Media Art Doesn't Work

I would like to share this post that swims in my head whenever I visit media exhibitions. Written in 2008 by 'Near Future Laboratory', it still applies to large surface or current media art scenes.

15. It doesn’t work

14. It doesn’t work because you couldn’t get a hold of a 220-to-110 volt converter/110-to-220 volt converter/PAL-to-NTSC/NTSC-to-PAL scan converter/serial-to-usb adapter/”dongle” of any sort..and the town you’re in is simply not the kind of place that has/cares about such things

13. Your audience looks under/behind your table/pedestal/false wall/drop ceiling or follows wires to find out “where the camera is”

12. Someone either on their blog or across the room is prattling on about the shifting relations between producers and consumers..and mentions your project

11. Your audience “interacts” by clapping/hooting/making bird calls/flapping their arms like a duck or waving their arms wildly while standing in front of a wall onto which is projected squiggly lines

10. Your audience asks amongst themselves, “how does it work?”

9. The exhibition curators insist that you spend hours standing by your own wall text so that you can explain to attendees “how it works”

8. It’s just like using your own normal, human, perfectly good eyeballs, only the resolution sucks and the colors are really lousy..plus the heat from the CPU fan is blowing on your forehead which makes you really uncomfortable and schvitz-y

7. Someone in your audience wearing a Crumpler bag, slinging a fancy digital SLR and/or standing with their arms folded smugly says, “Yeah..yeah, I could’ve done that too..c’mon dude..some Perlin Noise? And Processing/Ruby-on-Rails/AJAX/Blue LEDs/MaxMSP/An Infrared Camera/Lots of Free Time/etc.? Pfft..It’s so easy…”

6. Someone in your audience, maybe the same guy with the Crumpler bag and digital SLR excitedly says, “Oh, dude. That should totally be a Facebook app!”

5. It’s called a “project” and not a “piece of art”

4. You saw the "project" years ago…and here it is again…now with multi-touch interaction and other fancy digital bells and Web 2.0-y whistles

3. Your audience cups their hands over various proturbances/orifices at or nearby your project attempting to confuse/interact with the camera/sensor/laser beam, even if it uses no such technology

2. There’s a noticeable preponderance of smoothly shifting red, green and blue lighting effects

1. People wonder if it wasn’t all really done in Photoshop, anyway

**3 Bonus Criteria

0. There are instructions on how to experience the damn thing

-1. You can’t “collect” or buy it. Heck, if you did, you’d need to get AppleCare or hire an IT guy in the bargain

-2. Crumpler guy says, “Oh, I thought of that already..

This sarcastic, but honest article points out couple of important issues: maintenance problem of media art piece, difficulty of interacting well with pieces, and some stereotypical expectation for technological system from general audiences(or from artists themselves).
I'm not going to argue on this right now since it's gonna take long long hours, but will post couple of alternative directions next time as a solution to this uncomfortable situation in media art.

Oxymoron

I love this! We usually want to associate the idea of softness to toilet paper, but the designer of the roll pictured above chose to put a cactus, synonymous of spines and roughness. Cactus have also no leaves, subverting the old joked association of "banana-leaves" and toilet paper.

What makes this design funny, is this contrast: it is a design oxymoron, greek word which litteraly means clever (oxùs) and stupid (moros).

Silent Stencil Ruler

This stencil ruler is a pretty interesting example of cultural interface: the two shapes above indicated by the arrows, probably unintelligible to the majority of the readers, are indeed the small and big stencil of the Korean peninsula map. I have two short considerations:

First of all, as for many types of interfaces, the ruler considered as an object tells us more than what it was intended by its designer: it is probably an educational tool for Korean children and it is probably commonly used in the school to teach to young children the rudiments of the geography and history of Korea ("make the map, color it, put a dot in the city where you are"). This is probably a common activity, so common to induce someone to make a stencil with the Korean map.

The second observation it is that this object is somehow silent: if you are not Korean or have not lived in Korea is unliekely you'll recognize what the two shapes are. In this sense the interface is very cultural, yet obscure to outsiders as non-alphabetic writing forms (i.e. Hangul or Chinese character) might look at first to westerners.

Screen Protections

Screen protections for computer and hand-held devices (especially touch screen devices such as the iPod touch) are nowadays commonplace. In a previous post I discussed how products with unsatisfied user needs are usually patched by users with 3rd party accessories in order to find at least a temporary solution.

There are cases though where technology and budgets are limited and producers cannot be really held responsible for having missed important features. Take the case of screen protections: there is an evident trade-off between brightness of the image on a screen and number of protective layers, or between screens' glass quality and cost (take a look at the website of one of the market leaders in display glass for LCDs).

As an addendum, it is interesting to note that in Korea laptop protection packages (inclusive of sleeve, screen and keyboard covers) seem to sell well among Mac users, who probably are more willing to justify a 40$ extra cost in accessories for their computer than not users who just bought a cheap PC.

Traces

I have checked out an old book from the library of my school. It is needless to say that the books from this library, as for most library I have visited, are tracked digitally and check-in and check-out usually consist of registering the unique ID of a book (by mean of RFIDs or optical barcodes) in a database: fast and convenient.

However, this particular book I checked out had a surprised in the last page: I found an old library-card that once (probably many years ago) was used for identifying the book and keeping track of the check-out and return dates. As an interesting side effect though, the library-card is also a short summary of the borrowing history of the book. From the card, it is possible to see when the book was checked out and by who, or, like for this book, if the book was never checked out (somehow an interesting information about the popularity of the book).

What I like about the library card is that it is a socially shared summary of the interaction history of a book containing more information than those actually physically displayed: the level of popularity of the books is one example, but we can also deduct information about the audience of the book considering the gender of the audience (from the names), the period of greater popularity by looking to the check-out dates, and so on.

To use an analogy, I see these hidden cues as footsteps in the snow, still visible but fading out over time. People in design and HCI would call these affordances, but somehow I rather think of them as traces or footsteps. It would be interesting to see how to "port" the concept of library-card in a digital world, implementing it for the modern library systems and also adapting it to the digital books (i.e. the history of a shared ebooks or pdf files: who read them? when?).

Are we still far from this scenario?

Hand Sanitizers to the Rescue

If you read my previous posts about soap-dispensers and hand-sanitizers you know already that I consider the latter no more useful than regular soap: I consider it the phenotype of our social fears (a.k.a. H1N1) rather than a substitution or enhancement of some normal common-sense hygiene (i.e. wash your hand before eating).

Nevertheless, hand sanitizers, as those in the pictures below, are popping out everywhere in the city of Seoul, not only in airports and train/subway stations, but also in bookstores, restaurants, streets... In some ways, it makes sense to think of them as an act of prevention over the possible spreading of influenza in winter (when even the normal influenza spread easily among people in packed cities).

But my question is: will these devices, always growing in number, remain after the winter and after the H1N1 will be defeated? Here my guess: hand-sanitizers will remain long after H1N1 will be gone and people will use them as if they were the most natural thing in the world.

Induction of fears, induction of needs.

We Are all Designers

A customized steering-wheel of a taxi in Daejeon, Korea. The driver, saw me interested in it, explained me the advantages of having a phone attached on the steering wheel by means of some velcro: the phone is easily reachable upon incoming calls and can also be used for entertainment purposes as a small TV monitor (at least here in Korea). The taxi driver's idea seems to work pretty well and I wonder if it will ever be taken in consideration by can manufactures.

The second aspect I'd like to point out is that just underneath the phone there is a small piece of paper with a Psalm form the Bible written in Korean. The driver told me that he stitched it there because he is trying to memorize it: as a proof, he also showed me a pile of post-it notes with other Psalm that he haven't been attached on the steering-wheel yet. An analog and a digital support, just next to each other, with very different functionality and which cope with different needs and social attitudes or expectations: the phone as a way to interconnect within the society, the post-it as a way to reconnect privately with yourself.

Messing with my Head

It is has been known for a long time that the environment surrounding us not only impacts but also mirrors our emotional state: the same is probably true for a virtual environment. The chaotic disposition of icons on my computer Desktop evidently shines through my puzzled mind. Perhaps it is time to clean up!

(Literally) Viral Marketing

It is not my intention to speculate on how several company are doing a good business out of the epidemic H1N1. Although you can't avoid wondering what are the profits from the sales of (useless) mouth-masks, ear-thermometers, hand sanitizers and dispensers, the companies which produce and make these products available are somehow also doing some sort of public service supplying these items to whom requests them (perhaps helped by the media).


In this post I am interested to show another business model, which finds its root in a subtle interface: product-patches. Product-patches are free, optional items added to a product to increase its overall value in terms of image or effective use. In our particular case, as depicted in the image above, you can see a sandwich sold (in Korea) with a small hand-sanitizer package.

Ideally, before eating your sandwich you would probably want to wash your hands, but it is often the case that, if you are buying a sandwich, you are not going to eat inside, making unlikely to find a place where to wash your hands. Hence, the sandwich comes with small hand sanitizer to help you on the task. The sanitizer works as a patch that enhance the value and appeal of the product.

Here my considerations: first of all this product is interesting because it is not directly advertising itself as a way to contrast the H1N1, but it uses this condition to its advantage to amplify its product image: the product is not directly related with H1N1, only incidentally.

Secondly, it is stunning that this idea came up only nowadays, when H1N1 is receiving so much public attention, although is evident that consumers could have benefit out of it since a long time. In fact, only now consumers want these hands sanitizers, although they have been out there on the market for ages.

Under this light, this last observation tells us a lot about our contemporary society and this small hand sanitizer package discloses much more that what it was meant for: not only it speaks of the product, but it also speaks of our customs, the characteristics of our contemporary city-based societies, our fears, trends and way of thinking.

It is a small mirror of our society and this is why I take it as an example of cultural interfaces.

The Blowing Interaction and the Panic Button Principle

Blowing is indeed a possible interaction schema: Nintedo DS game developers have proved a long time ago that it is possible to create compelling game interfaces and fun interaction using a microphone as a way to detect blown air (Mario Kart DS with its Balloon Battle is a great example).

Nevertheless, blowing can also be an unexpected type of interaction, a sort of hack: consider the picture above. My friend and colleague Mark Meagher (Ph.D. candidate at EPFL) showed me, on an unusually hot day of August, how to start up the air-conditioning (AC) which was inactive: not with a button, or a phone call to the office in charge of all the ACs, but by blowing in the AC-sensor/controller unit located in the building.

Centralized intelligent AC systems, like the one depicted, turn on and off when the temperature level of the room, measured by a thermometer in a control unit, crosses the threshold at a certain prefixed temperature. Hence, the reason for blowing hot-air (human breath) in the unit containing the temperature sensor, in order to activates the AC.

I have two considerations to share.

The first obvious consideration is that this behavior is expectable and legitimate: we are humans, not machines. The temperature that we perceive is very subjective and depends upon a great variety of factors, including our body conditions (do you have the flu? do you feel well?), the clothes we wear, the time in the day, other activities (have you just got lunch?) or our mood.

Surely rooms are a better envelope for humans than whole buildings (or the outside environment) since we can finely tune the temperature conditions on a per-room basis. Nevertheless, this suggests that in the future there is going probably to be some kind of finer way to thermo-regulate our environment, which goes beyond the confines of the room, something "at the human level" (imagine thermo-regulating clothes, like in some sci-fi movies). This idea is suggested, among others, by Michelle Addington.

The second consideration is more about the general philosophical principles governing electronic equipments and the underlying attitude and believes of their creators.
In my opinion, I -the user- should always have the right to turn on or off an electronic device. I feel that this "unwritten principle" is so important that it should be engraved into any electronic device, as the 3 rules of robotics were engraved in the positronic brains of Asimov's robots.

Even if the system has been engineered to be intelligent and automated, like in the case of this AC system, I believe that the human user should still be able to decide at least weather to turn the system off or not. Call it safety, security, human rights against the machines, but I want to have my panic button, a simple way to disactivate the "autopilot" mode.

Although now I am speaking driven only by emotions and few facts, I can show you that I am not the only person experiencing this discomfort. In this article by Verruggio and Operto about Roboethics, the authors describe how “recently, Japanʼs ministry guidelines will require [robot] manufacturers to install a sufficient number of sensors to prevent robots from running into people.[...] Emergency shut-off buttons will also be required.”

I cannot see any future with automated vehicles and intelligent home environments, if this basic principle -the panic button fundamental right- will not be applied to all electronic equipments, in all situations.

A funky door knob

I took a picture of this house door in Milan, in a residential area. It's not usual to see contemporary decorated door knobs. Nowadays the focus is more on functionality and minimalism. I believe both for economical and aesthetic reasons.
From a purely "technical" point of view anyhow, this knob is failing as an interface - it is way too big and non ergonomic. Although it's very funny indeed.

Ramp for Bikes

About a year ago I wrote a post about ramps located on stairs and used for giving access to carts to an underground market. However, some people suggested that those ramps where instead made for bikes, until the mystery was solved (they were actually intended to be used with carts).

In that occasion, one of the commentor mentioned of having seen better ramps recessed into the stairs directly underneath the railing, as a better implementation to help bikers: the picture above is to document that suggestion. It was taken few month ago in Basel, Switzerland.

Can I get your number, babe?

It is common practice in Korea for car owners to post a small sign on the front window of their vehicle displaying their mobile phone numbers, to be used as an emergency contact. Let's say somebody mistakenly hit your car in a parking lot (as it happened to me), or somebody wants to ask you to move your car from where you left it (i.e. your car is obstructing the way), then having your phone number becomes handy.

Being used to the concept of privacy in the West, this at first sounded to me as a rather dangerous privacy-hole in the society, or, as a friend of mine put it, if you see a pretty girl on the street and you want her contact, then you just have to make sure to find her car.

Indeed, this is not exactly true, or at least not here in Korea.


I am not going to argue that Koreans are more respectful of the law than the western counterparts, nor that they have a higher sense of privacy (which is not the case).

My interpretation of this fact is that in this society, mobile phones completely substituted the necessity of telephones (fixed-line phones), and they represent the conceptual equivalent of what telephones were once in the West. Telephone-books and their on-line equivalents (white pages) were and still are very common, but also people in the West are less prone to think of them as a privacy-threat (unless you are a movie star). Moreover, you can always get you number removed upon request.

However, at least in the West, we perceived our mobile phone numbers as something more personal and to be given away thoughtfully: the mobile phone, in fact, was introduced as the mean to give "prioritized" access to the cellphone owner (i.e. "family members can call me, but people who needs me for business call me at the office"). Although in practice this might not be necessarily true anymore, we still emotionally perceive mobile phone numbers as a sensible information, more than telephone numbers for instance.

In my opinion, this is not the case here in Korea, where mobile phones are definitely the more general contact information (like, I would say, the email address in U.S.) and are publicly posted with less concerns (the signs shown above, are an example.). The reason is simply because a lot of people, don't have a telephone number or their working style (traveling, having multiple offices, attending meetings in different places...) impose them to use their mobile phone as primary contact information. Hence, mobile phone numbers are perceived as a more public matter.

Window Shutters

The whole city of Basel is nothing less than a design museum. Buildings, streets and public spaces are full of mysterious details, well-thought well-crafted pieces of art and design, presented in a great variety of shapes but maintaining homogeneity.

Simply look down here to this (small) selection of windows shutter. I will not comment on them, but I rather leave these images as a reference and source for personal thoughts. Consider though how shapes, colors, hole and other details impact on the functionality and the aesthetics of the buildings.

These shutters are a perfect book for the apprentice designer.

S

Analogy

I was talking today with Don Norman about some aspects of his Emotional Design book, in which he addressed how pure fun can be a source of inspiration and delightful experience for the users. One among many examples, is the Google logo which stretches according to the number of pages of a search result: the more the pages, the more the 'o' in the world Google.

I would like to add another example that follows the same analogy: a tram in Zurich, Switzerland. The tram was particularly long, hence the reason for the advertisement on the top: "Strrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrretchlimousine?".

A fun lesson for my personal research as well.