Interface Critique
Kaleidogramme Vol. 139
Florian Hadler / Joachim Haupt (Eds.)
Interface Critique
With contributions by
Tara L. Andrews
Angel Callander
Karl Wolfgang Flender
Florian Hadler
Konstantin Daniel Haensch
Lukas F. Hartmann
Joachim Haupt
Frank Hegel
Daniel Irrgang
Clemens Jahn
Olia Lialina
Konstanty Szydłowski
Sabine Wirth
Gabriel F. Yoran
Joris J. van Zundert
Kulturverlag Kadmos
Kindly supported by
Copyright © 2016, Kulturverlag Kadmos Berlin. Wolfram Burckhardt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording
Internet: www.interfacecritique.net
Cover design: Florian Hadler / Joachim Haupt
Source: Telephone network interface device
Inventor: Thomas A. Dellinger, Clifton G. Hampton
Publication Date: 1984-12-11
Patent No.: US4488008A
Typesetting: kaleidogramm, Berlin
Printed in the EU
ISBN 978-3-86599-307-6
Contents
Florian Hadler & Joachim Haupt
Towards a Critique of Interfaces
7
Sabine Wirth
Between Interactivity, Control, and ‘Everydayness’—Towards a Theory of
User Interfaces
17
Konstanty Szydłowski
The Conceptual Debts and Assets of Interface
39
Daniel Irrgang
Topological Surfaces: On Diagrams and Graphical User Interfaces
49
Lukas F. Hartmann
Interim OS: Reclaiming the Computer through Minimalism and Genericity
77
Frank Hegel
Social Robots: Interface Design between Man and Machine
103
Gabriel F. Yoran
Interface kaput—Cyborgism and Object-oriented Philosophy
123
Olia Lialina
Rich User Experience, UX and Desktopization of War
135
Clemens Jahn
User Interfaces as Social Operators
153
Karl Wolfgang Flender
#nofilter? Self-Narration, Identity Construction and Meta Storytelling
in Snapchat
163
Joris J. van Zundert & Tara L. Andrews
Apparatus vs. Graph: New Models and Interfaces for Text
183
Angel Callander
“Unable to Establish a Connection”: Interpreting Empathy within
the Interface
207
Konstantin Daniel Haensch
The Magical Interface. Media-Archaeological Notes Based on
F. W. Murnau’s “Faust” (1926)
223
List of Contributors
233
7
Florian Hadler & Joachim Haupt
Towards a Critique of Interfaces
The term interface is as common as it is mysterious. The more it is taken for
granted, the more it seems to escape our understanding and the closer we look,
the more obscure the concept becomes. Interfaces are omnipresent and invisible at the same time. The trend towards unobtrusiveness is conspicuous: deep
integration, actionable notifications, ambient computing or shytech—apparatuses
and applications hide what happens behind the visible surface, disguising their
mechanisms, operations and processes. The actual technology such as wires,
processors, boards, batteries, chips, transistors, memory blocks and ampliiers
disappear into the background and are sealed of in a blackbox that becomes
ever more diicult to open up; with ubiquitous computing, the dissolution of
computation into networked on-demand resources, virtual machines and hardware simulation, and converged and decentralized infrastructures for storage,
information and data, we are facing a techno-ecological surrounding that is only
accessible through the interfaces of connected apparatuses. The technology is
not only boxed in, but it also dissolves into the environment.1
This emphasis of the surface and the accompanying withdrawal or dissolution of the inside could be considered a simple dialectics of technological
realities: visibility implies invisibility and perceptibility implies imperceptibility.
At the same time, apparatuses and applications are not purely passive tools
but active agents, creating the subject of the user.2 Just like every other device,
1 Gilbert Simondon anticipated this dissolution of technology in 1958, when he reflected upon
the cultural integration of the technical object and the rise of information and cybernetics: “[…]
aujourd’hui, la technicité tend à reside dans les ensembles; elle peut alors devenir un fondement de la culture à laquelle elle apportera un pouvoir d’unité et de stabilité, en la rendant
adéquate à la réalité qu’elle exprime et qu’elle règle.” Gilbert Simondon, Du mode d’existence
des objets techniques (Paris: Editions Aubier, 2012), 16.
2 Branden Hookway presents a comprehensive and philosophically informed concept of the
interface in his dissertation. He highlights the effects of subjectification through the interface:
“The subject of the interface finds as its counterpart the user of the interface, just as the user’s
8
Florian Hadler & Joachim Haupt
they guide and govern behavior through the selection and limitation of possible
interactions through management of expectations and conditions. Networked
apparatuses and applications are also able to measure and track interactions,
create behavioral metrics and funnel analysis in order to optimize their designs
and functionalities and to integrate deviation and misapplication. Every abuse
might become a feature. Every violation is a possible source of innovation. Interfaces use their users as much as the users use them.
Furthermore, the perceivable aesthetics of apparatuses and applications—
what one might call graphical user interface—is regulated and constricted by the
companies that build them. Apple was among the irst companies to promote
their own set of human interface guidelines as online specs in the atermath of
the iPhone launch.3 Their approach had a strong impact not only on a cultural
level, but also on a strategic and economic one. Easing the design process by
ofering clear rules and principles, they not only encouraged third party developers to work on their iOS platform, but in return also boosted the attractiveness of
their product by integrating ever more apps and services, rendering the mobile
device as an empty canvas on which users could project their own needs and
desires—a narrative that resonated strongly with Apple’s marketing strategy.
Publishing the human interface guidelines online was just the last step of a
marketing efort that started much earlier. Since the early 1980s, a sales force
of so-called evangelists has been gathering support among developers for the
technology provided by Apple.4 These quasi-religious initiatives,5 promoting a
better world through technology by advocating how an interface should work
learning or mastery of the interface is at the same time a kind of subjectification.” Branden
Hookway, Interface (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2014), 5.
3 For the most recent iOS interface guidelines, see “Designing for iOS,” iOS Human Interface
Guidelines, accessed December 29, 2015, https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/
UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/.
4 The term evangelism marketing is prescribed to Guy Kawasaki, although he mentions Mike
Murray as the inventor of the concept: “Software evangelism is a term coined by Mike Murray of
the Macintosh Division. It meant using fervor and zeal (but never money) to convince software
developers to create products for a computer with no installed base, 128K of RAM, no hard disk,
no documentation, and no technical support, made by a flaky company that IBM was about to
snuff out.” Kawasaki takes this concept and elaborates: “Evangelism is sales done right. It is
the sharing of your dream with the marketplace and the making of history with your customer.
Evangelism is the purest form of sales. A Macintosh Way company doesn’t sell; it evangelizes.”
Guy Kawasaki, The Macintosh Way (Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman Trade, 1989), 2, 12.
5 For quasi-religious beliefs in the context of Silicon Valley see also the paradigmatic and influential paper on Californian Ideology: Barbrook, Richard and Andy Cameron. “The Californian
Ideology”. Science as Culture 6.1 (1996 [1995] ): 44−72.
Towards a Critique of Interfaces
9
and look like, raise suspicion. What does it mean, if the realm of interface production, i.e. design and information architecture, is constricted and regulated
by the companies who own the platforms of distribution? And what implications arise, when not only the questions of how to create an interface but also
the theoretical discourses on interfaces end up as questions of branded identity
and usability, as it did with the discussion of skeuomorphism (Apple) versus
lat design (Microsot) in 20126 and the Material Design Paradigm introduced by
Google in 20147? These developments showcase a paradigm where visibilities
and interactions are intertwined with corporate strategies and branded visual
languages.
The term critique is not any less complex than the term interface. If one
understands critique in the very basic sense that Michel Foucault suggested on
what critique could be—the “art of not being governed so much”8—it corresponds
strongly with topics of discourses around the interface. By replacing governance
with guidance, it becomes clear that critique could be a way to think about the
interface as a governing tool, as an apparatus that governs the user through
gentle means, through so-called experience design, user guidance and usability. The interface in this perspective can be described as means of governmentality, of institutionalization or territorialization, developing patterns of social
behavior, of social practices, rules and structures, conditioning actions within
speciic contexts and measuring behavior to improve eiciency. But critique
in the Foucaultian sense does not only imply awareness of the mechanisms of
governance, but also of the historicity of interfaces. It focuses on the conditions
and contingencies of the present by tracing its predecessors, by examining the
decisions, contexts and discourses that have led to the present. Critique therefore
aims to expose the implicit principles of governance and, at the same time, to
develop an alternate past, an alternate presence and also an alternate future.
6 For a long time Apple has been following the principles of skeuomorphism, wherein the
software design attempts to imitate natural or realistic shapes. With Windows 8, Microsoft
challenged this paradigm by using a more minimalistic flat design.
7 Google presents a holistic approach to their design principles: “We challenged ourselves to
create a visual language for our users that synthesizes the classic principles of good design
with the innovation and possibility of technology and science. This is material design.” “Introduction—Material Design,” Google Design Guidelines, accessed December 18, 2015, https://
www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html.
8 As Michel Foucault said in his response to Immanuel Kants concept of Critique as Enlightenment: “And I would thus propose this general characterization as a rather preliminary definition
of critique: the Art of not being governed so much.” Reproduced in: James Schmidt, ed., What
Is Enlightenment?: Eighteenth-Century Answers and Twentieth-Century Questions (Berkeley:
University Press Group Ltd, 1996), 384.
10
Florian Hadler & Joachim Haupt
Interface Critique is an attempt to interrogate apparatuses and applications.
How can we examine the dissolving intersections between human and machine?
How can we comprehend the contexts and conditions of their production? Where
and how do these interfaces govern and guide us? How do they shape our perception of our surroundings and of our world? And what signiicance could the
interface have in the context of current technological, social and economical
developments?
There have already been numerous approaches to and discourses on the
interface: arts and aesthetics, media studies and cultural studies, economics and
ergonomics as well as numerous other disciplines have been gathering at least
since the 1960s to discuss efects, implications and tendencies of what each of
them calls interface.9 Some of the discussions are revisited within the course of
this book to put the concept of the interface into question again.
We therefore see it as vital to understand the obscurity and fuzziness of the
concept as a chance for theoretical productivity and welcome its frictions and
contradictions.10 The aim of this book is to open up a multidisciplinary space
to showcase what an interface could be and how it might be critiqued. The aim
is to understand the phenomenon of the interface in its dynamic developments
and as a cultural phenomenon, in order to develop critical perspectives beyond
mere aspects of usability and design principles on one hand and relexes of
cultural pessimism on the other.
The contributions to this book come from a diverse range of disciplines,
ranging from engineering and coding to design and communications, from
9 Some of the more recent works that influenced and inspired us during the course of this
project are: Lev Manovich, Info-Aesthetics (London: Bloomsbury, 2015); Johanna Drucker,
Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 2014); Branden Hookway, Interface (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2014); Paul
D. Miller and Svitlana Matviyenko (Eds.), The Imaginary App (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT
Press, 2014); Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2012);
Christian Ulrik Andersen and Soren Bro Pold (Eds.), Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond the
Buttons (Aarhus Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2011); Erich Hörl (Ed.), Die technologische
Bedingung: Beiträge zur Beschreibung der technischen Welt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,
2011); Andreas Broeckmann and Knowbotic Research, Opaque Presence: Manual of Latent
Invisibilities (Zürich: Diaphanes, 2010); Hans H. Diebner, Timothy Druckrey, and Peter Weibel
(Eds.), Sciences of the Interface (Tübingen: Genista, 2001); Brenda Laurel, The Art of HumanComputer Interface Design (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley, 1990).
10 This approach takes cues from the concept of Variantology, that Siegfried Zielinski developed
for his media-archeological explorations. Siegfried Zielinski and Silvia Wagnermaier, “Depth of
Subject and Diversity of Method—An Introduction to Variantology,” in: Variantology 1: On Deep
Time Relations of Arts, Sciences, and Technologies, (Köln: Walther König, 2005), 8.
Towards a Critique of Interfaces
11
digital humanities and philosophy to media studies and literature. In the various
perspectives of each text, it becomes clear that the concept of the interface not
only connects human and machine or machine and machine, that it not only
enables and normalizes communication with and through technology, but that
it also connects these various domains. In order to understand interfaces in
their complexity, we need to consider not only the discourses of aesthetics and
technologies, but also the broader cultural contexts, the social implications and
efects, the histories and genealogies, and all associated domains. Some of these
aspects are relected in this irst volume.
Sabine Wirth starts with a comprehensive overview of interface theory and
explores the analytical and theoretical potential of the term interface from the
perspective of media studies. Building upon many recent contributions to interface theory, she argues for an understanding of interfaces as everyday media
by stressing their mediality and the importance of how they are being used.
Konstanty Szydłowsky encounters the fuzziness of the term with the exploration of the interface’s philosophical debts and political implications. By
re-appropriating the Kantian concept of imagination (Einbildungskrat) and
the Heideggerian concept of the tool he provides outlines of a concept of the
interface, that takes into consideration its philosophical predecessors and its
political responsibilities.
Daniel Irrgang ofers a diagrammatically informed perspective on interfaces.
Combining diagrammatic principles such as topology and spatiality with a genealogy of the Graphical User Interface and insights into cognitive science, he
extends the scope of interface design and theory.
Lukas Hartmann approaches the question of the interface in a very practical
way and opposes the uncontrollable complexity of contemporary apparatuses.
He not only programs an operating system from scratch that operates with a
diferent logic of representation, but also builds the machine who runs it—
everything under the premise of minimalist design.
Frank Hegel describes an experimental setup with social, anthropomorphic
robots and their perception by humans. His research applies psychological methods to engineering techniques and ofers insights into measurements and efects
of human-likeness.
Gabriel Yoran looks at the concept of the cyborg as an interface. Drawing
from contemporary philosophies such as object-oriented ontology and speculative realism, he discusses the cyborg as an object among objects that could help
to overcome anthropocentrism.
Olia Lialina describes the dark side of the interface by discussing what
she calls the desktopization of war. She juxtaposes military interfaces and the
12
Florian Hadler & Joachim Haupt
promises of Rich User Experience in the context of early Web 2.0 and reminds
interface designers of their responsibilities.
Clemens Jahn follows a similar concern when he conceptualizes user interfaces as social operators. In his examples of mobile recruiting and sexism in
video games, he points to the ine line between inclusion and exclusion in the
context of interface design.
Karl Wolfgang Flender looks at the narrative dimensions of interface production. With a case study of Snapchat he develops the notion of the interface
designer as a meta-storyteller, who both empowers and restricts the ways users
narrate themselves through the service.
Joris J. Van Zundert and Tara L. Andrews examine the concept of the interface from the perspective of digital humanities. They present a self-developed
interface that allows textual scholars to work with digitalized texts in a new way
beyond linear book culture.
Angel Callander explores failed connections, glitches and error aesthetics in
the context of Human-Computer Interaction. Discussing diferent artworks and
projects, she applies the notion of the abhuman and posthuman to empathic
interaction with interfaces.
Konstantin Daniel Haensch analyzes magic as an attribute of interfaces from
a media-archaeological perspective. Looking at the silent movie Faust from 1926,
he provides insights into the mythical predecessors of current interface paradigms.
The chapters are separated by small inserts, showcasing the historical and
genealogical links of the concept of the interface through diferent schematic
drawings taken from patents from every decade of the last century. A brief excerpt of the patent descriptions complements each drawing and highlights the
varying usage and diferent contexts of the term interface. The inserts showcase
the paradoxes and oppositions, not only in contrast to the rather theoretical
approaches in this book, but also within the ield of technological applications.
And they might be nice to look at.
This book is the outcome of an international symposium that took place in
November 2014, organized by a “Special Interest Group” at the Berlin University of
the Arts. We would like to thank all involved students—Elena Dellasega, Melanie
Ganz, Christian Karaschewitz, Dominikus Mucha, and Laurenz Schaller—for
their enthusiasm and commitment. We would like to thank all participants of
the symposium and everyone who was involved for their work and engagement.
We would like to thank Mari Matsutoya, Daniel Irrgang and Clemens Jahn for
their valuable feedback. We also thank the Berlin University of the Arts for
the comprehensive inancial support for this publication: the Commission for
artistic and scientiic projects (KKWV), the Scientiic Advisory Board, the Student
Towards a Critique of Interfaces
13
Council, and our colleagues at the Berlin University of Arts, especially Prof. Dr.
Thomas Düllo, Prof. Dr. Christian Blümelhuber, and Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski.
Last but not least we would like to thank our publisher Kadmos for being patient,
supportive, and solution-oriented.
This book is intended to be the irst volume of an ongoing series. You can ind
updates and more information on the accompanying website interfacecritique.
net.
References:
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Soren Bro Pold. Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond the Buttons. Aarhus Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2011.
Apple. “Designing for iOS.” iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Accessed December 29, 2015. https://
developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/
Barbrook, Richard and Andy Cameron. “The Californian Ideology”. Science as Culture 6.1 (1996
[1995] ): 44−72.
Broeckmann, Andreas, and Knowbotic Research. Opaque Presence: Manual of Latent Invisibilities. Zürich: Diaphanes, 2010.
Diebner, Hans H., Timothy Druckrey, and Peter Weibel. Sciences of the Interface. Tübingen:
Genista-Verlag, 2001.
Drucker, Johanna. Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press, 2014.
Galloway, Alexander R. The Interface Effect. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2012.
Hookway, Branden. Interface. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2014.
Hörl, Erich. Die technologische Bedingung: Beiträge zur Beschreibung der technischen Welt.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2011.
Google. “Introduction—Material Design.” Google Design Guidelines. Accessed December 18,
2015. https://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html.
Kawasaki, Guy. The Macintosh Way. Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman Trade, 1989.
Laurel, Brenda. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison
Wesley Pub Co Inc, 1990.
Manovich, Lev. Info-Aesthetics. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Miller, Paul D., and Svitlana Matviyenko (Eds.). The Imaginary App. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press, 2014.
Schmidt, James, ed. What Is Enlightenment?: Eighteenth-Century Answers and Twentieth-Century
Questions. Berkeley: University Press Group, 1996.
Simondon, Gilbert. Du mode d’existence des objets techniques. Paris: Editions Aubier, 2012.
Zielinski, Siegfried, and Silvia Wagnermaier. “Depth of Subject and Diversity of Method—An
Introduction to Variantology.” In Variantology: On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences, and
Technologies, 7−12. Variantology 1. Köln: W. König, 2005.
“…A golf-ball, the core or center of which is composed of an inner elastic spherical portion, and
an outer series of spherical layers or stratums of rigid material separated by thin interfaces of a
different material to afford a local surface movement of one layer or stratum upon the other…”
Title: Golf-Ball
Inventor: Charles Edward Boutwood
Publication Date: 1903-09-01
Patent No.: US737698A