Interface e Mobilidade
Reproduzo abaixo algumas duas citações do Lev Manovich sobre interface e objetos na era da computação ubíqua e das tecnologias móveis. Temos explorado muito essas questões nesse Carnet e em últimos artigos. Trata-se de constiituição de todos os objetos como “computadores”, ou seja, com capacidade comunicacional de trocas de informações as mais diversas (sensor, localização, conteúdo…). Os trechos vêm do artigo “Friendly Alien: Object and Interface (2006)” e foi tirado do blog Taming the spaces. Destaco essas citações já que vejo nelas relações com discussões que travei em alguns artigos, e com as que tenho feito também nesse Carnet (indico aqui três artigos que escrevi, em tempos diferentes, sobre “interface”, “era da conexão e mobilidade” e “mídia locativa”).
Abaixo as citações do Lev Manovich:
“(…) cell phones, PDAs, portable game players, portable music players, portable video players all contain interfaces – most often a screen for output and input and a few buttons, and sometimes also a trackwheel, or a small built-in keyboard. And behind the screen lives a whole separate world with its logic, aesthetics, and dynamics. And when this electronic screen and the world it presents to us ends (I am talking about the physical boundary of the screen), this creates visual and psychological feeling of discontinuity. Suddenly we are in a different world – that of non-interactive, ‘dead’ surfaces which enclose the screen. And typically the design of these surfaces does not have much to do with the design of the screen interface.
(…) as computation becomes incorporated in our lived environment (the trend which is described by such terms as ‘ubiquitous computing,’ ‘pervasive computing,’ ‘ambient intelligence,’ ‘context-aware environments,’ ‘smart objects’) the interfaces slowly leave the realm where they safely lived for a few decades – that is, stand-alone computers and electronics devices – and start appearing in all kinds of objects and on all kinds of surfaces, be it interior walls, furniture, benches, bags, clothing, and so on. Consequently, the forms of all these objects that previously lived ‘outside of information’ now have to address the likely presence of interfaces somewhere on them. This does not mean that from now on ‘form follows interface.’ Rather, a physical form and an interface have to learn how to accommodate each other. Beyond the traditional requirements that the material forms have to satisfy – a chair has to be comfortable for sitting, for example – their design is now being shaped by new requirements.
In short, today the interface and the material object that supports it still seem to come from different worlds. The interface is a ‘friendly alien’ but it is still the alien. The task of rethinking both interface and objects together so they can be fused into a new unity is not an easy one and it will require lots of work and imagination before aesthetically satisfying solutions will be find.
The surface of an object can become both an output and input media, bringing together the physical and the screen-like – form and information – in surprising ways.”