Asignifying Animacies in the Home

Abstract

This article considers some ways that encounters with everyday objects in a home can generate a feeling of intimacy. The emerging range of “smart” devices marketed to exploit personal connections with the appurtenances of domestic spaces, we argue, effectively make the home into a platform for such intimacy. That intimacy is often achieved through the implied animacy of objects that might otherwise be regarded as asignifying, thereby enabling meaningful narratives to be built up around the likes of toasters and floorboards. The article suggests that such platforms complicate the distinction between public and private spaces, as the makers of smart technologies seek not just to insert their devices into our daily lives, but to make them feel intimate while extracting data about us in return.