Category: 05

 (To) interface is a verb (I interface, you interface ...). The interface occurs, is action.

-Be gentle with your keyboard, after 70 years typewriting your fingers will appreciate it. 

-Change the keyboard settings to one that doesn't match the images printed on your keys. Once you get used to it, change again. 

-Do not click today.

 I find this to be most interesting because it fundamentally challenges my understanding of an interface. I have always thought of "interface" as something on FIGMA that the design team passes on to the front-end team to implement. It's something that's for sure comes to life from static pixels to interactive components of a live app, but I've never thought of the word as a verb. The level of familiarity that I have with having interfaces in every moment, every angle of my life, has made me forget that the word "interface" is not just a noun before "interface designer", it's what I interact with and what I need as I am typing down this particular letter. These are all interfaces, but I've forgot about their existence because of how they are well integrated in me.

Tenet 9. Can we make the invisible visible? The more present interfaces are in our lives, the less we perceive them.

• Don’t use emoticons: just send oral-spoken messages to say you hate it! “I’m blind cos I see images” (Mahmud Shabistari) (1>)(P)(W)(+c)
• How many times do you remember you’re shifting gears when driving? Speak the gear number loud every time you do it.(P)(1)(-c)
• Use your smartphone with your toe (or your tongue) https://vimeo.com/104791815 (A)(+c)(1>)

I found this tenet interesting because the pervasiveness of interfaces. Often times great video editing goes unnoticed because it allows the view to be engrossed in the video. By contrast, glaring discontinuities (bad jumpcuts, etc) are very easily noticed. I think interfaces are similarly invisible, and only really noticeable when you look for it. Something as simple as the way someone organizes their files or their IDE preferences are all invisible to us, till we go to someone else's computer. I think this tenet is interesting because it considers interfaces which are so universal, such as gear shifts.

Some other examples of invisible interfaces include literal interactions like Bluetooth and forks and knives and writing utensils. Other examples that support this tenet include checking out at a grocery store. While the latter example may be evolving due to COVID and self-checkout, the idea of a conveyor belt to move groceries four feet forward often goes unnoticed.

After reading the Critical Interface Manifesto by the Spanish HANGAR collective, I chose the following tenet:

La interfaz se da en el pliegue entre el espacio y el tiempo; es dispositivo y situación simultáneamente. Es render (actualiza condiciones pensadas) y emergencia (ensambla algo nuevo). The interface exists in the crease between space and time; it is a device and simultaneously a situation. It is rendered (updated under thoughtful conditions) and emergent (joining into something new).

• Try to delay your interaction with the interface by counting to 10 before clicking. Count to 100. Wait an hour, a day. (1+cH)

• Invite yourself to act and perform in a different way. Imagine a different gender, age, location, character, social position for 20 minutes every day. Review how the render changes. (1+cH)

• Delay answers, read twice, imagine impact. (1+cH)

I found this tenet particularly interesting, as it allowed me to reflect on what an interface is supposed to do, and envisioned this in the context of using the internet as the interface. With such advanced detection and adaptability in today’s modern search engine, the search engine interface tracks and adjusts to your typing behavior and sets up this world for you. The whole idea behind an interface is to bridge the gap between what is real and what isn’t real, and to make an interface that is invisible means adapting and adjusting perfectly to the user’s expectations; to create a fake and reality, like a simulation or situation.

I found this intersting in the line where it suggests and idea of performing in a different way, and seeing how the search engine reacts to that decision. I think it’s sometimes amusing how accurate and how observant the search engine could be, whether it recommends something which you just thought about or just looked over again a couple minutes after searching. As stated in the tenet, the interface is something which is rendered simultaneously, “off of thoughtful conditions”, where it adheres and transforms through time.

The idea behind “inviting” yourself to use the internet through the lenses and behavior in a different manner is an interesting yet creepy experiment I am interested on exploring. I want to find out to what extent can I transform my internet interface based off manipulating my age, gender, and social behavior?