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AUDIO & DESIGN When the Stereo Was Furniture: The Lost Art of Listening and the Quiet Rebellion Once, the stereo wasn’t just a device; it was a monument in the living room, a beautifully crafted piece of furniture. Today, our listening experience has been fragmented and diluted, but a quiet revolution is brewing. Read more → FIELD NOTES The Built-In Demise: From the Phoebus Cartel to Your Pocket's Planned Obsolescence Planned obsolescence isn't a modern phenomenon; its roots stretch back a century to cynical agreements designed to shorten product life for profit. Today, this insidious practice manifests in our everyday tech, from phone batteries to smart features. Read more → FIELD NOTES A Machine for Living In: The Modernist House and the Gadgets It Never Needed Le Corbusier coined the phrase 'a machine for living in' not to celebrate gadgetry, but the elegance of efficient design. Today, our homes are often burdened by smart features that promise convenience but deliver complexity and planned obsolescence. Read more → FIELD NOTES The Push-Button Kitchen of Tomorrow: What the 1950s Promised and What We Actually Got The mid-century dream of a fully automated kitchen, freed from all domestic drudgery, never quite arrived. Instead, we've gotten something far more complicated, and often, much worse. Read more → FIELD NOTES Enshittification, Explained: Why the Things We Love Get Worse on Purpose Ever notice how your favorite app or product starts out great, then slowly but surely, turns into a shadow of its former self? This deliberate degradation of quality is what we call enshittification, and it's a plague on our digital and physical lives. Read more →
AUDIO & DESIGN When the Stereo Was Furniture: The Lost Art of Listening and the Quiet Rebellion Read more → FIELD NOTES The Built-In Demise: From the Phoebus Cartel to Your Pocket's Planned Obsolescence Read more → FIELD NOTES A Machine for Living In: The Modernist House and the Gadgets It Never Needed Read more → FIELD NOTES The Push-Button Kitchen of Tomorrow: What the 1950s Promised and What We Actually Got Read more → FIELD NOTES Enshittification, Explained: Why the Things We Love Get Worse on Purpose Read more →

About the Field Notes

Opinions, sourced.

Opinionated dispatches on living with, and without, our technology: home, table, music, design, repair, family and the great outdoors. Past, present and future, newest first.