technological). I wonder if the ‘i’ will become as ubiquitous as the ‘@’?