TELLING A STORY WITH TECH
Every month as I assemble the top-notch, crack team of articles that make up HWM Singapore, I normally try to make sure that there is some kind of overarching theme that goes into the issue. Sometimes this theme can be very overtly planned, such as during major events such as the Consumer Electronics Show or Mobile World Congress; even the many pandemic related issues stories we’ve run. Sometimes it’s hard, but this month was a bit of a surprise, even to me, and I didn’t really realise it till I was looking at the finished product.
Many of our articles can be linked back to how technology is used to tell a story, and when I say this, I don’t just mean sensory-wise. We’ve got a chat with Giles Martin for example, talking about remixing The Beatles for Spatial Audio. He mentions how music is music throughout generations and technologies like Spatial Audio isn’t just about “3D sound”. It allows one to be transported to the time that particular track was make, the feelings, emotions, the very room it was recorded.
We have a commentary about Severance, a new show on Apple TV+, and it resonated because of how work-life balance has changed so much in the past two years of Covid. It’s a what if scenario played out that makes us think if all this technology around us that keeps us connected at all times is a good thing. But on the other hand, to be totally cut off can also be a nightmare. It’s very Black Mirror-like.
Even our reviews this month fits into my narrative of tech storytelling. The Huawei P50 Pro is an amazing camera-phone. I’ve personally played with it during my own unboxing, and the hardware impressed me greatly. But what about real usage experience? Can tech products survive based on high-specifications alone? What is the barrier of entry from a user experience perspective that a line is drawn for a product to be “good”? Can tech overcome traditional brand narratives?
Maybe it is a little too meta to see when you get your issue of HWM, but these are things that go through my mind. Till next month.