1. PHYSICALISM
The most powerful language is the
thing you don’t think about
a communication
language for the
digital age
2. Intro
In only a single generation we have embraced
technologies that sever ties with the physical world,
enabling us to share content and information that is
artificially represented at the point of consumption.
The break from physical limitations has seen an
explosion of virtual interactions unthinkable a few
decades ago.
For all their rapid pace of development, these new
technologies are interacting with human intelligence
systems that evolved over millions of years in a purely
physical environment.
What lies ahead is a clash between human innovation and
human evolution.
4. The language is
hard-wired
The ability to read objects is
hard-wired into every human
brain. Millions of years of
human evolution have honed
intelligent processes that are
finely tuned to make sense of
the physical world (not the
digital one).
5. We see the
world as things
Objects inform the basic language of
human perception. Our physically-
evolved intelligence system is
object-focused to see self-contained
entities. We place boundaries around
abstract ideas and concepts to make
them distinct in order to understand
them.
We call them ‘things’ even when
they’re not.
This
Not this
6. The Internet
isn’t a thing
A virtual, ephemeral, limitless and unconfined
INTERconnected NETwork (the clue’s in the name) is
essentially alien to our object-focused perception.
Whichever way we look at it, nothing about the digital
world is innately familiar.
7. An alien in
disguise
Digital technologies disguise
their alien nature in a deliberate
disguise of pseudo-physical
terminology, iconography and
representations that hide the
innate unfamiliarity of how they
actually work.
8. These aren’t
things
App icons that look like buttons
mimic a familiar object-based
system of organisation — they
look like separate entities.
In reality, they’re all part of
the integrated, limitless
network of unfathomable code.
9. It looks familiar
‘Sending’ an email isn’t sending
(which involves loss and acquisition)
— it’s duplicating and remotely
replicating a virtual representation
on another machine (or machines).
Everything we do on computers that we
think we’re doing, we’re not. They
make themselves valuable to us by
successfully impersonating the
physical world we know.
10. Physicality is
now a thing
Our object-focused perception
likes to contrast and compare.
The profound differences between
virtual interactions and
tangible objects helps us to
make meaningful and revealing
comparisons to understand the
hidden characteristics of real
things.
Real, substantial thing
Virtual, ephemeral
network — not a thing
11. Objects are
like us
Physical objects are innately
familiar to us because we share
a fundamental characteristic
with them — humans and objects
are both self-contained separate
entities. We are both defined by
our three-dimensional
extremities; we all exist in a
physical space.
12. We learn it
as infants
Physicality is the first
language we learn — before we
learn to speak and think. We
stick objects in our mouths
(because it’s sensitive) and
discover our physical
limitation: that we are self-
contained, just like them.
13. Wabi-Sabi
The human-object affinity
is enshrined in the
Japanese cultural concept
of Wabi-Sabi, which sees
human frailty reflected in
objects — how they wear
with age and ultimately
deteriorate is a dignified
reminder that we’re all
mortal.
14. Indexing and
memory
Almost from birth we consign every
physical and tactile encounter to
our memory, creating a (sort of)
definitive index of what the world
looks and feels like, from which we
can make predictions without
theory*.
*Intuition makes no attempt at
establishing causality, it simply tracks
patterns, which makes it immune to the
bizarre, chaotic and unpredictable.
15. Familiarity and
prediction
Intuitive predictions are fast — a
stone thrown at a wall will bounce
off and hit the ground* — but
don’t need to be accurate.
Physicality is the familiar
language that enables us to live
in the real world.
* Philosopher, Daniel Dennett calls this ‘the physical stance’
16. Subconscious
semantics
Our fluency in physical
language enables us to
intuitively extract complex
and sophisticated meaning from
the objects we encounter.
18. Objects are
emotive
Tactile sensations speak directly to
emotions — how it feels is how it feels.
Our relationship with objects is
intimate. We project our feelings onto
physical things to know them better when
they’re reflected back — it helps us
learn about how we feel. Objects root us
to the world we live in — we call our
possessions our belongings.
19. Feelings (really)
are physical
Science is beginning to uncover the
physiological connections between
emotion and physicality.
“Feelings are what arise as the
brain interprets emotions, which are
themselves purely physical signals
of the body reacting to external
stimuli”
Antonio R. Damasio, University of Iowa
20. A universal language
everybody is fluent in
The ability to interpret complex
meaning from physical signals isn’t
restricted to age, race,
background, culture or gender. All
human beings share a common
evolutionary ancestry. The
infantile introduction to objects
is one of the very few universal
human experiences.
21. We understand
without thinking
Conscious thinking (needed to
read words and interpret
images) is arduous, slow and
optional.
Physical linguistics are
processed unconsciously —
speaking immediately and
directly to our intuitive and
emotional minds without
cognitive intervention.
22. A hotline to
humanity
Physicality transmits
signals that speak directly
to the atavistic,
unconscious processes that
actually drive most of our
everyday behaviour,
decisions and the shape of
our lives.
23. Direct emotional
communication
Because tactile and emotional
sensations are conflated, the
most effective way to articulate
emotional meaning is via physical
characteristics — in packaging,
printed materials, artifacts and
environments.
25. In the digital age…
Computers are filling our minds with
information, changing our behaviour,
reshaping our relationship to each
other and the world around us,
possibly even re-wiring our brains.
The abundance of everything is
making attention scarce, demanding
us to think faster and think less.
They’re making us more intuitive.
If computers are alien, physicality
is the innately human, intuitive and
familiar language.
28. ARTOMATIC helps companies talk to people through
the human language of objects and physicality.
It shapes physical communication strategies, as
well as create, develop and manufacture physical
communications (books, packaging and artifacts)
that make deep, emotional and lasting connections
with their audiences and customers.
Make objects tell stories.
29. Communications
made for humans
32-38 Saffron Hill
Ground floor
London
EC1N 8FH
Tim Milne
020 7421 9369 / 07831 219335
tim@artomatic.co.uk
@timARTOMATIC
www.artomatic.co.uk
