But the experience gains impact with the idea that these patterns reflect ambient electromagnetic radiation in the environment. The changing colours and lights of the Pillow are designed to reflect television signals, radio, cell phones, even viewers' electromagnetic fields, allowing the object to become a kind of window onto this invisible world. Thus the Pillow raises issues about our existence in an omnipresent sea of electronic information. From this perspective, the Pillow is confrontational, facing us with the literal intrusiveness of information. The design of the Pillow challenges the usual aesthetics of computer displays, however.
Images shown on current displays tend to be flat, clearly defined, and hard-edged.
Using the translucent plastic block and pillow, lights and colours are given depth, and made softer and more subtle. Thus the Pillow is able to raise its issues gently, perhaps evoking a feeling of wonderment rather than shock. The Pillow is not a work of art, but of design. Instead, the Pillow is designed to live in the home, raising its issues as a routine part of day to day life. Of course, we realise that the Pillow would be unlikely to succeed as a mass-marketed product.