Digital Trashcan in a Physical Office

The Swedish design group Front brings the principle of the digital computerdesktop trashcan back to the physical world. When your trashcan basket is full it bulges outward. When half-full, it is in permanent motion. The internal basket pushes downward while the external slats try to maintain an upright position.

This product is an illustrative example of a so–called 'boomeranged metaphor'. At the beginning of the computer era, objects and experiences from everyday life were recreated in the digital domain, so that people could relate to the – otherwise incomprehensible technology – more easily.

Think the computer desktop folders, buttons, painting brush, trashcan, etc. Nowadays, digital technology has become so omnipresent that we start transferring metaphors from the virtual environment to our physical environment, in order to relate to it.