"This compact manifesto is essential reading for anyone who’s ever used an electronic product. Hertzian Tales explores the complex chemistry whereby industry, design, use, misuse, and marketing all combine to form product. But while products are often boring, Dunne sees the potential for them to offer the sorts of 'complicated pleasures' we get from film or literature, and points to concrete ways that poetic products could be engineered. A theorist and practitioner, Dunne sees industrial design as a form of popular culture, and his analysis of that culture is accessible and profound."
—Christopher Csikszentmihályi, MIT Media Lab

"In refreshing contrast to the widespread, breathless adulation of new electronic gadgets, Dunne demonstrates that product design can and should be subject to a level of critical reflection that goes far deeper than packaging and superficial features and functionalities. And by daring to question some cherished myths of the design profession—such as the presumed merits of 'user-friendliness'—he opens up the possibility of a richer, more nuanced, but often disquieting discourse about designed objects and the social values and relationships they enable or suppress."
—Janet Abrams, Director, University of Minnesota Design Institute, editor of If/Then: Play and coeditor of Else/Where: Mapping.

"Anthony Dunne's thoroughly researched book is a harbinger of the future—a future where invisible electromagnetic spaces with their surreal qualities become a major component of architectural ambition and aspiration. Marvel at the secret lives of dreaming electronic objects and enjoy this fantastic odyssey. And see the future fully for the first time."
—Neil Spiller, Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory and Vice Dean, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

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