Connections: Archive Malleable Systems Collective Technology
BFA Thesis of Weiwei Hsu, CCA Interaction Design
Our conception of "computing" has changed and continues to change. This work identifies dimensions that constitute the "space of computing". While some dimensions are less recognizable than others, defining them is an essential undertaking because defining the scope of "computing space" is to understand past, present, and future of our technological advancements, what we've already done and what we've neglected.
There are threads of How to do Nothing in here, the idea that the space of possibilities is being limited artificially by the producers of modern computers and their rules. "more more more more more" attitude inherent in the current system of Software Engineering and mobile software.
Given the accelerating pace of change, the focus on timelines is understandable — all the more so, with the pressure for entrepreneurs, investors, and the press to identify the new, new thing. And yet, we have other options. We could, as Simon suggested, look at the space of possibilities.
Proposes a set of axes which software can be evaluated on:
- Consuming - Authoring
- Commanding - Conversational
- Momentary - Long-lasting
- Fixed - Flexible
- Peek into - Be inside
- Centralized - Distributed
- Analog - Digital
Very likely, readers imagine still more possible dimensions. And, in a way, that’s the point — to provoke a discussion about which dimensions are important, to ask: What do we value?
The goal here is to not box in thinking, but to blow it wide open, to cultivate a culture of Connectivity and Creativity: play.
There are "snake" diagrams proposed, evaluating multiple pieces of software plotted along these linear axes above
being able to compare two wildly different products along a set of common axes, not commonly evaluated seems like a great Mind Bending activity. You're forcing yourself to expand the spaces in which you think about each axes as you interlay different software within it. fun