A complete guide to fixing your appliance’s emotional damages, for a longer shelf-life. The potato masher #RITHR2538 from Phillips comes after a realization that electronics are sentient beings with object autonomy. The best way to take care of your household devices is not by regular cleaning, but by regular questions of care.

Completion: 28 July 2022
Duration: 3 weeks

Potato Mashers can get quite emotional, they are known to be sensitive creatures. Rather than the traditional worries of sentient technologies taking over human consciousness or whatever, this project tries to imagine what it might actually mean to purchase an emotionally capable machine. The object to human social implications might be far greater. What if your washing machine had a phobia of the color pink? How would you deal with their hopes, fears and dreams?

A 6 page guide for appliance owners on how to best care for their purchase.

Currently, the manual provides suggestions for nine problems. Each trouble is clearly outlined with symptoms to be correctly identified. As Phillips updates their models, improving their technology, more emotions will automatically be available for your potato masher to feel.

(Note: This is a simulated example and not produced in association with Philips.)

Works Cited:

Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.

Harman, Graham. Object-oriented ontology: A new theory of everything. London: Penguin Books, 2018.

User Manual, Philips HR1686. Koninklijke Philips N.V. Phillips, 2020.