← Project Proposal 0.2
What are you working on now?
Static site generator systems, cross publishing scripts, gathering reference texts for thesis writing, and developing notions of adverserial design.
What are you thinking of making?
I want my thesis to be a place in which and from which I can draw vocabulary. I have concluded on many shaping aspects of my practice, practical and ethical decisions that could be well served by giving them names. A scaffolding or hypertext attitude to my own work.
How do you plan to make it?
I still have lot of reading to get through. I believe there are many litterary and academic references that I can draw upon to develop the themes of my research. From there, I will borrow notions I want to comment on, and develop my own named ideas, as mentionned above. Meanwhile, an important procedure will be the one of finding and using the right mode of address. The golden example here is Sebastian Deterding's talk called "What your design says about you". The topic is on point here, but what I want to look at in more detail is how he manages to not position himelf as moralistic in this talk, but just the one that exposes questions.
Why do you want to make it?
Because it is time that I start making myself understood. A lot of my peers still are unsure of what my frustrations are, and why they are fueling my research. I have been to vague and or too broad in my talkins up to now. Maybe a bit too varied too. Secondarely, I still believe that the points I will be arguing for are in the better interest of groups, as supposed to individuals or private groups. Largely speaking I will be advocating for more knowledge sharing rather than the service attitude.
Who can help you and how?
After some work, I will need readers and listeners, of course. I will also try and get as varied a group of readers involved in giving me feedback. I do mean these themes to address everyday computer users, whether they identify as those or not. Family and friends, outside of the school network will be called upon.
Relation to previous practice & Relation to a larger context
I answered these two questions with a secondary text that states my position within these research topics, called Position.
Thesis Intention
The intention of the thesis will be to look at the notion of comfort within software environments. Software is one of the most common mediums for technology today.
Technology is typically seen as a problem-solver, and well-designed technology is supposed to follow an according aesthetic of efficiency, ease and—ultimately—automation.To Save Everything, Click Here — Evgeny Morozov, ch 9 An outline of what problems software technologies are attempting to solve will be made as a starting point, a list of examples, to use as themes and specifics. Secondarely, the thesis will aim to lace together an intution that I have that certain comfort strategies are put in place, and reused by software vendors to teach their users into a specific vendor method, rather than consider their technology to be part of a broader cultural practice, and therefor plan the working of their tools to work along with standards and interchangable knowledge. This will allow for chapters that will speak about interface language, modes of address, service prodiding, the shift from programs to apps, the conseqences of 'intuitive' interfaces, as well as looking at the issues with productivity, efficency. Finally, the thesis should and will be a place for me to suggest solutions, in a theoretical realm of writing first, but hopefully leading to the graduation project. For this, the notions of Adverserial Design (Carl DiSalvo) will be the first part to explore. The examples set out by DiSalvo of adverserial design in industrial design will be extrapolated.
References
initial first fast list:
+ to save everything click here — Evgeny Morozov
+ Richard Sennett — The Craftsman
+ Terry Winograd & Fernando Flores — Understanding Computers and Cognition
+ Adverserial Design - Carl DiSalvo
+ Karen Barad — Meeting the universe Halfwayw
video list, modes of address examples:
Sebastian Deterding — What your designs say about you
Dr TJ McIntyre — Legal Questions in the Digital World
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