David Byrne’s First Trip to IKEA, “A Videogame World”

BoingBoing points us to some clever commentary David Byrne offered after visiting IKEA for the first time. His musings:

IKEA is huge. We went up to the second floor where the shelves, sofas, tables and lamps are all arrayed into tasteful little room settings — rooms, but with mysterious tags hanging everywhere. Immediately I thought it was like entering a videogame world. Who lives here? What do they do? Why is that book on the table? Is that significant? Could it be some kind of clue to the occupant’s identity?…

One soon realizes that one of the goals of this “game” is to decide which cabinets, in which wood or wood-like material, would, could or should be combined with which counter materials, and then to match them to a particular style sofa and upholstery, and finally, to select the color and texture of floor material that would coordinate best with all the above.

Byrne’s thoughts reminded us of an article in this month’s issue of Wired - The Game of Life in which Rex Sorgatz argues that we have entered a new era in which day-to-day and major life decisions are considered like moves in a video game, our schema having been appropriated by gaming mentality and strategizing.

[via BoingBoing]