Designing the Smart House Posthuman Domesticity and Conspicuous Production

• Published in: European journal of cultural studies Vol. 8; no. 4; pp. 403 - 426
• Main Author: Spigel, Lynn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi SAGE Publications 01.11.2005; Sage
• Subjects: Architecture; Computers; Cultural change; Cultural studies; Cultures and civilizations; Design; Domesticity; Everyday life; Habitat; High technology; Home; Housing; Human ecology and demography; Industrial production; Information technology; Internet; Lifestyles. Everyday life; New technology; Product design; Sociology; Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Sociology of work; Telework; United States Of America; conspicuous production; posthuman domesticity; conspicuousre production; home office; performative communication; teleworker; Consumption; Home industry; Architecture; Accomodation; Portable telephone; Gender; State of the art technology; Production; Computer; Household implements; Habitat; Telecommuting; Household Space; Communication
• ISSN: 1367-5494; 1460-3551
• DOI: 10.1177/1367549405057826

This article analyzes recent architectural and product designs for computerized smart homes. The smart home is a sentient space where human subjects and domestic objects speak to one another via intelligent agents and internet connections. This article explores the industrial logic behind this new vision of home (i.e. the links between the hi-tech industry and the building/home appliance industries) and examines the mode of subjectivity the smart home demands. It calls this mode of subjectivity 'posthuman domesticity' (a term to explore the way that everyday human experience is orchestrated by telerobotics and intelligent agents). Analyzing architectural designs, advertisements and magazines, the article focuses on how the smart home industry promotes an ideal of 'conspicuous production' in which the luxury home is no longer just a site of leisure and consumption, but also the ultimate workplace. It argues that smart homes reconfigure but also reinforce gendered patterns of domestic labor and leisure.