Abstract

Design has been chasing seamless efficiency for decades, creating smoother interactions, more compliant objects, and experiences that disappear entirely. When an object is frictionless, it does not lack personality. It has a personality. One that is obedient, meaningless, and remarkably boring. An object that pushes back has boundaries, and that resistance comes from a position of caring. Objects have always been able to refuse. What is new is that the refusal can now come from inside the object, from memory, adaptive thinking and a disposition toward the person using it. Expressed consistently over time, that agency is perceived as personality. Tom is a pencil sharpener that says no. It cooperates with pencils and resists pens through designed behavior that escalates with provocation. Material investigations explored how mechanical processes could express personality honestly: thermochromic paint that shifts color with rising temperature, rotating apertures that snap defensively, air pressure that grumbles and expels graphite across the desk. The pneumatic variation proved most complete, using a compressor’s actual sound and vibration rather than borrowed biological signifiers. These investigations propose that object personality is a designable quality, one that emerges from the relationship between object and user over time.

Publication Date

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial Design (MFA)

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

Stan Rickel

Advisor/Committee Member

Juan Noguera

Advisor/Committee Member

Marissa Tirone

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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