Yan Wu’s Turntable Microwave is part of a research about challenging the existing interaction between people and domestic products.

The development of technology seems to be faster than the study of human-technology relationship. There is first a “compromising period” in which humans try to be adapting to the machine.

Wu searched how everyday products could make people think about what they should give back to technology. The industrial designer’s experiment focused on product interface, with an unusual product context that modified the user interface without compromising the product’s effectiveness.

In Turntable Microwave, a representation of the turntable needle and record act as the control panel of a microwave oven. Both the turntable and the microwave oven keep their archetypal form and the immediate impact of their working status is similar: a disk spinning. This similarity facilitates an intuitive association.

Despite the emotional memory that gramophones provide, the experience of using a needle to choose, “place� and locate your music is another feature people are still fascinated with. This poetic manipulation is lent to microwave ovens for users to select an order.

What i found most interesting was the feedback Wu got from the show: “It was kind of unexpected since people have more inspiring interpretations of these objects than me. Some liked it because it has music but some were attracted by the idea of turning gramophone into a timer. It’s very interesting to see people get your idea but not only in your intended way.”

Seen at the MA Industrial Design Graduation Show , Central Saint Martins in London.