Windows and Mirrors

: Interaction Design, Digital Art and The Myth of Transparency

Jay Bolter and Diane Gromala
MIT Press, 2003
Translated into Japanese, 2004

In Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency, Jay David Bolter (a media historian) and I argue against a standard HCI dictum, that all interfaces should strive to be invisible to the user and function as a window onto the information. Contrary to Donald Norman's famous dictum, we do not always want our computers to be invisible "information appliances." We say that a computer does not feel like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner; it feels like a medium that has taken its place beside other media like printing, film, radio and television. The computer as a medium enables new creative forms and genres for artists and designers. Through examples from SIGGRAPH 2000's Art Gallery, which Gromala curated, we demonstrate what digital art has to offer to Web designers, HCI experts, and, for that matter, anyone interested in the cultural implications of the so-called digital revolution.

These artworks, and their inclusion in an important computer conference, demonstrate that digital art is relevant to interaction designers and technologists. We situate digital art as a form of experimental design that enables the user to become aware of the interface; in doing so, users can become reflexive by simultaneously being aware of the interface and interacting with the information. Thus, the examples in this book show that design need not deliver information and then erase itself from our consciousness, but can engage us in an interactive experience of form and content.

This was the first experiment I undertook in order to foreground the development of the visceral register and the visceral sense. Though not all examples in the book involve the visceral directly, it was essential to lay the groundwork for working with the ideas posited by phenomenologists Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty in relation to the disciplines listed above. For example, the main argument of the book relies on Heidegger's distinction between "present at hand" and "ready to hand." Further, the inspiration for taking into account the user's responses to many of the projects that extended beyond the screen, such as responsive spaces and work involving biofeedback, followed Merleau-Ponty's earlier work by taking into account the context of the experience, as well as a user's mind and body. Our examinations of each work also took into account the intention of the artist or technologist, but following the academic tradition of the Humanities after Roland Barthes' Death of the Author, we most heavily relied on our experiences of the work, as well as those we observed and recorded from many of the users who were in the Art Gallery at SIGGRAPH 2000.

Note that this book was written primarily for readers who work in or are new to interaction design, digital art, and especially Human-Computer Interaction. Although individuals who represent these groups often work together, the epistemological and disciplinary differences among them are deeply entrenched and most often lead to miscommunication and frustration. In both academic as well as industrial contexts, it is rare to find anyone who has found a way to facilitate interaction and understanding among these groups that is not problematic. Through this book, Bolter and I strived to provide one of potentially many bridges to follow by revealing the distinctions and commonalities among the groups that usually are not articulated or addressed. However, the book should not be understood as an academic exposition that meets the standards of any one or all of the disciplines. Rather we worked to make the book accessible to all. It has been used, as we had hoped, in several emerging academic programs that include artists, designers and computer scientists, and in several companies, such as Industrial Light and Magic. It is now available in paperback form and has been translated into Japanese.

The specific, visceral aspects of such work are more fully explored in depth through the works that follow, as well as in the thesis.

Cover
About the book
Contents
Chapter 1, 2, 3
Chapter 4, 5, 6
Chapter 7, 8, 9
Colophon

ⓒ Diane Gromala, 2007