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  • 3. INTRODUCTION NICOLAS  NOVA “I’m trying to make the moment accessible. I’m not even trying to explain the moment, I’m just trying to make the moment accessible.” William Gibson, No Maps for These Territories (2000) The term “digital” is intriguing. It refers both to: (1) the use of information represented by discrete values in the form of numbers used by computers, and (2) a manipulation with a ﬁnger or the ﬁngertips1. So, when one thinks about “digital technologies” such as cell phones, laptops, cameras or video game consoles, this dual deﬁnition reminds us of the importance of the body in using these devices. However, this is in contrast with the overemphasis on the term “virtual” when we describe interactions with digital artifacts. The hidden assumption behind the use of such an adjective is that these digital artifacts are not very engaging from a physical standpoint. That is, people sit at their desks with their laptops; couch potatoes play games on their sofas; commuters stare at their smart- phones in their smart-phone with blue-glow faces. But is this clichéd version of the everyday life true? Are we really so immobile when using the vast panoply of digital apparatuses? 1 According to Oxford English Dictionary.6 7
  • 4. This book will contradict that claim. The output of a research project conducted Why are we doing this? Why is that interesting? This project is based on my at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA) in July-August 2012, the work interest in uncovering what French writer George Perec calls the “infra-ordinary”, presented here focuses on the body language of digital technologies used in to describe the ordinary and habitual aspects of everyday life3. An astute observer, everyday life: gestures, postures and rituals2 that appeared with the use of Perec found inspiration in situations, gestures and habits that we often overlook or computers, cell phones, sensors or game controllers. miss. Using the preﬁx “infra-”, he highlighted the importance of what is underneath or hidden and which could be uncovered as an interrogation of the quotidian. This seven-week project consisted of two phases: 1. Documentation of existing gestures in the digital everyday. Based on ﬁeld Regarding digital technologies more speciﬁcally, such endeavor is important observations and interviews conducted in different locations in the USA and because it helps to show how the use of such devices is a joint construction Europe, we selected a certain number of cases that reveal how the postures between designers and users. Some of the gestures we describe here indeed and gestures adopted by users of digital technologies would constitute a set of emerged from people’s everyday practices, either from a naïve perspective (lifting “rituals”. However, the study was not meant to be exhaustive. The choices we have up one’s ﬁnger in a cell phone conversation to have better signal) or because made, which forms the core of this volume, should rather be seen as a subjective they’re simply more practical (watching a movie in bed with the laptop shifted). focus on speciﬁc cases that we found relevant. The gestures we selected has been Even the ones that have been “created” by designers (pinching, taps, swipes, aggregated into seven clusters that can be considered as a snapshot of the issues clicks) did not come out from the blue; they have been transferred from existing we encountered in our ﬁeld observations: classic gestures, nervous movements, habits using other objects. The description of these postures, gestures and rituals ﬁxing strategies, holding devices, vocabulary set by designers, personal tactics to can then be seen as a way to reveal the way users domesticate new technologies. make use of technologies and new social interactions. Closer to design, the documentation of this current body language can also inform 2. An exploration of potentially new kinds of gestures and postures in the near the adaptation of current interfaces, or the creation of products that can support, future. Based on the behavior we noticed, we were interested in how the type of help or beneﬁt from the gestures and rituals we found. situations and the motivations we uncovered would appear when using upcoming technologies: How would people skip ads while using their augmented reality Equally important, speculation about emerging gestures is meant to explore the glasses? What will be the nervous tics of users who employ facial recognition alternative uses of digital devices we only see through glossy and slick videos systems? Will we still gesticulate when using brain-computer interfaces? This produced by multinational corporations. Beyond the standard representations of exploration has been done through the crafting of a design ﬁction in a ﬁlm format. the digital future, often staged in aseptic environments, we wanted to investigate 2 3 We use the term ritual without the religious or solemn connotation, referring instead to a series of Perec, Georges. 1974. Espèces d’espaces. Paris: Gallimard. ENGLISH: 1997. Species of Spaces. John8 actions regularly and invariably followed by someone. Sturrock, ed. and trans. London and New York: Penguin Books. 9
  • 5. the human situations of the everyday. By showing those moments you never encounter in corporate videos – when augmented reality glasses becomes annoying or whenever sensors lead to awkward social situations – we wanted to adopt a more ironic perspective on those projects sold to us as “inevitable”. The book structure reﬂects these two phases. In the ﬁrst section, introduced by a short essay by Dan Hill, the different cases we selected will be described. Each category of gestures and rituals is presented with a visual description as well as a short discussion of their cultural and design implications. The second part, with a ﬁctional essay called “Incident Report” written by Julian Bleecker and the script of the design ﬁction we produced, then speculates about the near future of body language in the digital everyday. The design ﬁction video can be found on the project blog, at the following URL: 11
  • 7. 21ST  CENTURY  GESTURES CLIP  ART   OLLECTION C DAN  HILL,  HELSINKI A  TEXT  FILE For some years I’ve been collating a list in a text ﬁle, which has the banal title “21st_ century_gestures.txt”. These were, or are, a set of gestures, spatial patterns and physical, often bodily, interactions that seemed to me to be entirely novel. They all concerned our interactions with The Network, and reﬂect how a particular Networked development, and its affordances, actually results in intriguing physical interactions. The intriguing aspect is that most of the gestures and movements here are undesigned, inadvertent, unintended, the hidden offcuts of design processes and technological development that are either forced upon the body, or adopted by bodies. For a while, I have been “a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking”, simply compiling the list. As a list, it’s entirely subjective, incomplete, and essentially pointless. But I kept coming back to it. Some gestures, interactions or behaviours eventually disappeared from the text ﬁle; others were reinforced. This essay gives me a chance to put the list to bed.14 15
  • 8. Walking around “eating the world with your eyes”, as the ﬁctional design tutor Two laptop users sitting with their backs to each other were “Reverse Battleships”; in Chip Kidd’s novel The Cheese Monkeys (2002)1 puts it, you can’t help but two sitting facing each other were “Battleships”; one, watching a DVD whilst lying observe the inﬂuence of The Network on our world. Yet as The Network is often ﬂat on her stomach was “Front Crawl”; another, astride a bench, perpendicular to still spoken about as if it were somehow something separate to Us, as if it is the intended position, was “The Horse”, while swinging one’s legs over one side an ethereal plane hovering above us, or perhaps one we might be increasingly of the bench would be “Side Saddle”, and so on. I also plotted where people were immersed in but separate to our bodies, to our selves, nonetheless. This doesn’t sitting in relation to wiﬁ signals and building architecture, and discovered clear feel accurate now. There is no separate world, and this list indicates how we are correlations between people, space, devices and Network. even changing what our bodies do in entirely emergent, or at least unplanned, everyday fashion, in response to The Network’s demands. Similarly, I made a 3D model of the wiﬁ itself, as if it were a physical phenomenon that we could more easily understand structurally, rather than simply connect to. Yet this isn’t a list of weak signals or extreme and extremely unnecessary (AHO’s “Immaterials: Light Painting WiFi” articulates a similar idea in far more positions— such as embedding an RFID chip in your arm, Kevin Warwick—but sophisticated fashion3.) These were all attempts to understand how The Network entirely vernacular conditions, performed by everyday people, and in fact created could be perceived in civic space, yet in the yoga position sketches, I was also by everyday people. interested in how people’s movements changed. When working on various projects for the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane2, The few examples collated are a development of those sketches, and range from I had begun to semi-formally assess how wiﬁ users were inhabiting the space, not small gestures, to those involving the whole body, to those concerning bodies simply in terms of the locations they would ﬂock to, or the patterns of social moving through spaces. Each example has a name and a sketch (below). The list grouping, but how they draped themselves over furniture in new ways, found in my text ﬁle has more examples than are listed here, but these should be enough small pockets of space to hole up in, all while cradling or propping up a laptop to convey the idea. This is not really a complete list or clip art collection at all— or the newer netbooks that had emerged at that point. There were no iPads at more a sketch of what one might be, in order to provoke questions. that point, but there was clearly a new physical relationship around computing that suddenly left the Library looking askance at its “computer labs” and “drop- in-centres” of PC towers secreted under rows of desks with awkward monitors. I drew sketches of how the library users were co-opting the spaces and objects, ascribing a name to each type, as if they were yoga positions. 1 3 Chip Kidd, “The Cheese Monkeys,” 2002. Immaterials: Light Painting WiFi”, 2011 http://www.nearﬁﬁ-light-painting16 2 WiFi Structures and People Shapes”, 2008ﬁ-structure.html 17
  • 9. SIZE  S When in a foreign place, the user will load up the cache in their phone’s memory by scooping up the immediately adjacent map tiles with data on, loading enough map to show them the way, and then quickly turn off the data. This scooping is performed in a series of “smearing” circular movements, as if scrubbing the map In terms of small gestures, one which already seems to be dying out is The Google tiles into life, rubbing a magic lamp to conjure up some locally useful geography. Map Smear. It’s unlikely this tiny interaction will persist, as maps cease to be produced via tiling, and roaming data becomes less expensive. This you see when people are suffering the delightfully-named “international roaming” condition on their smartphone’s payment plan, and so are anxious about expensive data transfer. Fig. 1 The Google Map Smear In which a user momentarily activates international roaming data and caches Fig. 2 The Wake-Up Waggle adjacent map tiles by smearing the index ﬁnger around the user’s intended In which a user approaches a sleeping PC in both an absent-minded and mildly destination. aggressive fashion, and drum on the keyboard whilst rattling the mouse.18 19
  • 10. The Wake-Up Waggle, in which a user approaches a sleeping computer and SIZE  M attempts to rattle it into life by hammering the keyboard or aggressively waggling the mouse, is at ﬁrst so small as to be insigniﬁcant, but what kind of previous object would we interact with in this way? Perhaps kicking a lawnmower into life, or nudging a sleeping dog with your foot, but it feels disturbingly tied to the way we feel about computers; the mild frustration with which we often approach the In terms of bolder gestures and actions which require most of the body, we have device, as if it should by now be guessing when we’re about to use it. There’s a the iPad Photographer, the Security Pass Hip Bump and the iPhone Compass muted irritation here I ﬁnd perversely appealing. Calibrator. Note, I haven’t included the wipes, pinches, taps and double-taps common to gestures for touch screens. I’m not quite sure why. They are novel and inventive, clearly, but perhaps also deliberately familiar—they don’t feel odd at all, and instead mimic our previous interactions with sliders, paper or fabrics. They are also clearly designed. Fig. 3 The iPad Photographer The iPad is held in both hands a little awkwardly and at arm’s length until the Camera app focuses on the intended subject, at which point a ﬁnger or thumb is bent onto the touch screen in order to attempt to hit the “shutter release” button.20 21
  • 11. The iPad Photographer is really a variant on existing ways of taking pictures, but feels awkward and transitional. While there needn’t be anything particularly odd about taking a picture with a largeish rectangular-shaped device, it does look and feel odd. The form factor of cameras has hovered around the hand for centuries, even when embedded in cellphones, yet this is a new body shape, requiring both hands holding the device at arm’s length while one thumb or ﬁnger gropes awkwardly for the in-software shutter button. The Security Pass Hip Bump, which I ﬁrst noticed a former client doing repeatedly in the library building she worked in, is particularly enjoyable. It occurs when someone carries their RFID-enabled security pass in their bag, and approaching a sensor, lifts the hip to angle the bag towards the sensor, creating a hands- free connection and activating the lock (the hands are often full of paper ﬁles, ironically enough.) It’s clearly an odd thing to do, when considered like this—to insouciantly cock your hips towards a small black rectangle on the wall as a form of greeting and personal identiﬁcation—but can be carried off with a certain panache, admittedly. When the same security passes are on extensible key fobs, they are articulated as if they were keys; when they are worn on lanyards, it’s as if they were simply identity cards from an earlier age, merely “shown” to a sensor rather than a security guard. This is different. It relies on a loose, instinctive, trial-and-errored understanding of the range of the radio waves involved, and the materials involved, and again feels like a form of interaction entirely unforeseen by the designers of security systems. Fig. 4 Security Pass Hip-Bump In which a user opts to keep her RFID security pass in her bag and gains entrance to her ofﬁce nonetheless, through lifting and angling the hip up towards the wall- mounted sensor, which unlocks the door upon successful “handshaking”.22 23
  • 12. Most famously, perhaps, is The iPhone Compass Calibrator, which perhaps shouldn’t be included as it clearly is designed. Yet the performance, often public, that it entails is appealing enough to warrant inclusion. To suddenly stand stock— still in the street and rotate the little rectangle through an arm’s length ﬁgure-8 feels almost like a physical incantation, the kind of activity that might lead you directly to the ducking stool in 17th century Massachusetts. One never stops to consider how it might calibrate the phone’s compass; we are simply following orders. What else would we do if Apple told us to do it? People have a frozen, absent, pretty vacant look on their faces as their waves mechanically ape the ﬁgure-8 described on their iPhone—although some seem to realise the peculiarity of the gesture and offer up a wry smile. (You’ll sometimes also see iPhone users revolving in a circle as their compass ﬁnds its bearings, doing a little waggle-dance with the electronics.) Fig. 5 The iPhone Compass Calibrator Upon attempting to use Maps app, user is required to move the iPhone through a ﬁgure-8 pattern within a vertical plane in order to locate the compass.24 25
  • 13. SIZE  L Cellphone Wake is probably not that novel. Walking down a city street reading a book or newspaper would have had the same effect on a moving crowd a century earlier, but perhaps few would have done it. Now, it occurs frequently, and due to the arguably deeper cognitive load involved in engaging in reading and typing simultaneously, we might expect the ballet of the sidewalk to now rely Then there are the larger spatial conditions, in which a person interacts with on a heightened sense of “civic proprioception”, an awareness of one’s body in others, and/or The Network, moving through a space. a bounded space of constantly moving objects, constantly yet subconsciously scanning to detect collision. The agent-based pedestrian simulations used to model subways and streets are only just beginning to understand the effects of these interlocking wakes. While Cellphone Wake is irritating to observe, never mind get caught up in, when a Meeting Room Wake-Up Call occurs, it’s a delicious sight to behold. One of my perennial concerns is in designing systems that enable active citizens. Many technology-led “smart building” visions actually tend towards creating passive citizens, who outsource decision-making about their environment to software running algorithms based usually well beyond their control, with data derived from simple sensors. In this way, passive inhabitants also abdicate their conscious participation within their environment. Passivity of this type cannot create a “smart building”, almost by deﬁnition, nor will it reverse the irresponsible decision- making culture that created unsustainable automated buildings and spaces. So there’s a secret delight in seeing people interact with technology like this, in Fig. 6 Cellphone Wake seeing the sheer physicality of their interactions — seeing a Serious Meeting of User moves through a busy street, focusing solely on smartphone in hand (either businesspeople suddenly waving their hands in the arm like they just don’t care, reading or typing or both), such that the oncoming pedestrians are forced to ﬂow in order to wake up a trigger-happy motion sensor. This is beyond simplistic to either side of him grudgingly. arguments about simply re-calibrating the sensor; while it’s not particularly to do26 27
  • 14. with The Network, this performance, when thought of more broadly, effortlessly I ﬁrst consciously noticed Wiﬁ Dowsing during the aforementioned post-occupancy reveals the absurdity in much of the “smart building” idea. evaluation of the public wiﬁ at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, spending hours watching how people use wiﬁ. As one section of the library closed for the day, visitors would wander out with their laptops still open in front of them, staying connected and looking for the strongest wiﬁ signal. Fig. 7 Meeting Room Wake-Up Call Fig. 8 WiFi Dowser During business meetings, preferably serious ones, a moment’s stillness in the In order to achieve maximum throughput over a wiﬁ network, users meander room can trigger an over-active motion sensor that plunges the room into around a space, holding tablet or laptop out in front of them, occasionally watching darkness. Meeting participants must re-activate motion sensor through sudden the signal strength indicator, until optimum compromise of signal and space is and impromptu performance of manic arm-waving. located.28 29
  • 15. Ultimately, users gathered near largely anonymous wireless access points; through CLIP  ART  SOCIOLOGY trial and error, and watching their devices, they’ manoeuvred themselves towards the best position in terms of The Network, rather than the best physical space (or at least, some good compromise of both.) I’ve drawn these in a kind of 1950s newspaper illustration style, often seen in classiﬁed ads at the time, and now used as clip art (they’re actually adapted This seemed redolent of the ancient act of dowsing, or doodlebugging, for water, from originals some kind soul uploaded to Flickr.) Those ads, and indeed the a form of divining trying to perceive and locate a hidden ﬂow — although with subsequent clip art4, often work as some kind of inadvertent “training manual rather better results than the entirely spurious practice of dowsing. Neither public for modern life”. They prime us for what typical behaviours are; or should be, spaces or laptops are designed with this movement in mind. given their aspirational momentum. At any one time, we might read clip art as a description and guide to the stereotypical environments and interactions of our world. Clip art such as this usually describes a form of physical interaction, in space, bereft of content or theme. They are simply “man sitting at desk”, “woman, smiling, answer phone”, “people dancing”, “ofﬁce party”, “shop interaction”. They describe context but not content, so that they might be freely used to underscore numerous different narratives. They are a frozen moment of interaction, with no before or after. In this aspect, I’ve often thought they usefully highlight the kinds of interactions performed, and spaces inhabited. It’s why David Rees’s legendary comic strip “My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable” is quite so funny5; in its crude clip-art bastardisations, it highlights the mismatch between an age lived on The Network (us) and the ofﬁce culture of the near past (them). It freeze- frames people (mis)ﬁling paper into ﬁling cabinets and playfully and profanely deadpans them into an absurd alternate universe, which tells us as much about contemporary corporate-speke and the thrill of 4 Clip-art sketches derived from the “Bart&Co. Historic Clip Art Collection” at http://www.ﬂ 530 David Rees, “My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable”, 2002ﬁling-000/ 31
  • 16. The Network as it does about the ‘80s or early ‘90s ofﬁce environments its COULD  HAVE  BEEN  CONTENDERS characters seem to be drawn from. I transcribed some of the emerging behaviours of our modern world into this language of clip art, to similarly freeze, distill, highlight and to provoke a discussion We can argue about these particular examples all day. Some entrants on the as to whether they are simply peculiar blips or transitional hints as to where we’re list get removed upon consideration. A man stooping and pointing his phone to going next, taking an everyday performance and stripping it of its context, pinning capture a QR code at the bottom of some advertising hoarding, as I saw in the the butterﬂy under the glass. street in Helsinki the other day, is really only a variation on the photo-taking pose. Perhaps the incongruousness of the sports jackets helps too. Certainly, the act of taking photographs has changed shape due to digital technology. Where once the camera was generally brought up to the eye, now it is more often active at arm’s length, thanks to LCD screens on the back, and the “ﬁre and forget” sensibility enabled by cheap storage; or increasingly, a cloud- based upload from mobile meaning storage isn’t even an afterthought. (Whereas those of a certain age will remember how precious each of your 24 or 36 shots on the roll of ﬁlm used to be.) The freedom of movement these developments have delivered have been exploited by professional cinematographers and the average punter alike. But it is only a variation on a previous mode, and equally, many photographers will have shot at arm’s length for as long as cameras have been light enough to do so. There is nothing to do with The Network about this performance. (How might the physicality of taking a photograph change due to The Network?) People certainly move in a distinctive fashion when they’re talking on the phone. I observed our two year-old daughter talking into her plastic Hello Kitty pretend-phone and airily meandering around the apartment, brushing her ﬁngers absentmindedly over surfaces, just as her mother does, as she talked to her32 33
  • 17. mythical mystery companion. You might argue the Bluetooth headset or the IMMATERIAL  WEIGHTLIFTING iPhone’s earbud-based mic has freed up one hand, but the essential stance of Being On The Phone hasn’t changed as a result of The Network. Even an intrinsically contemporary product like the Nike Fuelband is interacted with But these particular interactions should seem odd to the time traveller, just as like a wristwatch, just as the laptop is essentially operated like a typewriter. Even they seem slightly odd to us, when highlighted in this way. what the body does in an achingly new game like Tearaway on the PS Vita, which features a riot of interaction design breakthroughs, would essentially be familiar These physical acts all make it evident that there is no separate “virtual world”; to a child’s imagination (blowing on characters or tilting platforms to knock them our very bodies are shaping our digital interactions. We are part of The Network, over, or using ﬁngers as puppets, for example—the novelty is in the fact that the and not just intellectually, in terms of our projected persona and identity, but characters are digital and Networked, rather than in the gestures themselves.) physically. The body is making The Network visible, legible. Tracing the articulation It’s why these interactions work, and again, they’re entirely designed this way. All of the hips, hands and arms is really tracing the seams of The Network. would be familiar, one way or another, to someone magically transported from 1955, say, even if the outcomes of those gestures would be largely beyond their We have a long understanding of how the body creatively interacts with invisible comprehension. forces. If you watch footage of Jimi Hendrix, you can see how he used his body to shape his guitar’s feedback; the sound is produced by the interplay of his guitar, its pickup, the speakers, the room, and his body within an electric ﬁeld, in space, over time. In similar fashion, sensors and actuators are also at play within invisible ﬁelds, equally shaped by the body, as well as objects and spaces.. We need to think in terms of these ﬂuid immersive interactions, material and immaterial—or “transmaterial as Mitchell Whitelaw6 would say—which we are part of physically as well as intellectually. This implies the conceptual separation of Hardware and Software and Us no longer stands. Unlike the objects that are being interacted with—here deliberately represented as characterless rectangles—the bodies reveal the patterns of information exchange. Rather than passive users in meaningless space with screens bringing all the 6 Mitchell Whitelaw, “After the screen: Array aesthetics and transmateriality”, 201134 http://teemingvoid.blogspot.ﬁ/2011/04/after-screen-array-aesthetics-and.html 35
  • 18. action from elsewhere, these interactions foreground the idea of “Screen as TYPE  “EARLY  FLYING  MACHINES”  INTO  YOUTUBE object in the world, rather than window to somewhere else“, as Whitelaw puts it. “Window to somewhere else” has been around for a long time, yet as Whitelaw’s essay “After the screen” suggests, we are now working with “glowing rectangles” in a new way, and sometimes interacting with The Network via objects in the Speaking of lightness, when we look back at old movies of early ﬂying machines, world without screens, rectangles without the glow. we see frail bodies trapped in awkward wooden frames, some of which can hop unpredictably in and out of the air, as if a plastic bag blown along by the wind, The kinetic energy expended in the extravagant contortions of the Security Pass while others plummet headlong from jetty to water with all the sense of purpose Hip Bump, or even the subtle twitches of the Map Smear, suggest the transactions that gravity can muster. Those bruised and soggy aviators that had been ﬂapping at play rather more than the objects themselves do. You can almost viscerally feel articulated arms we can now discount as pursuing a developmental dead-end, the tiles being created during the latter. though it was probably worth a try at the time. In others, we can see the blueprints of successful subsequent ﬂights emerging before our eyes. As Bruce Sterling observes in Shaping Things7, the objects are merely “material instantiations of an immaterial system”, and relatively faceless ones at that, These contemporary actions are similarly unpredictable. We don’t know if the whereas the immaterial system is the aspect whose “informational support is so Security Pass Hip Bump is actually a precursor of what happens when our overwhelmingly extensive and rich.” Perhaps it’s in the body that we sense that clothes are made of smart fabric derived from nanocellulose ﬁbres, and we use weight of information elsewhere? the combination of body and fabric to receive, transmit and display data. Is it a form of prototype, or is it simply an absurd contortion inﬂicted upon us by an ill- In 1985 Italo Calvino wrote “It is true that software cannot exercise its powers of positioned sensor? lightness except through the weight of hardware8.” Time has passed, and not only has the heaviness of hardware dissolved into lightness, one of Calvino’s qualities They leave us to wonder whether we have designed “things which are in harmony for “the next millennium”, just as Sterling suggests the counterpoint of the weight with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street”, as of associated information, but the body has also become a vessel for software, a Alvar Aalto put it. Perhaps these all too human responses indicate we actually site for the Network to express its dynamics, well before we explore the next wave have, totally inadvertently? Or that, just as the street ﬁnds its own use for things, of wearable computing. our stereotypical physical movements simply adapt, if the promise of The Network is worth it. 7 9 Bruce Sterling, “Shaping Things,” 2005. Alvar Aalto, speech in London, 195736 8 Italo Calvino, “Six Memos for the Next Millenium,” 1985. 37
  • 19. LEARNING  FROM  WOODEN  SPOONS You might argue over these choices; that’s the point. Such behaviours come and go every day, perhaps of which we are only to observe. These are all transitional, and at this point they tell us about here and now; in other words, at this point they tell us about this point. But over time, when you watch enough, and log the iterations, they might hint at where we’re going, at our future physical interactions. Bruno Munari once wrote that the repeated use of a wooden spoon for stirring and testing soup not only wears the spoon down, but also “it eventually shows us what shape a spoon for stirring soup should be10.” We can’t see that creative wear and tear taking its effect upon The Network and our interactions with it, at least through this lens. Unless we discuss it, we can’t recognise the shifts in physical and social interaction occurring as a result of something that is often invisible, or leaves little trace either way, and whose objects are discarded with a frequency that would make Munari wince, and the simple wooden spoon feel quietly triumphant. What we’re watching here are suggestions and explorations as to how we might physically interact with The Network. Just as those early ﬁlms of ﬂying machines are equally absurd and prescient, these contortions and behaviours might contain the clues of our future interactions. Building an unﬁnished catalogue of them, as I have here, is also absurd, clearly; I leave it to you to do the prescient bit. 10 Bruno Munari, “Design as Art”, 1966.38 39
  • 20. THE   CLASSICS41 1
  • 21. THE  CLASSICS 1 CLICKER  CASTING A standard apparatus in our daily life, the TV remote control isn’t what human- computer interaction (HCI) researchers would call a “gestural interface”. Indeed, most of the the rectangle boxes ﬁlled with buttons we had in the last ﬁfty years do not not include any speciﬁc motion sensors. Yet, try spending some time with anyone using a TV or DVD clicker, you will inevitably notice the person making odd gestures. A classic RC move consists in the user raising the remote right in front of him, forcibly pressing the buttons or shaking it up and down. These micro-gestures are mostly performed when there is a gap between performance and intention. But these gestures can also correspond to a speciﬁc phase of TV interaction. Think about how people throw the clicker on the couch after they’ve settled on what they want to watch. Now that current consumer electronics companies are jumping on the motion- sensor bandwagon, it is intriguing to note the vocabulary of gestures selected. The motion-controlled TV models released at the beginning of this decade integrate a set of gestures borrowed from smartphones (pinching, sliding) and video game consoles (waving, pointing). The aforementioned observation offers an alternative way of thinking about designing interactivity between people and devices. What would a smart remote control look like that elaborates on pre-existing gestural vocabulary people already developed with their sensorless devices?42 43
  • 22. THE  CLASSICS 1 HAUNTED  INTERFACES This gesture is the video-game counterpart of the previous case: shaking a game controller with no motion sensor. It can often be observed with people playing games they are not necessarily used to, in particular racing games such as Mario Kart. Chances are, their physical gestures while playing would inevitably echo the action they aim to control onscreen: leaning left, when steering left, leaning right, when turning right. For new users, manipulation of the car steering wheel serves as the mental model for his interaction with the game. It is interesting to note the apparent mismatch between a steering wheel and a game controller does not prevent users from transferring gestures of one category to another. It is as if these movements are fundamentally embodied in a way that their employment is automatic or done without thought. Though mocked by players with more skills, these gestures provided an unexpected design strategy we adopted for a video-game project I was involved in a few years ago. At a time when new gestural interfaces such as Nintendo Wii and Sony Move appeared on mass market, our focus on casual players and their unconscious moves provided useful insights about gaming in general and gestural interactivity in particular. We would develop a prototype and invite casual players to participate. Their “naïve” gesticulation would then be included and re-incorporated back to the vocabulary of gestures we were creating for our game interaction.44 45
  • 23. THE  CLASSICS 1 THUMB  TEXTING Once the poster child of “Generation Y” and Blackberry-addicted business people, thumb texting refers to the expert reliance on the ﬁnger as a way to write text messages (SMS) on cell phones without necessarily looking at the screen. Because mobile devices at the time relied on numeric keypads with multiple characters mapped to each button for input, composing a message required extensive thumb-banging. The repetitive use of this digit could potentially result in muscular cramps or repetitive strain injury (RSI). The problem with conventional text input in current mobile devices is that the gesture we adopts while texting or emailing runs counter-intuitive to ergonomics of the human hand from an evolutionary perspective. However, the increasing popularization of touch-screens nowadays, on which texting could be slower, seems to indicate that the thumb might play a less prominent role as we transition to a different mode of interaction. That said, the good ol’ keyboard is still the major interface on low-end cell phones. It might not be apparent, but thumb-texting is here to stay. At least for a while.46 47
  • 24. THE  CLASSICS 1 DIGITAL  JUGGLING The multiplication of digital devices, and its corresponding proliferation of screens, often results in “digital juggling”. This happens mostly in situations where devices are used simultaneously. This is a gesture readily found in drivers. More often than not, when hands are not actually “driving”, they are ﬁdgeting with a phone, an MP3 player, both, or some other combination. Driving while juggling multiple devices is obviously a tricky and dangerous proposition. We have seen a particularly dexterous driver steadying the steering wheel with her thighs, changing to a different song on her MP3 player, all while holding her cell phone in another hand. Should designers discourage multi-tasking then, when they are thinking about the next generation of devices? Or should we celebrate the spontaneous gestures as a result of device juggling? In the end, it is hard to settle the multitask vs single-task debate, since multi-tasking ability varies between people and because certain tasks require more attention than others.48 49
  • 26. PRESET  GESTURES TOUCHSCREEN  GESTURES 2 Touch gestures is a set of standardized motion we use when interacting with multi-touch digital devices such as smartphones (Apple, Android), tablets and other interactive surfaces (tables). The advantage of touch gestures is that it allows for direct manipulation, and as such, utilizes our existing understanding of object manipulation in the physical world. Due to product differentiation, however, there is a certain level of inconsistency in the gestures proposed by software companies and hardware manufacturers. Tap/Double tap: By touching the surface with a ﬁngertip, user can initiate an action, select links or push buttons on screen. Depending on the Operating System, a double tap (tapping twice) can be required for a similar purpose. On the iPhone OS, the double tap can be used for zooming. Hold/Press: Pressing and holding the tip of the ﬁnger on the touch screen, the gesture is often used for opening a pop-up menu or selecting an item. Tap/Double tap Hold/Press Drag/Slide Drag/Slide: Moving the tip of the ﬁnger over the surface without lifting it from the screen; allows scrolling and drag-and-drop. Swipe/Fling/Flicker: Used to scroll, to pan, or to quickly move objects, the ﬁnger is placed on the screen and swipe in the desired direction. Pinch close/Spread: Used for scaling and zooming out, users place two ﬁngers (thumb/index or other combinations) on the screen and move them farther apart without losing contact with screen. Swipe/Fling/Flicker Pinch close/Spread52 53
  • 27. PRESET  GESTURES Smartphones such as the iPhone have a built-in digital compass that work just like ANGRY  MONKEY 2 a traditional magnetic-needle compass. However, its accuracy can be inﬂuenced by environmental interferences such as the ones produced by the magnets in the iPhone earbuds. This means the digital compass within the phone needs to be recalibrated from time to time. Rotating the device in a ﬁgure 8 motion until the calibration screen disappears, Apple’s proposed gesture for the task, in our opinion, makes the user looks like an “angry monkey”. Performing calibration gestures, such as “gesticul-8”, is new to users of sensor- enabled devices. The growing omnipresence of sensors in most new digital devices seems to indicate a growing necessity to adjust digital technologies not only to our needs, but also environmental conditions: potential interferences, change in magnetic ﬁelds, even weather circumstances. The potential drawback of sensors is clear: although they detect external information on their own and could adapt accordingly, sensors require proper calibration, which often involves human assistance. As a socio-technical assemblage, the use of sensors in digital devices is a clear example of the inherent necessity of cooperation between human and machine, even in performing basic tasks.54 55
  • 29. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF PHONE  HOLDING  HABITS 3 The diverse ways we hold our phones, especially when not The Prayer Book Reader: This is a gesture that potentially has its origin in calling other people, lead to a characteristic set of postures. paperback book reading where the object or text is held between two hands. The Observed in public places, they depend on various factors “prayer book” user solemnly grips the device in a way that may reﬂect the nature ranging from the task at hand (checking emails, browsing, of the task performed (reading a long webpage, contemplating pictures). not looking at the phone, expecting a call) to external conditions (light, presence of a place to leave it safely). However, the ways we present ourselves to the public also play an important role in the way we hold our phones; these habits are often more intuitive, a natural extension of our physical manners and the way we inhabit space in general. The Busy Shopper: Held at shoulder level, along with The Obsessive Checker: These digital obsessives have their cell screen within handbags or shopping bags, the phone is conspicuously reaching distance at all times. They repeatedly lean their heads down, checking shown as an accessory to passersby and automatically for signs of any potential updates such as SMS, emails, or any app notiﬁcations. reachable should someone call.58 59
  • 30. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF PHONE  HOLDING  HABITS 3 Under the Radar: Under certain circumstances, it is important to keep phone usage inconspicuous. (Driving and talking on a handset is illegal in many states.) To sidestep the issue, some drivers would leave their phone on their lap while driving. The Third Arm: Not exactly a gesture, this corresponds to the user leaving her The Active Companion: A variation of The Busy Shopper, it is commonly phone close by at any given time, even during sleep. The device becomes, in this encountered with runners, often due to the lack of pockets in athletic wears. In instance, a digital extension of our body, or a not-too-distant prosthesis if you will, this version, the phone is held in the hand and follows the swing of the arm. accessible whenever it is needed.60 61
  • 31. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF FUSSY  OWNER  SYNDROME 3 Comforting micro-gestures can be seen as a form of basic “personal blanket” in social situations and feeds into the user’s quasi-obsessive need of information or social contact. They correspond to any discreet and furtive gesture that aims at checking incoming changes on the phone: time, SMS, calls or app notiﬁcations on smartphones. Most of the time, these moves are very simple and do not involve the whole body. Depending on the user’s posture and phone location, the possibilities can be the following: leaning towards the phone and adopting what chiropractors have dubbed the Forward Head Posture or text neck position (when in the “third arm” state as shown previously), reaching out the device on one’s lap when driving, whipping out the phone from one’s pocket, etc. More speciﬁcally, Fussy Owner Syndrome describes users who pay attention to their personal devices on a granular level. From a design standpoint, it highlights the diversity of personal rituals between user and devices. Is this a need we have to consider when designing hardware and software? Wouldn’t it be relevant to integrate different personalized paths for certain applications based on individual rituals?62 63
  • 32. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF BABOON’S  FACE 3 As the American sociologist Erving Goffman1 puts it “sound interference” can cause an offender to “violate the territory of others by carrying out an encounter over a longer than proper distance.” Instances of such “acoustic interference/sound pollution” is common, especially at restaurants or on public transits. Although not an issue with some people, others have come up with ingenious solutions to avoid being that loudmouth in the room. “Baboon’s face” is is a gesture where the speaker covers both his mouth and the phone throughout the entire conversation. It keeps the conversation private, yet also shows consideration for both the speaker on the other end of the line and others in the vicinity of the speaker. Designers in particular have been very interested in the gesture and a whole menagerie of apparatuses has sprung up around it, from high turtlenecks to face masks. Would our next set of bluetooth headset come with a mouthguard as an accessory? 1 Goffman, E., Relations in public: Micro studies of the public order. New York: Basic Books, 1971.64 65
  • 33. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF LOW  DOSAGE 3 Cell phone communication is based on electromagnetic waves exchanged between mobile devices and cell towers located in the vicinity. When talking on the phone, a transmitter encodes the sound of the voice into a continuous wave which is then propagated by an antenna. The position of a transmitter inside the device varies depending on the manufacturer, but is usually next to the phone’s antenna. Because of the principles described above, all cell phones therefore emit some electromagnetic radiation. Given the proximity of the phone to our head when in use, many callers worry about potential health hazards. The most straightforward way to avoid exposure is to use a headset. But many stranger gestures have developed as users try to balance audio quality and potential radiation exposure. One such example is holding the phone in a way so device never touches the user’s skin. From a distance, it looks as if the user is holding an electric razor to his cheek. Others who are even more worried about the potential side effects of radiation exposure have been observed to resort to shielding protection like a pouch, a sock, or even gloves.66 67
  • 34. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF SECURITY  BLANKET 3 Delivering text messages and calls, the cell phone represents a potential security blanket for its users. It does so in its ability to allow communication. Nevertheless, with an ever-increasing set of features available on smartphones, the phone is no longer just an emotional umbilical cord to friends and family. The rise of games, newsfeeds, social media, or any apps that are meant to “kill time”, means even when stalled in trafﬁc or waiting in a queue, the opportunity to daydream has diminished. A common “security blanket” scenario: A and B run into C while walking down the street. B starts to chat with C. Instead of joining in on the conversation, A steps aside, whips out his phone and starts to go through his Twitter stream. In the instance, a potentially awkward social moment is sidestepped! Although A’s behavior could be interpreted as impolite, a certain level of interactivity still exists between the trio. Even if A is not directly engaged in the conversation, there could be signals that the conversation is about to come to an end and that the duo is about to resume their walk.68 69
  • 35. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF THE  PERISCOPE 3 This is a common pose when people take pictures, record videos or use Augmented The move is even more fascinating when seen in public venues such as concerts Reality applications that show an overlay of information on their cell screen. Many or sports events; where it becomes a new social ritual for the crowd, performed users have become accustomed to holding the phone at arm’s length, in order so together as if the spectacle is secondary to the data collection process. see the screen, compose a shot, or simply read the content displayed. The periscope gesture is interesting because it is associated with the smartphone, Users also deploy their arm as if it’s a periscope when trying to focus on something which is a hybridized device. The way we hold a smartphone is a natural extension not at eye level. Holding a phone for too long in this position may lead to a of how we used to hold a camera. Would future technological associations lead problem commonly encountered with gestural interfaces: the “gorilla arm”, which to similar gestural hybrids? Can we beneﬁt from this knowledge to design more refers to the heaviness one feels in one’s arm after holding a device out for any ergonomic products? signiﬁcant length of time.70 71
  • 36. PRESENTATION  OF  SELF CELL  TRANCE 3 From a different angle, a parade of people in “trance” tells a different story. First and foremost, moving around when talking on the phone appears to be a standard urban tactic aimed at seeking areas favorable to the conversation at hand, or advertising the fact that one is already engaged. Privacy is another important issue: “pacers” may move around in order to avoid eavesdropping. In addition, such effort can be geared towards limiting our disruptions to the public. Interestingly, the trajectory of a trance, with its pause and movements, often mimics the rhythm of a phone conversation. Finally, one can also hypothesize that these trajectories reﬂect the way users unconsciously “stage” their presence in public. Cell Trance may indeed be similar to the way iPod and Walkman users used to synchronize their movement with their music3. Texting when walking is a relevant variation to Cell Trance. The visual focus such multi-tasking entails could potentially be dangerous to the user! So much so People walking around when talking on their mobile phone is a common behavior. that anxious developers have already developed phone apps that display what’s Referred to as “Cell Trance” in the Urban Dictionnary2, this way of moving directly in front of the user when typing on the phone to prevent such accidents. back and forth is often seen in public venues such as hallways, sidewalks, train platforms, bus stops or shopping malls. To onlookers, the erratic perambulation looks aimless, as if the caller is detached from his surroundings, absorbed in a private sonic universe. 3 2 Thibaud, Jean-Paul. The sonic composition of the city. In : Bull Michael & Les Back (Eds.) The AuditoryCulture As described at the following URL:ﬁne.php?term=Cell%20 Reader. Amsterdam : Berg Publishers, 2003, pp. 329-341.72 73
  • 37. 74 75
  • 39. PERSONAL  TACTICS SENSOR  JIU  JITSU 4 Sensors, whose job is to detect changes in the environment through electronic components, are now more and more common. They serve different purposes, ranging from surveillance (alarms, CCTV) to environmental monitoring (pollution, trafﬁc) and home automation (light detector, temperature control). Many shops have motion sensors that announce the entrance of potential shoppers, triggering noises or audio messages when people passes by. These sounds can either be used to greet people when they come in or trigger an ad for a particular product. Irritated customers in turn have ﬁgured out ways to avoid being detected by these sensors. One can see them leaning on their side, or even squatting, when passing by their favorite alley in a supermarket equipped with theses devices. This type of urban “Parkour” looks playful at ﬁrst glance. However, it also illustrates an instance of user “domesticating” a technology for his own purposes. Reverse-engineering such device is not easy as the sensor presence is generally unobtrusive. As we will see in upcoming examples, mastering sensors seem to have became a new skill set in the 21st Century.78 79
  • 40. PERSONAL  TACTICS BAG  SWIPING 4 In the last decade, several major transportation systems in the world have replaced their magnetic tickets with RF (radio frequency) Tagged transit cards. Such pocket-sized cards have been increasingly popular and can often been seen being used for payment in fast food restaurants, vending machines, convenience stores or photo booths. In public transport such as subway and tramways, their usage has progressively led to new and curious rituals. The original plan was basic: the passenger swipe her ticket at the gate or turnstiles. Over time, however, this changes as commuters discover easier ways to get the job done. They simple swing their wallet or handbag over the scanner, without bothering to take their cards out. Besides, who has the time? Commuters who do the wallet-or-handbag-swipe don’t even break their pace, they just learn to swipe in full stride. This is what the American writer and designer Adam Greenﬁeld called “information processing dissolving in behavior”: an interaction between a person and an information-processing system that proceeds automatically without the consciousness of what is taking place4. This example is relevant for interactive product design for two reasons. First, because designers don’t often design the proper use of a technology. Users generally re-approriate and domesticate technological objects in their own peculiar ways. Second, it could be seen as an indicator that unconscious transactions will become much more prevalent in the very near future, with all the potential complication this entails. 4 Greenﬁeld, A. Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, New Riders Press, 200680 81
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  • 42. PERSONAL  TACTICS WAVING  AT  SENSORS 4 Worthy of note, toilets are one of the most important locus of innovation when it comes to sensors. In this particular context, they are generally used for light-control (room or tank), ﬂush-activation and some “smart toilet” projects already aims at remote health checks based on “constituents analysis”; not to mention soap dispensers and water taps. This packed presence evidently leads to unexpected situations, and the need for users to adopt new kinds of behavior in response. Toilets outﬁtted with motion sensors detect user presence and could self-adjust light level accordingly. When no motion happens for some time, the light turns off. This is obviously a problem for people who are still sitting in a stall. A standard response, now a common ritual in modern bathroom, consists of waving one’s arms above the head, since the sensor is often positioned to detect upright users. Sensors and gestures associated with their activation are daily rituals of the new Century. And though people adopt to the new technology faster than we think, there is deﬁnitely room for improvement in design. A more user-centered way to approach this would be to understand the wide diversity of behaviors in such places and inject more ﬂexibility into the system.84 85
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  • 44. PERSONAL  TACTICS SENSOR  TRICKING 4 Waggle actually corresponds to anything other than true one-to-one motion detection, and is criticized by hardcore gamers as it doesn’t really add to gameplay. Generally a digital (on/off reaction) rather than an analog setup (degrees of reaction), the waggle does not take into account three-dimensional space. Often mocked as a gimmick to achieve cosmetic immersion, it is motion for the sake of motion, when a button or a stick would serve the same purpose. Waggle is sometimes implemented in games for casual and less skillful players who do not have time to learn the gestures necessary to activate an action with the sensors. Most of the time it is a symptom of bad game design. The design solution to stick waggling is simple: a single press button. This example reminds us that the release of a new technology should not imply its compulsory adoption. Designers need to balance technological innovations with user experience, expectation, and context. “Stick waggle” is a gesture often associated with the Nintendo Wii or Sony Move. The waggle consists in waving or shaking a gestural interface at random. This gestural excess is often encountered in bad video games in which players can generally win with no ﬁnesse or skill, frantically gesticulating to move onscreen objects and characters. To some extent, waggle is the equivalent to “button mashing”, which describes any gameplay wherein skill is an aside to how fast a player can hit the buttons on standard game controllers.88 89
  • 45. PERSONAL  TACTICS 4 LAZY  VIEWER The “Lazy viewer” is a creative set of postures people adopt with digital technologies when lying in bed or slumped on a sofa. A common one, often referred to as “rotilt,” entails using a laptop sideways. This posture seems the best solution to watch ﬁlms, YouTube videos and non-interactive computer programs. Such behavior predates the presence of accelerometers in digital devices, which now allow to automatically rotate content to the user’s posture. The “laptop immersion posture” is a variation to the previous example. It corresponds to using the laptop in bed with its screen in close proximity to the user’s face, in order to achieve an intimate digital experience. Generally used for ﬁlm viewing, it might be seen as the equivalent of reading under a blanket with a pocket light, creating a controlled and ampliﬁed illusion of immersion. How do we take advantage of this habit from a design perspective? Designer Joe Malia explored this topic in a project called “Designs for the Computer Obsessive,”5 a completely soundproof “computer hood” made of black lycra held it to the a computer monitor in order to facilitate an ampliﬁed engagement between user and her screen. 5 Project presented at the following URL: computer-obsessive 91
  • 47. RENEWED  SOCIAL  INTERACTIONS Halfway Courtesy appeared around the same time earbuds became popular. 5 HALFWAY  COURTESY This gesture refers to the removal of one of the two earbuds when a brief but unexpected encounter requires the user to be polite and attentive. It often happens in public transport when ofﬁcials ask for tickets, or at a shop counter. Removing one’s earbud looks as if the user is saying, “I’m in my personal sphere occupied with my background activities, but I owe you the courtesy of being partly engaged with you in a social interaction.” As remarked by Michael Bull, a researcher in Media and Film Studies6, this behavior sends a strong message about how interested one is in what is being said and it is as if the speaker paid a compliment to the other party. However, this courtesy is only “halfway” as the speaker still have an earbud in the other ear. What are the design implications for this? Again, the present cases highlight user creativity in adopting technology. Beyond that, it also shows that we could potentially design more courteous digital apparatuses, with quick break functions for easy removal. 6 Bull, M. Sounding out the city: Personal stereos and the management94 of everyday life. Oxford: Berg, 2000
  • 48. RENEWED  SOCIAL  INTERACTIONS 5 SOCIAL   DIGITAL   MIMICRY Group situations, although social moments by deﬁnition, offer various opportunities to be turned into an awkward individual game involving digital artifacts such as cell-phones, tablets and laptops. A common example consists in a group of people sitting and chatting at a table in a restaurant. If, at a certain point in time, a user ﬁshes out his cell-phone, the others present often start checking their own emails, Twitter updates or Facebook notiﬁcations. Social imitation appears to be the driving force in this “alone together” scenario7. The ﬁrst person using his smartphone indeed acts as an indicator that group pressure has been released and that each participant can now whip out their digital devices. Such situation does not necessarily reﬂect an asocial use of technology. Instead, it highlights how human interactions are increasingly complex, with a new balance between individual and group activities, as well as the involvement of distant persons in co-present settings and the constant checking of near-past interactions (using digital services such as Twitter). Designers can of course beneﬁt from this sort of social dynamic by enforcing such individual behavior in group settings. A more interesting avenue though, might be to design products, such as tables or chairs, and digital services that can bring back individual activities at the group level. 7 Turkle, S. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Basic Books, 201196 97
  • 49. RENEWED  SOCIAL  INTERACTIONS The evolution of cell phones, with the ever increasing addition of new features, 5 CONVERSATION  GENERATOR turned this device into a resourceful object that can be deployed in lots of occasions. Beyond placing phone calls, browsing the web and playing video games, the content displayed on the phone is often used as a way to start and/ or fuel a conversation. This happens in various social contexts ranging from dinner table conversations to a casual chat with strangers in the bus. We actually even saw a painter in a tourist spot using the image represented on the screen to spice up the portrait he was doing of an enthusiastic smartphone user. Such a habit is interesting given that it shows how cell phone usage is a social activity. It not only occurs with distant people through calls, texting and social media apps, but also happens with nearby persons. Such interactions, mediated by the phone held in different postures, can be seen as evidence of a sharing impulse felt by users. For some, especially shy teenagers, what’s displayed on the phone could potentially act as an icebreaker to start a conversation. For others, it’s simply because the phone has be turned into a device registering souvenirs through pictures, or social interactions through SMS, tweets or emails. To some extent, this behavior is close to situations in which people talk about what they just heard on the radio or on TV. However, in the phone scenario, the elements gathered on the display could be personal (a picture taken in the morning), less long and continuous (an SMS), and, above all, “curated” by the user who chose to select it. Some designers noticed that and created interactive coffee tables allowing people to share such bits and pieces. But isn’t that a narrow way to build upon this habit? One can think about other possibilities such as using other people’s reactions to augment the content presented at ﬁrst. What would be a Tumblr post enriched with the discussion people had about it over lunch?98 99
  • 50. RENEWED  SOCIAL  INTERACTIONS 5 PRELOADING Despite the pervasiveness of network presence in the Western world, dead spots still exist. Think about elevators, canyons walks or a short trip abroad without any data plan. These places are interesting because they disrupt our digital interaction, which more or less relies on permanent network connectivity. Over time, users learn that they wouldn’t be able to browse the web in an elevators, or downloading a map during a hike in the mountains. One of the strategy to avoid that is to anticipate. A common scenario case we’ve encountered consisted in the way people preload some content on their smartphone before entering an elevator. Twitter updates, Tumblr micro-blog posts and Facebook statuses are quickly transferred so users, “alone together” could potentially avoid any social awkwardness. From a technical perspective, such habit preﬁgures upcoming solutions that will enable users to carry more and more information with them “locally” (i.e. on their phone), a sort of frozen version of their “personal and social cloud” that are accessible/downloadable even when the network is not accessible.100 101
  • 52. VENTING  SPECTRUM 6 NERVOUS  TICS We all have nervous habits involving playing with objects at hand: hair twirling, ﬁnger tapping, nail biting, pen ﬂicking are common examples. In the digital age, where a device is often near at hand, a whole vocabulary of gestures have appeared: spinning the smartphone on a ﬂat surface, ﬂipping it in the hand, ﬂipping in the air (which inevitably account for a small portion of cracked screens), straightening the phone on the tabletop exactly lined up with whatever is on the table, etc. This range of possibilities partly appeared because of the evolution of phones form factors. As Donald Norman, a prominent researcher in the ﬁeld of human-computer interaction, has put it, the “affordance”8 of the artifact suggest action possibilities readily perceivable by the user. To some extent, the ﬂat appearance of the iPhone allows people to spin it on a table, and the small size of clamshell phones enable teenagers to ﬂip them in the air, which was certainly not possible with the bulky portable phones from the beginning of the nineties. Such affordances are less direct than a button inviting to be pressed, but they certainly play a role in how users creatively repurpose their devices to release their stress. This ordinary behavior leads us to wonder if designers have already thought about the nervous tics deployed by users of their future products. What would such an exploration mean from a creative perspective? To what extent such knowledge can be feed back into the design process? 8 Donald A. Norman, Affordances, Conventions and Design. Interactions 6(3):38-43, May 1999, ACM Press104 105
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  • 54. VENTING  SPECTRUM 6 VIOLENT  RIPOSTE Anger with technology often results in punching or kicking, even though these physical reactions may appear a bit extreme at ﬁrst glance. In our daily life, the most ordinary example of such “violent riposte” often involves vending machines that refuse to cooperate. Bills rejected from slot, coins refused, products jammed somewhere in the conduit... these are problems we encounter routinely. If some users let it ﬂy and accept this as a fact of life, others react quite violently, especially when no one’s watching. Kicking a machine here feels like a restorative way to release some steam and vent one’s rage. This habit is now taking place with owners of robots such as vacuum cleaners. A violent riposte may indeed happen when the device does not behave as expected, or when a technical problem is encountered. Some of us might ﬁnd human machine violence repulsive. For example, we might ﬁnd it uncomfortable to watch an owner kick his Roomba. On second thought, such behavior recalls people’s reaction to vending machines and may really be a transferred behavior. Now that technical objects have a programmed behavior, their rejection or indifference to our presence could lead to “rage against the machine.” This new relationship seems to call for better design reminding people to be gentle with their robots or machines. Crafting better feedback behavior and more adapted error messages from machines are deﬁnitely good candidates for that matter.108 109
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  • 57. DIGITAL  PLUMBING QUICK  FIX 7 The reasons why a technological device may not work are very diverse; certainly as broad as the way users try to ﬁgure out what to do when breakdowns occur. When a problem just happens, people tend to try easy repair strategies: whacking a game controller, punching a screen, shaking a smartphone, jiggling wires, or hitting a remote control on something. Sometimes, these tricks can be more elaborate; for instance, battery removal when a device has become unresponsive. The annoying synchronization of home automation systems is also a good example as it may require members of a family to simultaneously press buttons while being in different rooms, leading to a weird ballet with screams and misunderstandings. Also, quick ﬁxes can be very personal and intimate, as attested by gamers back in the days, who blew on video-game cartridges (or even lick them) to remove the annoying presence of dust.114 115
  • 58. These gestural tactics are interesting because they reveal a part of the domestication process that occur when people appropriate technological objects. These repair habits are shaped by users’ perception of what went wrong, the potential causes of the problem(s) encountered, and where to act upon their devices. Given that most of our digital apparatuses look like black boxes with less and less points of entries (apart from its touchscreen, an iPhone only has 5 buttons), the owner does whatever she can to ﬁnd potential solutions. The whacking/jiggling/hitting often appears as the simplest way to make something work again. Such behavior deﬁnitely calls for a closer attention to repair practices and how to clue users in at ﬁxing hardware.116 117
  • 59. DIGITAL  PLUMBING OBSESSIVE  FIX 7 Another important repair strategy relies on the obsessive character of certain users. Perhaps because they are annoyed by the breakdown of their digital hardware, or perhaps they are inherently impatient, some people adopt a frenetic behavior when trying to solve the problem at hand. In our observations, we even encountered an informant who told us he had to quickly open and close the DVD lid of his Playstation almost a hundred times. Such behavior echoes the compulsive hitting of Control Alt Del by certain PC users. In such cases, the repetition in a short amount of time seems to act both as a ﬁxing strategy and a way to vent one’s anger. And of course, it might eventually work.118 119
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  • 61. DIGITAL  PLUMBING 7 Gestures and postures employed to ﬁx machines also reveal the naïve understanding people have about their technological objects. Based on the defective objects at hand, the strategies adopted by users can be very broad. In our ﬁeld observations, one particular user would raise his ﬁnger above his head in order to have a better network connection when using his cell phone in his apartment. Such attitude is highly similar to what radio and TV owners used to try out when the pre-digital signal seemed shaky: they would move around in the room or try to sit in speciﬁc places in order not to interrupt the ﬂow of electromagnetic wave. We have also come across users who tap their phones or remote controls on their heads when devices fail to work properly. Are these placebo gestures, naïve behaviors on the users’ part? Or do they really work? The answers seem less important than an understanding of why users do what they do. From a design perspective, they remind us the user appropriation process relies a great deal on attributing behavior to objects. For users, the right solution is dependent on material affordance and feedback.122 123
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  • 64. 128 129
  • 65. 130 131
  • 66. INCIDENT  REPORT  4728A/Y MARKED:  HD  CONFIDENTIAL TO:  @scrappycarmalitallp,  Knight-­Reese  Innovations,  General  Counsel FROM:  @dramaops  Knight-­Reese  Innovations,  BabyBoo  Division,  Director  of   Operations FROM:  @grogenehero  Knight-­Reese  Innovations,  BabyBoo  Division,  Director   of  Technology FROM:  @muhatukitykatprrrr  Knight-­Reese  Innovations,  VP  Proactive  Response   Division SUBJECT:  Baby  Bjorn  Bot™  Failure  Mode  Analysis SUMMARY -­ sumer  Analytics  and  inquiries  through  FAQ  comment  swarms,  reports  in  the  gen-­ eral  news  and  reports  from  our  call  centers  it  is  our  determination  that  the  Baby   Bjorn  Boa  Bot™  product  has  in  fact  experienced  consistent  failures  in  several   -­ tions  of  geneware  in  the  swaddling  blanket’s  gesture  recognition  system.  In  labo-­ ratory  analysis,  the  gesture  recog  system  can  at  times  incorrectly  determines  the   sleep  state  of  the  subject  (child)  enclosed  in  the  Baby  Bjorn  Boa  Bot™.132 133
  • 67. ANALYSIS:  Genotechsys  is  our  sole  source  supplier  of  the  swaddling  blanket   subsystem  for  the  Baby  Bjorn  Boa  Bot™.  Their  swaddling  subsystems  operate   Genotechsys  has  thus  far  been  unwilling  to  contribute  to  the  failure  mode  analysis   in  coordination  with  the  NatureFeeds™  drip-­feed  micro  synthetic  goat  udder   and  is  unlikely  to  go  on  the  record  on  this  matter.  This  is  almost  certainly  due  to   which  has  an  independent  gesture  recog  system  that  responds  independently  to   the  off-­shore  (likely  Finnish  or  Thai)  source  material  they  use  for  precursing  the   the  suckling  gestures  of  the  ensconced  subject  baby.  In  certain  circumstances  the   NatureFeeds™  drip-­feed  over-­produces  in  excess  of  37  milliliters  per  second  re-­ sulting  in  effectively  saturating  the  swaddling  blanket  thereby  inducing  a  systemic   EXPOSURE:  Thus  far  the  extent  of  corporate  exposure  on  this  and  related   malfunction.  Parenthetically,  this  volume  of  over-­production  is  a  potential  chok-­ incidents  has  been  limited  to  negative  trade  rumor  swarming  and  some  chatter  in   ing/drowning  hazard. social  pits  that  has  yet  to  reach  levels  of  consequence. In  98%  of  failure  cases  reported  (312  incidents)  or  the  100%  failure  cases  conducted   But   note,   attention   is   beginning   to   focus   on   the   matter.   [REDACTED]   from   the   [REDACTED]   reported   in   a   follow-­up   to   a   consumer-­facing   product   review   of   swaddling  behavior  reacting  at  a  period  of  between  3-­27  constriction-­release  cycles   [REDACTED]  and  the  Baby  Bjorn  Boa  Bot™  that  some  consumers  have  reported   per  second.  This  is  considered  unusually  high  and  aggressive  cuddling  by  the  bio-­ intermittent  “uncannily  reptilian  slithering  behavior”  during  idle  states  just  after  the   blanket   in   the   bot   and   is   inconsistent   with   nominal   reaction   behaviors   from   the   Baby  Bjorn  Boa  Bot™  has  been  in  the  sun  and  thence  moved  to  a  shaded  or  cool   environment.  Of  most  concern  has  been  this  “slithering  behavior”  occuring  when   was   never   observed   either   in   the   exotic   precursor   B.   constrictor   or   any   known   small   animals   such   as   housepets   (either   engineered   or   exotics)   walk   nearby   the   derived  or  refactored  synthetic  geneware. products.  Only  a  forced  almond-­soy  rub  induces  a  core  dump  and  hard  reset.  (Note:   This  would  be  consistent  to  the  autonomous  reactions  of  the  most  troublesome  of   of   exotic-­Boidae   (spec   Boa   Constrictor   exotic   precursor   for   sourced   geneware)   mountain  synthetics  especially  when  their  coloration  codes  resemble  closely  their   Engineering   determines   it   is   likely   that,   as   occured   with   the   aforementioned  134 135
  • 68. MiniBeeFollowMe™  products,  the  gesture  recognition  sensebuds  on  the  exterior   The   second   solution   is   a   refactoring   of   the   geneware   that   produce   the   gesture   surface   of   the   Baby   Bjorn   Boa   Bot™   are   expressing   attributes   of   nominal   pre-­ engineered  prey-­reaction  behaviors  that  should  have  coded  out  during  the  exotic   produce   a   more   accurate   gesture   recognition   of   sleep   state   versus   feeding   state.   This  second  solution  would  require  current  owners  to  download  a  geneware  update   obfuscated   hex   pointers   to   *code   that   our   engineering   teams   cannot   identify   as   and  quick-­grow  the  patch  at  home.  The  patch  can  be  applied  to  the  bio-­blanket  by   theirs*.   This   is   particularly   concerning.   Put   simply:   It   appears   that   the   gesture   recognition  methods  have  mutated  or  rewritten  themselves  insitu. remediation  actions  described  are  enacted. legal  actions. CC:  @paolobacigalupi,  @greatdismal,  @bruces,  @doctorow RECOMMENDATIONS:  Customer-­facing  recommendations  entail  a  standard   rewrite  of  the  customer  service  script  for  agents  responding  to  incidents  in  this   HD  CONFIDENTIAL.  DO  NOT  RT. category.  We  would  recommend  transfering  these  incident  reports  and  all  inquiries   related  to  it  to  our  Duluth-­based  AgriGen  division  which  will  be  better  able  to  re-­ Julian  Bleecker spond  (either  with  mercenary  remediation  proactives  or  less  invasive  protocols)  to   WikiLeaks®™  LLC,  Nuku’alofa,  Tonga  015 All  Rights  Reserved for  almond-­soy  induced  hard  resets  should  normal  release  procedures  prove  inef-­ fective. the   genetic   precursors   that   will   produce   a   less   reactive   goat-­soy   milk   from   the   material.  That  solution,  though,  may  introduce  more  behaviorial,  repro,  and  gesture   recognition  code  mutation  anomolies  as  yet  unknown.136 137
  • 69. The curious habits described in this book can be seen as ingredients with which technological objects are domesticated by people, integrated into their own daily routines. Fixing strategies, nervous tics, device juggling or courtesy postures, to name just a few, are not only peculiar interaction habits, they reveal how people normalize so-called “futuristic technologies” or what seemed magical and complex at ﬁrst. They highlight the ingenuity users employ to repurpose and adapt digital technologies to their own context. One should see these insights as constant design patterns in the evolution of technological products and services. Our speculations about the future of digital gestures, either in the form of a text or ﬁlm, are not just meant to envision the “future” or the evolution of technology. They can also be seen as a “B-side” to future scenarios produced and promoted by high-tech companies. The “curious rituals” are really about the gaps and junctures glossy corporate videos on the “future of technology” do not reveal; possible alternative scenarios where some of these devices could be adopted, mis-used, re-appropriated. The questions we asked and the possible implications we arrived at on the project, should be relevant to anyone who is interested in envisioning the future. These are starting points, ﬁrst questions on how technology could be domesticated, repurposed, recycled in interesting ways outside normative technological discourse. In turn, we hope the answers we come across during the project would lead us to alternative paths not yet explored.138 139
  • 70. ICONS ENVIRONMENT Home Public / Car Everywhere TECHNOLOGY Smartphone Mobile phone Remote Sensor Video game Laptop controller AREA OF BODY Full body Face Upper body Arm Hand Lower body140 141
  • 71. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CREDITS Anne Burdick, Kevin Wingate, Julian Bleecker, Dan Hill, Phoebe Neidhardt, Project management: Nicolas NovaGerardo Macias, Ian Besler, Sangwoo Han, Jean-Pierre Greff, Alexandra Midal, Graphic design and illustration: Katherine MiyakeDaniel Sciboz, Lysianne Léchot-Hirt, Andréa Müller, Ramesh Srinivasan, Fabien Texts: Nicolas Nova, Walton Chiu, Nancy Kwon, Dan Hill & Julian Bleecker Girardin, Manuel Boutet, Jeffrey Huang Edit/Blog: Walton Chiu Curious Rituals was produced as part of a research residency in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
  • 72. This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.