Class Notes #9
The User Interface - Defining visual space in information systems
Reading: Manovich - Chapter 2 "The Interface" (pp 62-115)
We will have a class discussion on this chapter - be prepared for Thursday, October 4.Class Discussion Questions:
- why is the "interface" such an important aspect of new media?
- what impact has "interface" on our method of work? play?
- how does "interface" work in the manipulation of 2d, 3d data?
- others....
Background and History
In this unit of the course we will look at the relationship between visual materials and the most pervasive (other than tv) visual medium - the graphical user interface or GUI. First, we need to define some fundamental terms and concepts.
What is "information technology" or an "information system"? Wikipedia defines "information technology" as follows: infosys
The term information system has the following meanings:
1. A system, whether automated or manual, that comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information.
2. Any telecommunications and/or computer related equipment or interconnected system or subsystems of equipment that is used in the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of voice and/or data, and includes software, firmware, and hardware
What is the "core" of these systems? What are some of the key innovations that make all this possible? For these answers, we turn to a site at George Mason University - information technology core. (not a particularly great site but it has some useful information)
The User Interface - visualization of data, information and processes
The Interface in Manovich's words --
As the window of the Web browser replaced cinema and television screen, the art gallery wall, library and book, all at once, the new situation manifested itself: All culture, past and present, came to be filtered through a computer, with its particular human-computer interface. (p.64)
We have accepted the graphic user interface (GUI) in the form of MS Windows and Apple OS-X as our primary mode of reading, listening, viewing, seeking, corresponding and, to some degree, teaching and learning. The origins of this powerful and pervasive information "filter" are well documented. Again, from Wikipedia, we find a tidy summary of the history of the development of the gui. Note that these innovations have occured in under twenty years. Computers have evolved from task-speficic behemoths calculating ammortization tables, rocket trajectories, government statisticts, etc. and tended to by teams of highly-trained specialists to just another "electronic appliance" in our homes, studios and offices.
I am certain that very few of you are any more concerned about how computers actually work than your car or fridge. But computers are different. On p.65, Manovich provides a very compelling argument as to why they are different:
As an example of how the interface imposes its own logic on the media, consider "cut and paste" operations, standard in all software running under a modern GUI. This operation renders insignificant the traditional disctinction between spatial and temporal media, since the user can cut and paste parts of images, regions of space, and parts of the temporal composition in exactly the same way. It is also "blind" to traditional distinctions in scale: the user can cut and paste a single pixel, an image, or a whole digital movie in the same way. And last, this operation also renders insignificant the traditional distinctions between media: "cut and paste" can be applied to texts, still and moving images, sounds and 3-D objects in the same way.
This clearly establishes one of the central elements of "new media" and that is the all-encompasing role that the GUI plays in every aspect of information mediation. Furthermore, the graphical interface is essentially a visual interface. Though there are some sounds that are helpful (trash, file close, etc) they are not essential to the user.
What is it we "see"?
The GUI presents a familiar metaphor - that is the "desktop" wherein objects of interest are arranged in file folders (note the modularity issue here - folders within folders within folders...). We "open" and "close" files that reside in these folders. We draw or type on surfaces that look like paper. We can augment these actions with other kinds of input devices - tablets, scanners, etc. - but for the most part the GUI is a "pen on paper" world.
Ars Technica - History of the GUI (note - nearly every google source points to this article)
Reminder - Manovich reading (pg 62-115) for next class (thursday).
Reminder - Tuesday, October 18 LAB CLASS (finish, package and hand-in your project #2). Thursday, October 20 - NO CLASS (bp away).