Hacking P2 WdKA — Shailoh Phillips & Joana Chicau

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Agenda for today

Introducing concepts:

  • Inspecting and Intervening: phygital anatomies (aka physical and digital)
  • Anatomy as inspection and intervention
  • Introducing methods:

  • Inspecting the Inspection Tool
  • Tomorrow: Drawing Station Workshop — Joseph





  • Anatomy

    [Greek anatomē, "dissection"] @wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy

  • the study of the structure or internal workings of something. "a detailed anatomy of a society and its institutions"
  • the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, especially as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts."he studied physiology and anatomy"

  • the bodily structure of an organism
  • informal a person's body."every part of his anatomy hurt
  • synonyms: structure, make-up, composition, constitution, construction, layout, organization, arrangement, pattern, plan, mechanisms, framework, form, fabric 

  • synonyms: analysis, examination, inspection, survey, study, scrutiny, perusal.


  • Hacking

    Hacker: n. originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe.



  • To hack: to cut with heavy blows in an irregular or random fashion; to embarrass, annoy; to disconcert, confuse; to cope with, manage, accomplish; to tolerate, accept; to comprehend; to hesitate in speech; to stammer; to break into a computer system by hacking; to make a hack of, to put to indiscriminate or promiscuous use; to make common, vulgar, or stale, by such treatment; to cut or chop up or into pieces, to chop off; to make a clever, benign, and ethical prank or practical joke. Continue reading here.



  • Inspecting and Intervening

    "(to) observe the (relational) conditions of techno-ecologies"— Donna Haraway, Modest Witness: Feminist Diffractions in Science Studies. In:TheDisunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power. Ed. by Peter Galison and David J. Stump. 1996, pp.428-442

    Modes of inspection: observing, noticing and intervening:

  • To See – A baby sees. Whoever has an instrument such as eyes, perceives the three-dimensional world through them.
  • To Look – Apparently, he/she begins to notice phenomena, and to distinguish between them, and it is reflected in his/her eyes. (focus)
  • To Watch –If it were up to me, I would have written point-of-viewing. The brains begin to organize one’s sight.
  • To Observe – This is the ultimate level, in which sight becomes intelligence, an ordered and lucid internal knowledge.
  • To View – (by spectators), on the other hand, is a way of looking that involves a threat, an expectation...
    Source: Noa Eshkol, In Her Words
  • What if you would inspect with other senses? What if the eyes are distributed, and all senses come back to touch?



    The inspection tools are also interfaces with its own affordances:






    Affordances

    In 1977, the Psychologist James Gibson coined the term “affordance” which refers to all action possibilities depending on ‘users’ physical capabilities. This means the ways in which you can interact with something. So, a chair not only “affords” being “sat on,” but also “thrown,” “stood on,” etc.

    About a decade later Don Norman released (1988) a book, called The Design of Everyday Things, affordances became defined as perceivable action possibilities—i.e., only actions users consider possible. Thus, an object’s affordances depend on users’ physical capabilities and their goals and past experiences. A chair only affords “sitting,” because past experience supports that action. Don Norman’s definition of affordances as perceivable action possibilities soon became the predominant one in HCI and UX design. Note how the concept shrunk, from all possibilities to only perceived ones.

    Affordances are both real, objective and relative to the animal. This concept can explain a lot and is a way of looking at the distribution of power and privilege. Although a door may be openable, it may not be for someone who is differently abled. The door is openable with the aid of a wheelchair and someone holding the door open.

    "...an affordance is neither an objective property nor a subjective property; or it is both if you like. An affordance cuts across the dichotomy of subjective-objective and helps us to understand its inadequacy. It is equally a fact of the environment and a fact of behavior. It is both physical and psychical, yet neither. An affordance points both ways, to the environment and to the observer." ― James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: Classic Edition






    Interfaces

    "The phenomenon of the interface appeared when the concept of a unified world gradually developed into the concept of a world that was at least a duality."[The English noun “interface” dates from 1882; the verb “to interface” from 1962; the adjective “interfacial”(crystallography) from 1837].

    Interface between user and usability

  • TUI: text editor (Vim)
  • GUI: Graphic User Interface (Ubuntu Desktop)
  • Fluid Interfaces (...expanded/ hybrid...)
  • "Interfaces are not things, but rather processes that effect a result of whatever kind. For this reason I will be speaking not so much about particular inter­face objects (screens, keyboards), but interface effects." (..) "it is also quite common to understand interfaces less as a surface but as a doorway or window (...) an interface is not something that appears before you but rather is a gateway that opens up and allows passage to some place beyond."Galloway: Interface Effect

    Interfacing: interface as action

  • Language as interface
  • Body as interface
  • Interface between the technical and the cultural
  • Interface as an “onion”: "The interface is an "agitation" or generative friction between different formats. In computer science, this happens very literally; an "interface" is the name given to the way in which one glob of code can interact with another. Since any given format finds its identity merely in the fact that it is a container for another format, the concept of interface and medium quickly collapse into one and the same thing." — Media vs Interface / Marshall McLuhan vs A. Galloway

    "Norman Rockwell Triple Self Portrait, 1972"






    Anatomy

    (Greek anatomē, "dissection"/ cut up, cut open) is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. (...)

    Categorization:

    "Anatomy is a branch of natural science which deals with the structural organization of living things." — Merriam Webster Dictionary

    "Hacking advocates: the need to examine the ideas we use to organize knowledge and inquiry, and to propose, advocate, or refute theories of knowledge." Footnote: Hacking. Historical Ontology; Source: Elegant Anatomy, The Eighteenth-Century Leiden Anatomical Collections. Marieke M. A. Hendriksen (2015)

    Tools of anatomy: looking beyond

  • From dissecting (cutting tools) to x-ray.
  • The violence and invasion.
  • Inspect the Inspection Tool

    Individual:

  • 05 min — place the object in front of you; open and close your eyes like 'flashes', repeat this exercise from 3 different viewpoints;
  • 10 min — find a confortable position in relation to the object; close your eyes: use tactile movements, feel beyond the shape: the temperature, sounds, dimensions, compare its properties with the ones of your own body; change again the position of your body (altering possible trajectories); be aware of the negative space and how the objects relates to its surroundings.
  • 10 min — describe the object from your point of view; what are its performative qualities and affordances; in which context can it be used? how can you use it as an inspection / intervention tool?
  • 10 min — describe the object from the point of view of the object; build a small glossary for the object — "as if it would speak and have a language of its own"; you can look into references and find "members of the same family";
  • 05 min — reflect: make notes on the different processes/ procedures it allows you to undertake; what methods of observation and annotation did you use? is there an alternative to them?


  • 15 min — swap objects: repeat the individual exercise;
  • In a group:

  • present — what / why did you bring that 'inspection tool'?
  • discuss — what are the differences between your 'inspection tools'?
  • share — what annotations methods did you use to inspect your 'inspection tool'?




  • NEXT: Joseph - - - > anatomical drawing lessons > more observational exercises!