Hao Huang

In the era of "abstract, discontinuous, and phenomenological" cognition, the principles, structures, and mechanisms of objects have become unknowable and unnecessary to the general public. These aspects have detached from the external forms of objects, losing their truthful correspondence. The form and function of objects no longer originate from specific principles and structures but from within the objects themselves and from relationships beyond tangible entities.

External forces further promote this shift. One such force is the ecosystem of objects shaped by commodity economy and consumerism. This system not only maintains the network of relationships among objects but also generates new objects through these relationships, further detaching objects from mere functional constraints. Another significant external force is the development of the information society, which endows objects with more symbolic content. Objects are no longer merely function-based tools but have become containers with media significance. As we enter the information age, people's attention has shifted from physical entities to information. The external world is filled with information and symbolic content, most of which is directly consumed rather than hidden within entities awaiting extraction. This shift in attention directly influences our cognition of the surrounding world, leading us to lose interest in physical objects.