ARDUINO The Arduino company produces inexpensive micro–controller boards with an integrated development language that allows users to connect their devices to the environment through sensors and actuators. Arduino developed its open-source platform as an offshoot of Processing in 2005. Its endeavors provided an early step toward the Internet of Things (IoT).
AS THE NEW MILLENNIUM BEGAN, SOCIAL MEDIA PROLIFERATED. ALTHOUGH ITS ROOTS GO BACK TO THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY—WHICH SAW THE INVENTION OF THE WHOLE EARTH ’LECTRONIC LINK, THE WORLD WIDE WEB, AOL INSTANT MESSENGER, GOOGLE, AND BLOGGER—WIDESPREAD USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN IMPETUS FOR CONVERSATION AND COLLABORATION DID NOT TAKE OFF UNTIL THE EARLY 2000s. Designers such as Khoi Vinh and Hugh Dubberly paid close attention as communication transformed from a one-to-many broadcast model to a many-to-many platform, and began to relinquish modernist tenets of control and precision, opting instead to develop systems that guide user behavior and content. Collectives such as Conditional Design worked not just to put systems into play but also to watch those systems take on lives of their own. Collaborative making and iterative testing became a model for software developers and designers. The exponential increase in computing power suddenly made complexity feasible, allowing designers to emulate organic, generative approaches. Casey Reas and Ben Fry, building on the work of John Maeda and Muriel Cooper, celebrated software as a new aesthetic with the release of Processing. Using tools such as Arduino, creatives began to experiment with distributed sensor networks to engage with big data and, when possible, get closer to the natural ecosystems surrounding us. Futurists looked beyond smart objects to consider the design needs of a posthuman world—a world dominated by hybrid human/machine intelligence. Such seismic shifts in the profession force designers to pause and take stock of their identity as designers and humans—that is, if they can take the time to catch their breath.
