ABSTRACT
The year is 1982. We are in the boardroom of the Swedish national graphic labor union. There is a board meeting going on. On the agenda is a contradiction in terms it seems, a utopian project on new computer based technology for skilled work. As head of the project I have been invited to report, and decide on whether or not to continue with the project. Future scenarios have been presented before, but it is all up in the air, abstract and unreal to many of the participants. There are protagonists and antagonists. The chairman is very skeptical. With me I have a plastic bag filled with different shaped wooden mice [mock-ups of future interaction devices we have just designed]. The turning point in the meeting is when I bring out the mice of the bag and let them circulate around the table. Participants were really keen to get hands on experience. The Utopian future became not only tangible, but also imaginable. Further work on the project was approved with acclamation. The performance of a thing (a designed object) had entered into another kind of thing (a decision making meeting) and altered its performance.
