Visceral Switch #1
VISCERAL SWITCH (#1, LIGHT)
“Automatism amounts to a closing-off, to a sort of functional self-sufficiency which exiles man to the irresponsibility of a mere spectator”
- Jean Baudrillard, System of Objects
To design an interface is to materialize a metaphor. I look around at my life with machines, and wonder, where has all the poetry gone?
1. We come to know the world through interacting with it. Physical senses play a crucial part in our formation of knowledge. Sometimes our bodies know things that our minds do not.
2. Our technologies are growing increasingly complex, sophisticated, “smart”. Our interactions with technology are becoming ever more dependent upon abstract, intellectual metaphor.
Visceral Switch #1 explores interaction within one of the most ubiquitous technological interactions: the light switch. Pull harder for brighter light. Pull longer for longer lasting light. Slow down a bit, throw your body into it, the rope can take it.
+ How can we make use of our body to better understand the functioning of the technologies we use?
+ How might embodied interactions enable alternative forms of narrative?
+ Might visceral, physical interactions better communicate the systemic impact of our actions?
Essay published in ITPBOOK2
More on the Visceral Light Switch workshop with 3rd graders.