When Objects tell stories. Children Designing Future Smart Objects.

Smart materials and microelectronics have given rise to intelligent living like products – so–called smart objects– that can sense, react and be connected. In this new realm, TANA (TAngible NArrators) research project, conducted at UNIBZ, Faculty of Design and Art, explored possible future scenarios, in which smart objects came to life in stories that were created by children, the co–designers of TANA project. This paper represents the results and analysis of co–design workshops conducted with 7–8 years old children, in order to discover smart objects’ potentialities through storytelling. The workshops aimed at harnessing children’s free imagination and innovative power into generating new ideas and new concepts of smart objects integrated into our daily lives. The paper reflects the results of the workshops with assumptions from both design and anthropological point of view discussing smart object agency and designer’s role in this new realm.