On Artifacts Of The 21st Century... ( and some by talented Etsians)

My boyfriend William is doing his Masters at the University of Brighton, and today, as part of their introductory session, they were given a questionnaire of sorts to fill in and bring back later in the week. So I had a look at the questions, and there it was, staring me in the face:

" What artifact or object of the 21st century has been the most influential, and why?"

I looked and looked at the pink piece of paper. And I tried to think of an artifact, any artifact of this century substantial enough to be called influential. And, for the life of me, I couldn't.
Everything that seemed to pop into my head was almost instantly rejected as not good enough, not quite that innovative, and most worrying of all, not an artifact.
And here is what I mean:

Artifact, as in anything made or used by mankind.

Raise your hand if you can think of one representative of the 21st century so far.
Now raise you hand if you can think of one that has NOTHING to do with technology.
Now if you can thing of such a thing, seriously, drop me a line.


1. Computer Key Jewelry by creativedexterity
2. Fembot Robot Sculpture by Robotworld


Now, the previous question on the aforementioned questionnaire was much better:

" What artifact or object of the 20th century has been the most influential, and why?"

One really has so many answers to choose from with this question, and yes, some have to do with technology, but most have to do with some of the most incredible works of art, sculpture, architecture, music...


3. Micro Circuits On My Desk paperweight by BigHelmetHead
4. Distant original drawing by danielmueller

Have we, in an effort to invent ways to make our life easier, forgot how to really invent? Have we forgot how to make art, how to write music, how to design a building, and learned instead to rely on machines and software to do those things for us? And is it such a coincidence that the majority of this century's works are remakes of older works, or (even worse) bad reproductions?
xoxo