#liminal objects

OBJECT REMARKS (DOMESTIC TEST)

A small side avenue branching from SUBSTRATE.HOST.

Same underlying structure: object → tap → response boundary → contact → output

But redirected into something quieter, more domestic, and deliberately less doctrinal.

Object Remarks are NFC-linked labels for ordinary things.

Peel, place, tap. Receive one line.

Not a conversation. Just a remark.

Each object carries a different temperament:

kettle: dutiful, mildly burdened, aware of ritual

fridge: procedural, withholding, faintly judgemental

mirror: direct, observant, occasionally tired

door: (in progress — threshold logic still unresolved)

Phrase banks sit behind each object (≈20 lines to start), served one at a time, rotating across visits.

The physical layer remains fixed. The digital layer expands.

The aim isn’t to simulate intelligence.

It’s to formalise something that already happens:

the quiet anthropomorphisation of household objects, the sense that things are already “half-speaking” through repetition, use, and proximity.

This just makes the remark explicit.

Built the core structure overnight:

NFC endpoints live

object routes resolving to single-line outputs

initial phrase banks in place

tone/temperament guides per object

first tags assigned and fixed to actual objects for testing

First line is stable. Subsequent taps pull from the bank.

Next step is weighting, variation, and light contextual drift — so responses feel less random and more “in tune” with the object’s role.

It sits adjacent to SUBSTRATE:

less about inaccessible interiors, more about familiar surfaces behaving slightly differently.

Strange bedsheets at motels

Soda flavours you've never seen before

Spam mail send to previous residents

Candy from foreign countries

Old reciepts found at the bottom of bags

Plastic binder sheets

Shirts with eye patterns

Stopped clocks

OBJECT REMARKS (UPDATE)

A little further on.

The site now lives properly at objectremarks.co.uk rather than borrowing Elsewise space, with a homepage that introduces the system and links directly to the live endpoints. So visitors can now test the thing as itself, not just read around it.

The endpoints have also changed slightly. There’s now a TAP AGAIN loop built into the page itself. That removes the small friction of having to physically retap, reopen the notification, and reload the browser each time. More importantly, it makes repeated contact legible. The system can now start to notice when an object is being checked again and again, and respond accordingly.

Phrase banks are also beginning to drift by time. Morning, afternoon, evening, late night — all keyed to London time for now. Same object, same endpoint, slightly different register depending on when it is disturbed. Seasonal sets can come later. objectremarks.com remains in reserve for future regional variants / time-zone drift if needed.

Also added: /make. Because this isn’t meant to be closed. You do not need to buy the card. Any NFC tag will do. Assign the URL. Affix it to the object. Tap when necessary.

Still the same basic structure:

object → tap → remark

What are the real challenges of contemporary design? How do our physical objects respond to expansions in technological and virtual capabilities? What shared values can be established as emerging areas of specialization push the discipline into new directions? How does the design practice adapt to new manufacturing paradigms and the urgent need to reshape our ecological approach? Who are the key players and what are their roles throughout these evolving contexts?

At this critical juncture, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) will have its first in a series of formal conversations on design this Friday, October 19. Liminal Objects will explore answers to such urgent questions in a field currently undergoing significant transformations. The conference brings together prominent designers, curators, critics, business leaders and GSD faculty to tackle these pertinent issues.