In her launch of this dialogue, Mariana started with the experience of Paul Miller in living a year without using the internet.
I was haunted by that blank face of his as the busy world (is that New York City?) passed by him; he was the only one standing slow. He was in limbo.
Because I pay a lot of attention to the visual design of sites and movies, I am first drawn to two interstitial sequences that depict our interaction with the devices most of us carry. The stereotypical ones are not surprising, busy urban locations and images of many people focused entirely on their devices.
But a later sequence did an interesting flip- it showed from the devices perspective, the blank faces of people staring at the screen. This is what we look like?
The humans all look catatonic. Where is their interaction? Their laughter? The devices are feeding them streams of the human condition, why do their souls looks so under nourished?
When in public I sneak observe the faces of people looking at their mobile devices. Fingers swiping, or tapping, I rarely seen an emotion, maybe just a sly smirk.
I ran this as a Daily Challenge for The You Show, with not too many responses. Well I made one (because I made the site)
"Ding Ding" what my mobile phone sees https://t.co/EUnr5oS0uh @YouShow15 #ysdaily37
— Alan Levine (@cogdog) February 19, 2015
Like a mirror (black?) these screens see our faces all the time. We have a different intent when we set the camera to aim at ourself, when making a selfie. What if the device could send us images of how we look when engaged in games or messages or email or whatever else people do on their devices? What would we learn if we saw ourselves the way the machines might see us?
