Few museum exhibitions have managed to pin down the current moment quite so exactly as "Talk to Me," the Museum of Modern Art's intensive investigation of humanity's relationship with contemporary technology, organized by senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonelli. "Talk to Me" is a show that ranges through the digital and the physical, marshaling everything from subway ticket machines to avant-garde video games and proposals for the future of social interaction into a provocative and engaging mix that ranges far beyond traditional ideas of design.

"Talk to Me" takes as its starting point the communication between people and objects. The purpose of design "has shifted away from mere utility toward meaning and communication," Antonelli writes in her curatorial statement. "Objects that were once charged only with being elegant and functional now need to have personalities." This anthropomorphization is best displayed by Yann Le Coroller's "Talking Carl," (2010), a squat, Gumby-like cartoon on a monitor at the beginning of the show. Tickle the screen, and Carl laughs out loud. Poke it, and Carl grunts and scowls.

A visual playground made up of bright orange display units stocked with sculpture and models, "Talk to Me" is relentlessly eye-catching. In one corner, a monitor displays an infinitely scrolling Web site-turned-social space, while another screen demonstrates augmented reality technology. Elsewhere, walls are hung with architectural elements that make up a giant QR code and modular robotic elements settle like sleeping animals in transparent cases.

What these objects all have in common is their two-sided relationship with humans, giving feedback as users provide input. Antonelli's focus is on interaction, our exchanges with technologies that have become the dominant experience of design in the age of iPhones and Twitter. The concepts included in "Talk to Me" aren't just cutting edge, they're inescapable as high tech trickles down to daily life.  

ARTINFO has chosen 5 highlights from the exhibition and asked Antonelli to describe how they fit in to her curatorial framework. See our picks and the curator's responses in the slideshow at left.

A video of one of our picks, the Avatar Machine, can be seen embedded below.