Infinite Objects reframed digital video as a permanent physical object: one video, one display, no app, no setup, no interface.
The work connected hardware, ecommerce, media processing, artist editions, personal gifting, and authenticated collectibles into a product system defined by restraint.
Digital video is ubiquitous, but it often lacks permanence, ownership, and emotional weight.
Most existing products around digital media prioritize flexibility: cloud libraries, apps, settings, feeds, and endless updateability. That flexibility creates maintenance and decision-making where the object should create presence.
The product question was whether a stronger relationship to video could come from removing choice rather than adding features.
The problem was not the screen. It was the interface.
A screen that can do everything behaves like a device. A screen that does one thing, permanently, can behave like an object.
Constraint became the design tool: one video, one physical form, no setup, no future content changes.
The idea grew out of R&D work with GIPHY while I was at Planeta. We had been exploring new ways to consume and create moving images across VR, AR, web, mobile, and camera/display prototypes.
One prototype led to a simple but high-leverage constraint: a display that could never be updated by the end user. That changed the object from a gadget into a collectible.
Remove the interface entirely.
No app
No account
No Wi-Fi configuration
No controls
No updates
A single video is permanently embedded in a physical object. The product turns on, loops, and gets out of the way.
The apparent simplicity of the object depended on a larger system behind it:
Infinite Objects launched at the New Museum in 2019 with 11 limited-edition video prints, curated with Rhizome, Daata, and Transfer Gallery.
For artists and collectors, the product made digital video ownable without forcing it back into an app. The physical form carried artwork, edition information, certificates, and signatures. It gave digital work a persistent place in the room.
The day-zero vision was that the product should not feel like a tech gadget. It should feel closer to a framed photograph: present, quiet, and already working.
The patented interaction used a Hall effect sensor and a magnet hidden in the packaging. Boxed, the device stays off. Remove it from the package and it turns on in the customer’s hands.
In 2020 we opened the system to user-generated video. Customers could upload a clip, customize an Infinite Objects Video Print, and turn a personal moment into a permanent physical gift.
This was deliberately not a general-purpose digital photo frame. The value came from removing upkeep: no library management, no rotation settings, no app dependency. The object held one memory and made it durable.
The third content system was sports and entertainment. With NBA Top Shot and Dapper Labs, we connected digital ownership to a licensed physical object.
Collectors authenticated ownership of an NBA Top Shot Moment before purchasing its physical counterpart. Each unit carried league branding and a QR code linking back to the on-chain asset.
The same product system scaled into campaigns, branded content, VIP gifting, retail merchandising, and licensed collectibles.
Across more than 100 brand, event, and agency partnerships, the object gave partners a way to turn digital media into something people could hold, display, and remember.
The same constraints that made the product clear also made it demanding.
No updates meant the purchase decision had to feel intentional. No app meant the fulfillment and rendering system had to be reliable before the product reached the customer. No interface meant the packaging, object behavior, and support model had to carry the experience.
We traded flexibility for clarity, and feature depth for emotional permanence.
Infinite Objects reshaped how I think about product design. The strongest product decisions are often acts of subtraction.
By removing interface, we made digital video easier to understand, easier to gift, and easier to live with. The work was not just a hardware object; it was a system for changing the relationship between digital media and physical space.
Building the product required more than the object itself: hardware, software, operations, partnerships, fulfillment, customer support, licensing, and creative production all had to work as one system.
At its largest, Infinite Objects grew to 35 full-time employees across 5 states and 3 continents.