Journal Article•
Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency
TL;DR: Bolt and Gromala as discussed by the authors used Siggraph's 2000 digital art show as a device with which to illustrate positions and developments, focusing primarily on the myth of transparency, a favorite theme of structuralists who rationally organize interface, navigation and interaction so these elements fade into the background leaving only engagement with the user's task at hand.
Abstract: JAY DAVID BOLTER AND DIANE GROMALA WINDOWS AND MIRRORS INTERACTION DESIGN, DIGITAL ART AND THE MYTH OF TRANSPARENCY Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003 ISBN 0-262-02545-0, 182 pages, softbound, black and white illustrations, $17.95 Buzz surrounding new concepts, techniques and computer applications is hard to escape. Making sense of it requires some time to elapse so that a perspective is possible. Bolter and Gromala have a perspective and they share it in Windows and Mirrors, a book that is part polemic and part history of dichotomous positions regarding digital development. First, let's look at the polemics. Using Siggraph's 2000 digital art show as a device with which to illustrate positions and developments, the authors focus primarily on the myth of transparency. A favorite theme of structuralists, who rationally organize interface, navigation and interaction so these elements fade into the background leaving only engagement with the user's task at hand, Bolter and Gromala expose transparency as a myth belonging to a long line of reductive approaches to communication and design. "Text Rain," an interactive physical interface, is the Siggraph exemplar for the counter position in which awareness of and interaction with digital mechanics as pleasurable and essential to the experience. In similar fashion, artificial intelligence (Al) is put into perspective as a big idea that has not delivered on its promises despite its continued exploration in computer science and science fiction cinema. Virtual reality (VR) is also challenged as the supreme focus of the developmental future as Western culture repairs its mind-body split (see Lakoff and Johnson's Philosophy in the Flesh for more on this). Interestingly, Eastern culture never suffered this fragmentation in the first place (see Nisbett's Geography of Thought). VR's role in simulation (for pilots or surgeons for example) is acknowledged, but its potential role in daily life is questionable. Augmented reality (AR) is understood as a more useful mediation between physical or psychological reality with focused feedback based on sensors and sensory stimulation. The exemplar for (AR) is Gromala's own "Meditation Chamber" that provides real-time feedback based on bodily signals (respiration, galvanic skin response, etc.). second, the other structural element of the book is history. This is woven through the pages to put the various digital developmental perspectives into context. The history is interesting in terms of the growth of scientific knowledge regarding human cognition and the technological developments that drive change. …
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14 Oct 2006
TL;DR: The topics of multiplicity, context, boundaries, experience and participation are addressed in order to discuss where second wave theory and conceptions can still be positioned to make a contribution as part of the maturing of the authors' handling of the challenges brought on by the third wave.
Abstract: This paper surveys the current status of second generation HCI theory, faced with the challenges brought to HCI by the so-called third wave. In the third wave, the use context and application types are broadened, and intermixed, relative to the focus of the second wave on work. Technology spreads from the workplace to our homes and everyday lives and culture. Using these challenges the paper specifically addresses the topics of multiplicity, context, boundaries, experience and participation in order to discuss where second wave theory and conceptions can still be positioned to make a contribution as part of the maturing of our handling of the challenges brought on by the third wave.
751 citations
Cites background from "Windows and Mirrors: Interaction De..."
...While experience may seem to be a different perspective on human-computer interaction that than of the second generation, [20, 23] point towards an element of experience that is close to home of second generation HCI, namely that of reflexivity....
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...• a dimension of what activity theory would call operationalisation [14] – the dimension that allows the user to form repertoires of operations through which the instruments are handled on the one hand, and to consciously reflect on dealing with the components on the other (see [2, 4, 20, 23, 31])....
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TL;DR: The human–artifact model is developed, which has its roots in activity theoretical HCI, and is used to structure such analysis and to reason about findings while providing leverage from activity theoretical insights on mediation, dialectics, and levels of activity.
Abstract: Artifacts and their use are constantly developing, and we address development in, and of, use. The framework needs to support such development through concepts and methods. This leads to a methodological approach that focuses on new artifacts to supplement and substitute existing artifacts. Through a design case, we develop the methodological approach and illustrate how the human–artifact model can be applied to analyze present artifacts and to design future ones. The model is used to structure such analysis and to reason about findings while providing leverage from activity theoretical insights on mediation, dialectics, and levels of activity.
120 citations
TL;DR: A division of the field into four overall approaches is proposed: the cultural, the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic, which discusses the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic stances.
Abstract: With the rapid penetration of digital interfaces into all aspects of everyday life, the need for understanding the aesthetic aspects of interaction between humans and computers has come into focus. Various positions suggest that aesthetics offers IT design and research an enhanced analytical foundation going beyond the traditional use-oriented principles of HCI and usability. However, this new body ofliterature employs different notions of aesthetics, resultingin a blurred picture. This article reviews the contributions of aesthetics to IT design and research, which we refer to as the aesthetic turn. Based on a thorough literature review, we propose a division of the field into four overall approaches: the cultural, the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic. Finally we discuss the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic stances.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply Benjamin's concept of aura to new (digital) media, and in particular to mixed reality, a group of technologies that blend computer-generated visual, aural, and textual information into the user's physical environment.
Abstract: Walter Benjamin is best known for his essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, (Benjamin, 1968b) in which he argues that film and other mechanical technologies are destroying the aura that had belonged to traditional art. In this article we apply Benjamin’s concept of aura to new (digital) media, and in particular to ‘mixed reality’, a group of technologies that blend computer-generated visual, aural, and textual information into the user’s physical environment. We argue that mixed reality increases the options for designer-artists and apparently allows the invocation of aura in new ways. Our culture’s pursuit of auratic experience remains problematic in mixed reality as it was for Benjamin in the case of film. New media maintain aura in a permanent state of oscillation or crisis, and this crisis is a key to understanding new media.
69 citations
TL;DR: A shift of attention is needed away from psycho-physiological studies coming from a laboratory experiment tradition, toward an ecological-cultural approach that is applicable in real world situations and relies on ethnographic rather than fully controlled methods.
Abstract: Previous paradigms for presence research were primarily established in the context of virtual reality (VR). The objective of this paper is to introduce a new agenda for research on presence suitable for the domain of mixed reality (MR). While established assumptions and methods of presence research from VR are applicable to MR experiences, we argue that they are not necessarily meaningful or informative. Specifically, a shift of attention is needed away from psycho-physiological studies coming from a laboratory experiment tradition, toward an ecological-cultural approach that is applicable in real world situations and relies on ethnographic rather than fully controlled methods. We give a series of examples taken from the work on the European integrated research project IPCity, and discuss the implications of our findings.
63 citations
Cites background from "Windows and Mirrors: Interaction De..."
...The main idea is that each medium by which the experience is conveyed must be hidden or systematically removed from this experience (Bolter & Gromala, 2003)....
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References
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14 Oct 2006
TL;DR: The topics of multiplicity, context, boundaries, experience and participation are addressed in order to discuss where second wave theory and conceptions can still be positioned to make a contribution as part of the maturing of the authors' handling of the challenges brought on by the third wave.
Abstract: This paper surveys the current status of second generation HCI theory, faced with the challenges brought to HCI by the so-called third wave. In the third wave, the use context and application types are broadened, and intermixed, relative to the focus of the second wave on work. Technology spreads from the workplace to our homes and everyday lives and culture. Using these challenges the paper specifically addresses the topics of multiplicity, context, boundaries, experience and participation in order to discuss where second wave theory and conceptions can still be positioned to make a contribution as part of the maturing of our handling of the challenges brought on by the third wave.
751 citations
01 Dec 2005
TL;DR: A consideration of informal learning can help in designing more effective, learnable, robust and acceptable CSCW systems, and provides a different perspective on interface design as an exploration of features to support human–human interaction, using the computer screen as a shared resource to support this.
Abstract: The paper reviews work on informal technical help giving between colleagues. It concentrates on the process of how colleagues help each other to use a computer application to achieve a specific work task, contrasting this with the focus of much prior work on surrounding issues like the choice of whom to ask, information re-use and the larger work context of encouragement or otherwise of such learning. By an analysis of the literature and a study of office activity, some strengths and weaknesses of the method are identified. The difficulties of talking about the process of performing graphical user interface actions are explored. Various design implications for functionalities to improve the efficiency of informal help giving are explored. A consideration of informal learning can help in designing more effective, learnable, robust and acceptable CSCW systems. It also provides a different perspective on interface design as an exploration of features to support human---human interaction, using the computer screen as a shared resource to support this. In this way CSCW research may contribute to HCI research, since during such help giving, all computer systems are at least temporarily collaborative applications.
130 citations
TL;DR: The human–artifact model is developed, which has its roots in activity theoretical HCI, and is used to structure such analysis and to reason about findings while providing leverage from activity theoretical insights on mediation, dialectics, and levels of activity.
Abstract: Artifacts and their use are constantly developing, and we address development in, and of, use. The framework needs to support such development through concepts and methods. This leads to a methodological approach that focuses on new artifacts to supplement and substitute existing artifacts. Through a design case, we develop the methodological approach and illustrate how the human–artifact model can be applied to analyze present artifacts and to design future ones. The model is used to structure such analysis and to reason about findings while providing leverage from activity theoretical insights on mediation, dialectics, and levels of activity.
120 citations
TL;DR: A division of the field into four overall approaches is proposed: the cultural, the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic, which discusses the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic stances.
Abstract: With the rapid penetration of digital interfaces into all aspects of everyday life, the need for understanding the aesthetic aspects of interaction between humans and computers has come into focus. Various positions suggest that aesthetics offers IT design and research an enhanced analytical foundation going beyond the traditional use-oriented principles of HCI and usability. However, this new body ofliterature employs different notions of aesthetics, resultingin a blurred picture. This article reviews the contributions of aesthetics to IT design and research, which we refer to as the aesthetic turn. Based on a thorough literature review, we propose a division of the field into four overall approaches: the cultural, the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic. Finally we discuss the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic stances.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the quality of pliability is introduced to characterize the degree to which interaction feels involving, malleable, and tightly coupled, and hence to what degree it facilitates exploration and serendipity in use.
Abstract: Digital design materials are temporal as much as they are spatial, which means that specific concepts are needed for understanding the use experiences of digital artifacts and the aesthetics of interaction design. In this paper, the quality of pliability is introduced to characterize the degree to which interaction feels involving, malleable, and tightly coupled – and hence to what degree it facilitates exploration and serendipity in use. Three sets of contrasting artifact examples from different domains (online maps, digital-image management, and online thesauri) are analyzed with regard to pliability. It is argued that the use of everyday digital products, normally perceived as instrumental and utility oriented, has an important experiential-aesthetic dimension consisting of temporal and visuo-tactile qualities (including pliability). The paper concludes with a discussion of related work and the role of experiential qualities in interaction design.
72 citations