Barry Wylant, professor at University of Calgary, gave an insightful look not into enduring design as objects, but instead enduring design theory. His talk focused on the early 20th century work of Italian Futurism.

He focused on the "ruthless wonderment" of the futurists' fascination and intimate connection with technology. He compared Marinetti's (father of Futurism) seminal encounter with an automobile crash to Ballard's 1973 novel and subsequent 1990's movie "Crash" with James Spader. In the movie the erotic potential of technology and the failure of that technology -- car crashes -- demonstrate this techno-lust.

He suggests that this "almost religious" relationship with technology is still prevalent today. Along the way he also introduced the continuum between wonderment and banality (from Heidegger), suggesting that the continual quest for wonderment is a manic endeavor. This leads to the question for all designers regarding "the appropriateness of wonderment" in relation to technology.