1. INSTANT MESSAGING.

Instant Messaging?

Yes. It's immediate and convenient. It helps me get to the core of things.

Do you ever feel like it's abbreviating the world?

There's a time for brief moments and there's a time for longer moments. I don't subscribe to these lengthy over-worded European communications. There's a time for that sort of formality, but for the most part I need the immediate input... it bridges things together.

The Dream Room

The idea is that design should adapt to the user. It needs to be intuitive and environmental...

You are known for bringing concepts into the tangible realm. How far are we away from a fully functional Dream Room?

A lot in our laboratory of ideas takes three to five years to realize—in this particular case— digital wallpaper, digital glass is about seven or ten years away. We put concepts out to show what we feel the potential for the technology is. It's important for designers do that.

2. THE LEAF LAMP

The Leaf Lamp is one of your own designs for Herman Miller—

It's basically the only lamp you'll ever need. It changes mood, you can adjust it when you want to work and then again for when you need it to be romantic. It's also environmental from an energy consumption standpoint. It uses 40 percent less power than other compact fluorescent lights, and lasts up to 60,000 hours.



3. GPS (Global Positioning System)

A GPS is an advanced form of a compass, no?

I can't think very much about how to get from point A to point B, so I need a GPS.

That means your car is talking to you—

Yes. Not too loud, but it does talk to me.

Would you say this is another innovation that compresses time?

It's liberating in the sense that it makes you think about the journey without planning it. Not dwelling on the details of it.

If you could, how would you enhance GPS?

I would make it a lot more intuitive, less robotic (as in the voice talking to you). It would be more of a gentle guidance and naturally integrated into the driving experience—rather than a little screen on the side that blasts orders at you.

Speaking of enhancements— technological gadgets trend towards becoming smaller, eventually disappearing into the body. Do you have any resistance to the idea of say having a chip in your head as a GPS?

Maybe I'm too squeamish to have technology integrated into my body. I like it when it's invisible. I like it surrounding us, I like it in our lives—but to me the body is separate. I'm not much of a tattoo/piercing guy.
Technology should be non-intrusive and putting it in to your body is probably the highest form of intrusion. The people who talk about the future in this way are the same people who make GPS machines too loud; they’re the same people who make technology really annoying.

For example?

The ringer on cell phones. The fact that cell phones ring—they really shouldn't! I haven't turned my ringer on in several years. I don't understand why anybody needs them.



4. MY SURFBOARD

Let's talk about your surfboard: it's primitive, but it's a design that has worked for a long time—

I guess it’s the other side of life (as opposed to the GPS) where you have to be very present and very in tune with nature. That said, there's a subtlety to their shapes where you can feel any small difference in size or volume. There is a primary interaction with an object like a surfboard—it’s very primordial, everything it does you can sense and everything it is gives you a certain kind of feedback.

In terms of "primordial feel" and instinct—is that something we should generally experience with present day technology?

This is what I've been building up to—technology that always feels natural and integrated rather than disruptive and distracting.


5. OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) A.K.A “The $100 Computer”

This is an intriguing project—

The concept was created, invented and pushed by Nicholas Negroponte, the Chairman of the MIT Media Lab. He came to us to design the physical experience, integrating the technology into the product and creating an object that would bridge the digital divide between the West and developing countries

 It's amazing to have been involved at every level of this project over the past two years. This is where technology needs to go next: right now it has affected maybe one billion of the people on the planet, but with the right design, the right product and the right type of interaction we can provide education, communication to children everywhere. It's the only project I know of where there is specific hardware and software designed for these conditions.

It is also the one example in the fifteen years of my career, which points at the original goal of the Computer/IT industry— which was to provide access to information for all. I think we've reached that goal on a small level and now we need to pursue it on a global scale.

OLPC testing in a Nigerian classroom

For more about Yves Béhar visit www.fuseproject.com

All images courtesy of fuseproject.