While looking through the videos and articles for module 5 I was immediately intrigued by the concept of Anthropomorphism and how it radiates throughout all of humanity and our man-made creations. If you don’t know what anthropomorphism is; let me define it for you. Anthropomorphism is essentially the way we perceive something as having human-like traits. Here are a few pictures that might clarify this for you.
In the first picture Anthropomorphism at play is obvious. It’s an alligator with big human-like eyes, standing on 2 feet, and wearing golf attire.
In the second picture, we see a tree, but for most of us, we are immediately drawn to the 2 upper ‘eyes’ and the ‘screaming mouth’ below it. This is just a regular tree, but we are so drawn to those eyes and mouth that it’s impossible to not somehow associate it with humans.
I hypothesize that the idea of anthropomorphism is more profound than we may give credit for. Anthropomorphism was and is essential to the creation of many designs that we may not notice anymore since it is so abundant among society.
Anthropomorphism is a powerful way to create a deeper emotional connection to a design and that somehow elevates the status of an object the more anthropomorphic an object is. For example, there have been potato chips that just so happened to resemble famous faces, and the more it resembles a face the more value we attach to it. These potato chips will sometimes sell way above their initial worth. We can even look at the tree example above and let’s say someone wanted you to cut this tree down. There might be slightly more hesitation on your part at the idea of doing that, simply because of the way it looks. It would much easier to cut down if it looked like your standard tree with no anthropomorphic qualities.
One last thing I want to bark at you about is that our attachment to things similar to us is somewhat egocentric, and I feel humanities obsession with their own kind is the crux of our attachment. As of right now, it seems we like to see ourselves in our designs; whether those things bring about negative or positive feelings, we are associating a design to us as humans. Do we like what that image says about us? Is the primary question we ask when we see anything with anthropomorphic qualities.
I would digress into the topic of humanity’s egocentrism and the part it plays in all our creations and how we have a way of always wanting to relate to something because it brings us a sense of comfort, but I should end this here.
Anyways, <(^^)>
Chew on that bone for awhile Dawgs
Another great read dawg, keep it up!