Kubrick imagined the human-technological habitat as a quiet place in which words and gestures should not be wasted. The sounds are muffled, the machines murmur constantly with low frequencies, concealed from view. But by now it is clear that such a world is not pleasing, and that the technology of the 21st century does not resemble Hal 9000, at least when it comes to the technology with which we live, which we use every day in our homes. The level of reproduction and transmission of images and sounds is excellent today, superior to what human beings are capable of perceiving and appreciating. Technology is ‘small’ and tends to dematerialize. The objects that convey it could vanish, making themselves invisible. Yet, unexpectedly, they don’t.

As Stefano Marzano, chief designer and CEO of Philips since 2011, has understood, the home of the technological present is equal to that of the analog past. And the inhabitants of the western world at times seem like Fred Flintstone, with masterfully sculpted stone cars that nevertheless do contain Bluetooth devices and great sound systems. Though some people also enjoy a return to low-tech, to the imperfection of digital archaeology. Rod White, who at Philips TV Sound and Vision continues the work initiated by Marzano, now acting as chief designer di TP Vision, confirms: “For some time now we have imagined designing the forms of technology with a masculine attitude and qualities: straight lines and geometric rationality, no concessions to design considerations not regarding functional content and a resulting aesthetic.” But to forge a European path to the design of technology, first for Marzano and then for Rod White, has meant looking in another direction. “To design a television set means grasping the anthropological content and, above all, getting out of the comfort zone of essential practicality.”

An operation that for White corresponds to an attitude of curiosity, and of interest in the feminine qualities of design. This translates into a dialogue with materials, their craftsmanship, and the forms of traditional expertise that make it possible. The partnership with Georg Jensen, leading to the launch of the Georg Jensen 9104 TV, is the outcome of research on the qualities of matter, its behaviors in relation to the environment, light and forms. An effort Rod White describes as “many hours of research in the archives of Georg Jensen, which bring together know-how around materials and their interaction with forms and light.” An excursion in a design world that would seem to be very distant from that of a tech company, yet necessary. “In this way,” White explains, “I have been able to look at things in a more poetic, metaphorical way, including the presence of manual intervention in a high-tech object.

We hear a lot of talk about ‘warm’ technology, but Rod White is actually suggesting something else, delving into themes that have to do with the social sciences, observing habits, expectations, the behaviors of human beings in their most sensitive habitats. People surround the technology, and include it. The design work makes it possible to balance this relationship, and with minimum or very powerful signs to stay human, even in the face of the perfection of functions. To insist that tech tools should be part of an emotional setting, speaking the imperfect, ambivalent and poetic language of human beings. These tools can be manipulated, felt and loved, also because they are the bearers of qualities of making, using traditional materials.