The Impossibility of Interface - Revision history

Michael Murtaugh at 09:39, 5 July 2013

2013-07-05T09:39:10Z

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	[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam		[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam

	~~note:~~ [http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]		[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]

	One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications		One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications

Michael Murtaugh at 09:38, 5 July 2013

2013-07-05T09:38:56Z

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	[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam		[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam

	[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]		note: [http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]

	One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications		One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications

Michael Murtaugh at 09:38, 5 July 2013

2013-07-05T09:38:15Z

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	[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam		[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam

	[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay ~~also~~ appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]		[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]

	One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications		One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications

Michael Murtaugh at 09:37, 5 July 2013

2013-07-05T09:37:56Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:37, 5 July 2013
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	[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam		[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam

	[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay also appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia]		[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay also appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia, 2003]

	One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications		One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications

Michael Murtaugh at 09:37, 5 July 2013

2013-07-05T09:37:35Z

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	[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam		[[Media Design Research]], Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam

			[http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=274 A version of this essay also appears in ''Behind the Blip'', Autonomedia]

	One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications		One of the key interests of the media design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is how digital media is embedded within, echoes and reinvents things happening in other parts of life and society. This lecture takes one part of computing culture, namely ‘interface’, and examines it in the light of other forms of interface within society. Different grammars of power relation that such interfaces make possible or rely on are also discussed. Such contextualisation, in turn, suggests ways of developing digital media with an awareness of its social ramifications

Michael Murtaugh: /* Software: Information and Matter */

2013-07-05T09:35:20Z

Software: Information and Matter

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	Is what is suggested here, simply a ladder of abstraction? More a recognition of processes becoming internal to the computer. What is meant by this is an extension of what Katherine Hayles suggests when she names virtuality as "The cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns"<ref>N. Katherine Hayles, 'The Condition of Virtuality' in Jeffrey Masten, Peter Stalleybrass, Nancy Vickers eds. ''Language Machines, technologies of literary and cultural production'', Routledge, London 1997, p.183</ref>.		Is what is suggested here, simply a ladder of abstraction? More a recognition of processes becoming internal to the computer. What is meant by this is an extension of what Katherine Hayles suggests when she names virtuality as "The cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns"<ref>N. Katherine Hayles, 'The Condition of Virtuality' in Jeffrey Masten, Peter Stalleybrass, Nancy Vickers eds. ''Language Machines, technologies of literary and cultural production'', Routledge, London 1997, p.183</ref>.
	We must note that the recognition and interpretation of such patterns is itself the performance of a conceptual device - 'information' - that has certain effects, tending towards the manufacture of a caesura between matter and information. This is always only the effects of an interpretative operation on matter, rather than something 'given freely'. Matter is understood to be always informational, but never pure. If matter is never simply informational we must also flip the pairing. If we are to understand informational patterns as always having a materiality then the interpenetration of informational patterns by other informational patterns is what is discussed here as software. Such informational patterns are always understood to be embedded and manifested in materiality, the architecture of a computer for instance.
			We must note that the recognition and interpretation of such patterns is itself the performance of a conceptual device - 'information' - that has certain effects, tending towards the manufacture of a caesura between matter and information. This is always only the effects of an interpretative operation on matter, rather than something 'given freely'. Matter is understood to be always informational, but never pure. If matter is never simply informational we must also flip the pairing. If we are to understand informational patterns as always having a materiality then the interpenetration of informational patterns by other informational patterns is what is discussed here as software. Such informational patterns are always understood to be embedded and manifested in materiality, the architecture of a computer for instance.

	== Metaphor ==		== Metaphor ==

Michael Murtaugh: /* Metaphor */

2013-07-05T09:35:05Z

Metaphor

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	Firstly, we need to briefly touch upon metaphor. Whilst, (as in the case of animation or multimedia applications using the model of a 'set', with 'lighting', or the 'darkroom' metaphor of PhotoShop, etc.) they remain as imaginal regimes structuring particular kinds of software, the assumption here is that metaphors will be gradually erased from mass use interfaces.<ref>The argument is earlier developed in Dona Gertner and Jakob Nielsen, ''The Anti-Mac Interface''. Association for Computing Machinery, http://www.acm.org/cacm/AUG96/antimac.htm</ref> Metaphors, imaginally mapping out what functional capacity a device has by reference to a pre-existing apparatus.<ref>The classic text on metaphor, which influenced much of the use of this type of device in computer interface, is Lakoff & Johnson, ''Metaphors we Live B''y, University of Chicago Press, 1980</ref> However, as functionality outstrips the explanatory capacity of reference to previous media forms, this initial usefulness will diminish. The uneven spread of metaphor-reliant constructs within most applications would tend to support this. Software will need to be seen to do what it does, not do what something else does.		Firstly, we need to briefly touch upon metaphor. Whilst, (as in the case of animation or multimedia applications using the model of a 'set', with 'lighting', or the 'darkroom' metaphor of PhotoShop, etc.) they remain as imaginal regimes structuring particular kinds of software, the assumption here is that metaphors will be gradually erased from mass use interfaces.<ref>The argument is earlier developed in Dona Gertner and Jakob Nielsen, ''The Anti-Mac Interface''. Association for Computing Machinery, http://www.acm.org/cacm/AUG96/antimac.htm</ref> Metaphors, imaginally mapping out what functional capacity a device has by reference to a pre-existing apparatus.<ref>The classic text on metaphor, which influenced much of the use of this type of device in computer interface, is Lakoff & Johnson, ''Metaphors we Live B''y, University of Chicago Press, 1980</ref> However, as functionality outstrips the explanatory capacity of reference to previous media forms, this initial usefulness will diminish. The uneven spread of metaphor-reliant constructs within most applications would tend to support this. Software will need to be seen to do what it does, not do what something else does.

	In this respect two uses of the magnifying glass as metaphor are interesting. In Mac OS's Sherlock, a search tool, clicking on a button with a picture of a magnifying glass actuates a search for a string of characters typed into an adjacent field. In a program such as PhotoShop or Quark Xpress the magnifying glass works to perform a jump-cut which magnifies or de-magnifies a selected element of the 'canvas' or 'page' (via either a marquee or simple click whose degree of magnification or demagnification may be set in advance via a tool settings dialogue window).		In this respect two uses of the magnifying glass as metaphor are interesting. In Mac OS's Sherlock, a search tool, clicking on a button with a picture of a magnifying glass actuates a search for a string of characters typed into an adjacent field. In a program such as ''PhotoShop'' or ''Quark Xpress'' the magnifying glass works to perform a jump-cut which magnifies or de-magnifies a selected element of the 'canvas' or 'page' (via either a marquee or simple click whose degree of magnification or demagnification may be set in advance via a tool settings dialogue window).
	In the case of Sherlock<ref> That referred to here is Version 2, shipped first with Mac OS 9.0, and continuing, in terms of interface, into OS X</ref>, on the other hand, what results from the use of the magnifying glass is a list of files in which the particular string occurs. Instead of a mimicking of the capacity of sight, or of the action of lenses, what emerges is a database form: the index. (Such an asymmetry between metaphor and function is incidentally illustrative of the medial incompatibility that faces the construction of image databases.) Perhaps the designers of the interface mistook what they must have taken to be the cuteness of the name of the device for its actual function, or were channelled into keeping a metaphor long after its initial imaginal power had been shed. Perhaps a 'realistic' image of a syringe or a violin, Sherlock Holmes' actual technics of associationality, were beyond them?
			In the case of ''Sherlock''<ref> That referred to here is Version 2, shipped first with Mac OS 9.0, and continuing, in terms of interface, into OS X</ref>, on the other hand, what results from the use of the magnifying glass is a list of files in which the particular string occurs. Instead of a mimicking of the capacity of sight, or of the action of lenses, what emerges is a database form: the index. (Such an asymmetry between metaphor and function is incidentally illustrative of the medial incompatibility that faces the construction of image databases.) Perhaps the designers of the interface mistook what they must have taken to be the cuteness of the name of the device for its actual function, or were channelled into keeping a metaphor long after its initial imaginal power had been shed. Perhaps a 'realistic' image of a syringe or a violin, Sherlock Holmes' actual technics of associationality, were beyond them?

	I suspect that we can suggest that it is those elements within the wider field of software that are working to the strictures of the version economy - in which a release is demanded every six to twelve months - that are going to maintain metaphor, or have any need to do so. Such a repetition of the familiar is made to keep the mass of users faithfully on the upgrade path. (Increasing the trend to homogenisation, such programs also tend to develop interfaces and functionality which replicate those they compete against in order to make it easier for users to transfer their loyalty from one to the other.)		I suspect that we can suggest that it is those elements within the wider field of software that are working to the strictures of the version economy - in which a release is demanded every six to twelve months - that are going to maintain metaphor, or have any need to do so. Such a repetition of the familiar is made to keep the mass of users faithfully on the upgrade path. (Increasing the trend to homogenisation, such programs also tend to develop interfaces and functionality which replicate those they compete against in order to make it easier for users to transfer their loyalty from one to the other.)

	Metaphor takes a known set of properties and behaviours from one domain - optics or fiction in the case of the magnifying glass - and transfers them to that of the computer as an explanatory or structuring device. With every interface metaphor, there is a point at which its explanatory or structure-providing advantage collapses in the face of the capacities of the ‘universal machine’<ref>Alan Turing named his logical invention of the computer the Universal Machine, because it was able to copy the operations of any other symbol-based machine or process.</ref>, the computer, and what it connects to. At the same time, as will be seen later in the consideration of games, there are conditions in which it is precisely this artificiality, and in their use as exploratory imaginal devices, that they have their uses.		Metaphor takes a known set of properties and behaviours from one domain - optics or fiction in the case of the magnifying glass - and transfers them to that of the computer as an explanatory or structuring device. With every interface metaphor, there is a point at which its explanatory or structure-providing advantage collapses in the face of the capacities of the ‘universal machine’<ref>Alan Turing named his logical invention of the computer the Universal Machine, because it was able to copy the operations of any other symbol-based machine or process.</ref>, the computer, and what it connects to. At the same time, as will be seen later in the consideration of games, there are conditions in which it is precisely this artificiality, and in their use as exploratory imaginal devices, that they have their uses.

Michael Murtaugh: /* I Thought I was Seeing Convicts */

2013-07-05T09:34:14Z

I Thought I was Seeing Convicts

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	In an enquiry, the guards said to be running the 'gladiator' fights were declared innocent.		In an enquiry, the guards said to be running the 'gladiator' fights were declared innocent.
	Subsequently, on November 10 1998, the California Dept. of Corrections made an out of court payment of $825,000 to the parents of Preston Tate a prisoner killed in such combats. In a scene included in Farocki's installation, he was shot dead by a guard whilst being attacked by another prisoner. Subsequent to this and other epsiodes, water cannon have been installed in the yards, mitigating, via a new interface, against the use of firearms.</ref>. Cut in with images and sound from the place, and with a prison staff training video, are short sequences of computer interfaces.		Subsequently, on November 10 1998, the California Dept. of Corrections made an out of court payment of $825,000 to the parents of Preston Tate a prisoner killed in such combats. In a scene included in Farocki's installation, he was shot dead by a guard whilst being attacked by another prisoner. Subsequent to this and other epsiodes, water cannon have been installed in the yards, mitigating, via a new interface, against the use of firearms.</ref>. Cut in with images and sound from the place, and with a prison staff training video, are short sequences of computer interfaces.

	The footage from Corcoran surrounds a court case from the end of the 1990s in which prison guards were alleged to have set up fights between members of rival gangs within the prison's exercise yards. As with most US prisons, inmates organise themselves into gangs based on outside loyalties and racial and regional groupings. Introducing a prisoner from one gang into a yard being used by members of another produces a conflict over territory. For the guards, this is a reproduction of the gangs' conflict with each other, rather than with the authorities. It also condemns participating inmates to further convictions. This is crucial under the 'three strikes' system which can be leveraged to start a prisoner off with a sentence for a small charge and, via a series of staged incidents, leave them as permanent residents and sources of budget for staff and facilities.		The footage from Corcoran surrounds a court case from the end of the 1990s in which prison guards were alleged to have set up fights between members of rival gangs within the prison's exercise yards. As with most US prisons, inmates organise themselves into gangs based on outside loyalties and racial and regional groupings. Introducing a prisoner from one gang into a yard being used by members of another produces a conflict over territory. For the guards, this is a reproduction of the gangs' conflict with each other, rather than with the authorities. It also condemns participating inmates to further convictions. This is crucial under the 'three strikes' system which can be leveraged to start a prisoner off with a sentence for a small charge and, via a series of staged incidents, leave them as permanent residents and sources of budget for staff and facilities.

	Watching the yard by video and from watchtowers, guards would bet on the outcome of fights they set up in this way. At other times they would 'break up' the resulting fights by shooting the unarmed people involved.		Watching the yard by video and from watchtowers, guards would bet on the outcome of fights they set up in this way. At other times they would 'break up' the resulting fights by shooting the unarmed people involved.

	This video installation is crawling with interfaces. What implications does it have for them?		This video installation is crawling with interfaces. What implications does it have for them?

Michael Murtaugh: /* - Interface as distributed throughout and indivisible */

2013-07-05T09:33:47Z

- Interface as distributed throughout and indivisible

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	== - Interface as distributed throughout and indivisible ==		== - Interface as distributed throughout and indivisible ==
	The particular interface I am interested in here is that put in place in the architecture of the exercise yards and the cameras and procedures used to control and to execute the men in the yards. The user is a prison officer, or a command structure of prison officers. The shape of the yard is like a slice of cake, a segment. At the apex of the segment is a video camera. The shape of the yard is built precisely to the field of vision of the camera. Watching the feed from the camera is a guard.		The particular interface I am interested in here is that put in place in the architecture of the exercise yards and the cameras and procedures used to control and to execute the men in the yards. The user is a prison officer, or a command structure of prison officers. The shape of the yard is like a slice of cake, a segment. At the apex of the segment is a video camera. The shape of the yard is built precisely to the field of vision of the camera. Watching the feed from the camera is a guard.
	If we are to take Laurel's definition of an interface as, "A contact surface. It reflects the physical properties of the interactors, the functions to be performed, and the balance of power and control." We are in a quandary. Where exactly is the interface? In the architecture, the shape of the yard that perfectly matches the area viewed by the camera? In the shape of the camera’s lense, its refractive capacity? The circuits that turn the light from the lense into a series of pixels? The slow scan of the stored video images? The height and relative scalability of the wall? In the colour of the walls? In the minds of the prisoners? In the regulations governing the behaviour of the guards? In the range and calibre of the guns used on the prisoners? In the skills used to stage a fight and select a target? In the relations between prisoners? In the records kept on prisoners and groups of prisoners? In the multiple economic and racist mechanisms in which the prison is embedded and which it, as an industry, depends upon and reproduces? In the legal system? In the system of property? In the idea of an individual subject accorded rights? In the protocols of wounding, honour, loyalty and fighting within the tacitly approved gang system of the prison culture? Of course, to ask such a set of questions is an impossibility, to hold a thousand enquiries at once.
	We cannot here consider the interface between guards and prisoners to be solely representational in the way that a standard computer desktop is sometimes understood to be. The interfaces here operate through multiple procedures. Whilst the system they instantiate is fundamentally hierarchical, the interfaces also operate by means of networks of mutually reinforcing patterns, ideology, structure and technologies. What the notion of interface allows us to do here is to analyse how they link, how one process passes from one axiom into another, and how processes are reconfigured, stripped down, simplified or made amorphous from their passage from one medial, architectural, racial, juridical, regime to another.		If we are to take Laurel's definition of an interface as, "A contact surface. It reflects the physical properties of the interactors, the functions to be performed, and the balance of power and control." We are in a quandary. Where exactly is the interface? In the architecture, the shape of the yard that perfectly matches the area viewed by the camera? In the shape of the camera’s lense, its refractive capacity? The circuits that turn the light from the lense into a series of pixels? The slow scan of the stored video images? The height and relative scalability of the wall? In the colour of the walls? In the minds of the prisoners? In the regulations governing the behaviour of the guards? In the range and calibre of the guns used on the prisoners? In the skills used to stage a fight and select a target? In the relations between prisoners? In the records kept on prisoners and groups of prisoners? In the multiple economic and racist mechanisms in which the prison is embedded and which it, as an industry, depends upon and reproduces? In the legal system? In the system of property? In the idea of an individual subject accorded rights? In the protocols of wounding, honour, loyalty and fighting within the tacitly approved gang system of the prison culture? Of course, to ask such a set of questions is an impossibility, to hold a thousand enquiries at once.

			We cannot here consider the interface between guards and prisoners to be solely representational in the way that a standard computer desktop is sometimes understood to be. The interfaces here operate through multiple procedures. Whilst the system they instantiate is fundamentally hierarchical, the interfaces also operate by means of networks of mutually reinforcing patterns, ideology, structure and technologies. What the notion of interface allows us to do here is to analyse how they link, how one process passes from one axiom into another, and how processes are reconfigured, stripped down, simplified or made amorphous from their passage from one medial, architectural, racial, juridical, regime to another.

	It is a particular pathway through these that the guards were able to 'hack' in order to realise a level of brutality that could not be officially countenanced, or even acknowledged as having happened.		It is a particular pathway through these that the guards were able to 'hack' in order to realise a level of brutality that could not be officially countenanced, or even acknowledged as having happened.

	The events at Corcoran stage, in a particularly twisted manner, the transition that the philosopher Gilles Deleuze<ref>Gilles Deleuze, 'Postscript on Control Societies' in, ''Negotiations'', trans. Martin Joughin, Columbia University Press, New York, 1995</ref> notes when he talks about a shift from a disciplinary society<ref>In a number of early books Foucault proceeds through a series of case studies of different disciplinary formations which establish the usefulness of this term: Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Clinic, Madness and Civilization, etc.</ref> which operates by compartmentalising life, by ordering and naming, to a society of control - in which behaviour is continually modulated, using as often as not the device of free will. Examples might be electronically triggered ‘congestion charging’ for road traffic, as recently introduced in London, or the crude lie-detector mechanisms being used by some insurance company call-centres. In a sense, what is discussed here in terms of interface is how, even in the archetypal domain of discipline, the prison, these two modes of power can combine or alternate. Under discipline, such abuse of the prisoners is ‘unfeasible’, under control, manifest in the prisoner’s choice to enter the yard, it is a ‘natural’ result of their behaviour which ‘calls for’ disciplinary sanction. Flicking the switches between these modes allows the guards the maximum repertoire of cruelty.		The events at Corcoran stage, in a particularly twisted manner, the transition that the philosopher Gilles Deleuze<ref>Gilles Deleuze, 'Postscript on Control Societies' in, ''Negotiations'', trans. Martin Joughin, Columbia University Press, New York, 1995</ref> notes when he talks about a shift from a disciplinary society<ref>In a number of early books Foucault proceeds through a series of case studies of different disciplinary formations which establish the usefulness of this term: Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Clinic, Madness and Civilization, etc.</ref> which operates by compartmentalising life, by ordering and naming, to a society of control - in which behaviour is continually modulated, using as often as not the device of free will. Examples might be electronically triggered ‘congestion charging’ for road traffic, as recently introduced in London, or the crude lie-detector mechanisms being used by some insurance company call-centres. In a sense, what is discussed here in terms of interface is how, even in the archetypal domain of discipline, the prison, these two modes of power can combine or alternate. Under discipline, such abuse of the prisoners is ‘unfeasible’, under control, manifest in the prisoner’s choice to enter the yard, it is a ‘natural’ result of their behaviour which ‘calls for’ disciplinary sanction. Flicking the switches between these modes allows the guards the maximum repertoire of cruelty.

	To describe such a structure as a prison as a series of interfaces risks flattering the libido of the prison, it becomes something separable, the discharge of a series of pre-ordained functions. A rational, managerial process. Discipline as a 'mold' allows the interface to remain something discrete, neutral. Control as a process of constant 'modulation' is that neutrality gone mobile, that soaks into everything, but that chops and swerves, demanding constant renewal of adherence to codes and processes. This is what the guards with their walls, cameras and guns were able to manipulate, the interface between discipline, in its predictability, and the vaporous insinuations of control.		To describe such a structure as a prison as a series of interfaces risks flattering the libido of the prison, it becomes something separable, the discharge of a series of pre-ordained functions. A rational, managerial process. Discipline as a 'mold' allows the interface to remain something discrete, neutral. Control as a process of constant 'modulation' is that neutrality gone mobile, that soaks into everything, but that chops and swerves, demanding constant renewal of adherence to codes and processes. This is what the guards with their walls, cameras and guns were able to manipulate, the interface between discipline, in its predictability, and the vaporous insinuations of control.

	At the same time, it forces us to reject any accounts of interface as being solely or primarily to do with representation, about the manipulation of elements that are separate from the structure of the surface layer. Interfaces code in advance how and when something occurs, but cannot necessarily determine it (being in the case of computers always in negotiation with another part of the system, CPU resources for instance) or its uses. The vectors that connect one thing to another, an instruction to an object, a node to another, a layer to a filter, are always political at the same time as they are technical and aesthetic.		At the same time, it forces us to reject any accounts of interface as being solely or primarily to do with representation, about the manipulation of elements that are separate from the structure of the surface layer. Interfaces code in advance how and when something occurs, but cannot necessarily determine it (being in the case of computers always in negotiation with another part of the system, CPU resources for instance) or its uses. The vectors that connect one thing to another, an instruction to an object, a node to another, a layer to a filter, are always political at the same time as they are technical and aesthetic.
	At their Palo Alto Research Centre, Xerox once staged a well-known experiment with the tagging and positioning of workers (in a type two interface). This enabled co-workers and managers, as they moved around the building in the course of a day, to constantly find the physical location, activity and nearest phone or pager number of others. The tracking system also carried data on their availability (or not) for communication for various levels in the hierarchy. As media designers are generally amongst the class of worker that is allowed to experiment upon itself, such a system was soon dropped.

			At their Palo Alto Research Centre, Xerox once staged a well-known experiment with the tagging and positioning of workers (in a type two interface). This enabled co-workers and managers, as they moved around the building in the course of a day, to constantly find the physical location, activity and nearest phone or pager number of others. The tracking system also carried data on their availability (or not) for communication for various levels in the hierarchy. As media designers are generally amongst the class of worker that is allowed to experiment upon itself, such a system was soon dropped.

	==- Interface as monitoring and control of a reductive, indexical map of separate elements ==		==- Interface as monitoring and control of a reductive, indexical map of separate elements ==

Michael Murtaugh: /* - Interface as monitoring and control of a reductive, indexical map of separate elements */

2013-07-05T09:32:55Z

- Interface as monitoring and control of a reductive, indexical map of separate elements

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:32, 5 July 2013
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	Richard Sennnett describes an interface of this sort in a Boston bakery. A 'user-friendly' interface had been installed at the front end of a baking system to allow workers to control bread production without the need to deal directly with the raw materials, to make judgements about the readiness or consistency of dough, to shape loaves and so on. The machinery allows flexible specialisation rather than mass production. The work is done by a transient force of part-timers or temporary workers supervised by one foreman. It is deskilled, operating the system demands pressing buttons on a screen, and by:		Richard Sennnett describes an interface of this sort in a Boston bakery. A 'user-friendly' interface had been installed at the front end of a baking system to allow workers to control bread production without the need to deal directly with the raw materials, to make judgements about the readiness or consistency of dough, to shape loaves and so on. The machinery allows flexible specialisation rather than mass production. The work is done by a transient force of part-timers or temporary workers supervised by one foreman. It is deskilled, operating the system demands pressing buttons on a screen, and by:
	"Monitoring the entire process via on-screen icons which depict, for instance, images of bread colour derived from data about the temperature and baking times of the ovens; few bakers actually see the loaves of bread that they make. Their working screens are organised in the familiar Windows way; in one, icons for many more different kinds of bread appear than had been prepared in the past - Russian, Italian, French loaves all possible by touching the screen"<ref>Richard Sennett, ''The Corrosion of Character, the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism'', W.W. Norton, New York, 1998, p.68</ref>		"Monitoring the entire process via on-screen icons which depict, for instance, images of bread colour derived from data about the temperature and baking times of the ovens; few bakers actually see the loaves of bread that they make. Their working screens are organised in the familiar Windows way; in one, icons for many more different kinds of bread appear than had been prepared in the past - Russian, Italian, French loaves all possible by touching the screen"<ref>Richard Sennett, ''The Corrosion of Character, the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism'', W.W. Norton, New York, 1998, p.68</ref>
	The interface, however, does not match up to the baking process every time. Much of the product is wasted when the actual temperature, the rising of the loaves, or some other factor, fails to match the representation on screen. There is a skip outside full of burnt loaves, victims of automated friendly fire. Workers controlling the process via the interface have no need for an understanding of how to bake bread. The process is illegible to them.
	Whilst the interface is extremely easy to use, its relation to the procedure it manages is flawed. The monitoring and control of the baking process is not deep or detailed enough to allow this. Additionally, the 'sociotechnical' and economic arrangements of the bakery rely on having a workforce with no actual baking skills - this would increase costs.		The interface, however, does not match up to the baking process every time. Much of the product is wasted when the actual temperature, the rising of the loaves, or some other factor, fails to match the representation on screen. There is a skip outside full of burnt loaves, victims of automated friendly fire. Workers controlling the process via the interface have no need for an understanding of how to bake bread. The process is illegible to them.

			Whilst the interface is extremely easy to use, its relation to the procedure it manages is flawed. The monitoring and control of the baking process is not deep or detailed enough to allow this. Additionally, the 'sociotechnical' and economic arrangements of the bakery rely on having a workforce with no actual baking skills - this would increase costs.

	Sennett describes 'alienation' experienced by an older generation of bakers as 'the unhappy disassociated consciousness which reveals, however, things as they are and where a person stands.'<ref>Ibid, P.70</ref> By contrast, "Flexibility creates distinctions between surface and depth; those who are flexibility's less powerful subjects are forced to remain on the surface."<ref>Ibid, p.75</ref>		Sennett describes 'alienation' experienced by an older generation of bakers as 'the unhappy disassociated consciousness which reveals, however, things as they are and where a person stands.'<ref>Ibid, P.70</ref> By contrast, "Flexibility creates distinctions between surface and depth; those who are flexibility's less powerful subjects are forced to remain on the surface."<ref>Ibid, p.75</ref>

	The closing and shutting of doors, switching lights on and off, shown in Farocki's film is very similar. Elsewhere, security guards working twelve-hour shifts on minimum wages, watching monitors, wiping bar codes, checking faces have the same relationship to the processes they control, and those that shape their jobs, as the push-button bakers. Like call centre workers, working with a series of written scripts for their speech, menus, forms and databases, plus a time-per-call quota, the task is to be an interface. As with Laurel's description of interface, this is a surface that is thick, that bristles with connections, blockages and channels, variable speeds, timeframes and routines.		The closing and shutting of doors, switching lights on and off, shown in Farocki's film is very similar. Elsewhere, security guards working twelve-hour shifts on minimum wages, watching monitors, wiping bar codes, checking faces have the same relationship to the processes they control, and those that shape their jobs, as the push-button bakers. Like call centre workers, working with a series of written scripts for their speech, menus, forms and databases, plus a time-per-call quota, the task is to be an interface. As with Laurel's description of interface, this is a surface that is thick, that bristles with connections, blockages and channels, variable speeds, timeframes and routines.

	Performing a surface, manufacturing an alienated interface, double consciousness<ref>One website, though it requires substantially more work, offers the beginnings of an opportunity to manufacture elements of a bogus DataBody, Tracenoizer - disinformation on demand (2001) at http://www.tracenoizer.org/</ref>, is an essential capacity of life in the 'mode of information'<ref>Mark Poster, The Second Media Age, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995</ref>. In order to get space to breathe, we must create faces, bubbles, blips, strings of delay, backchannels, work-arounds in the domain of work, even if only in the name of efficiency. This, rather than submerge into the well-bloodied trap of 'realising our full potential' in the terms of a rigged productivity. Therefore, whenever an interface promises to make something 'clear' or speaks of allowing something to work in just the simplest way possible it must first of all be assaulted with questions, yawns and scripts rather than rewarded with immediate identification.		Performing a surface, manufacturing an alienated interface, double consciousness<ref>One website, though it requires substantially more work, offers the beginnings of an opportunity to manufacture elements of a bogus DataBody, Tracenoizer - disinformation on demand (2001) at http://www.tracenoizer.org/</ref>, is an essential capacity of life in the 'mode of information'<ref>Mark Poster, The Second Media Age, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995</ref>. In order to get space to breathe, we must create faces, bubbles, blips, strings of delay, backchannels, work-arounds in the domain of work, even if only in the name of efficiency. This, rather than submerge into the well-bloodied trap of 'realising our full potential' in the terms of a rigged productivity. Therefore, whenever an interface promises to make something 'clear' or speaks of allowing something to work in just the simplest way possible it must first of all be assaulted with questions, yawns and scripts rather than rewarded with immediate identification.

	It is this gap between a model of function and its actuation that in some cases describes a degree of freedom, and that in others puts into place a paralysing incapacity to act - it would not, for instance, be over-welcome in the steering system of a plane. The politics of the indexical map is produced precisely in its power to command an isomorphic relation between itself and what it controls. It must not, it can not, slip...		It is this gap between a model of function and its actuation that in some cases describes a degree of freedom, and that in others puts into place a paralysing incapacity to act - it would not, for instance, be over-welcome in the steering system of a plane. The politics of the indexical map is produced precisely in its power to command an isomorphic relation between itself and what it controls. It must not, it can not, slip...


	==- Interface as independent associational structure ==		==- Interface as independent associational structure ==