This iron is a radio. By disconnecting the function from the form, the iron subverts our commonly held expectations of what an object is and how to interact with it, challenging learned behavior and evoking deeply held discomforts.
We all learn as young children that the metal plate of an iron is hot and not to touch it. The Ironic Radio however, forces you to overcome your “natural” instincts in order to work the radio. Here, the plate is used to select stations, while the knobs and dials control the rest of the radio’s functions, such as volume, and switching between AM/FM.
The casing of the iron is stuffed with an Arduino, a speaker, sensors, and LEDs under the metal plate, with various switches and controls retrofitted to the existing buttons and dials. The Ironic Radio was designed by Mao Nissen, Dean McNamee, Elena Gianni and Gizem Boyacioglu as part of a Physical Computing class at The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID).
Watch a video about the project below:
Ironic Radio from Dean McNamee on Vimeo.
The Interaction Design Programme at CIID is an incubator for some of the most insightful designers on the block. This 12-month intensive curriculum is an onslaught of skills-based and investigative workshops – which means that students are not just able to do great things – they can tell you why they are doing them.
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