The product world that surrounds us is increasingly anthropomorphic, designed to react and make decisions, and provokes an animated way of dealing with inanimate objects. Do we have a new form of animism – a kind of 'techno-animism – on our hands? What role does design play in this? Is 'animatedness' a product of design or in fact a situational emergence which originates from the interaction between humans and artifacts? In this text, culture and design scholars discuss the extent to which an object can be considered animated or possessing agency, and the anthropomorphic qualities of technology.
