Comments on Hiding in Plain Sight: An Interview with Adam Greenfield

Valerie Gomez de la Torre — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:41 GMT

John Emerson — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:36 GMT

This is great. I can’t wait to see the book. Much of the history of Western aesthetics is movement towards increasingly total mimesis, moving towards ever finer simulations of reality in our artwork, film, games, and other vehicles of experience and narrative. This seems to be opposite the trend of what Adam describes. Whereas we had been increasingly bringing reality to our representations, we are now at a point of dissolving artifice into our reality. To borrow a phrase, “turning virtual reality inside-out.”

Rather than opposed, though, these seem to be flip sides of the same coin. That is, making the world conform to our interpretations of it, bending it to and increasingly aware of our assumptions and desires—ours, and those that have been manufactured for us.

Livia Labate — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:35 GMT

I was walking home from work today and called someone on my mobile; I looked around and counted 12 other people doing the same. I was having a conversation about my childhood and it occured to me that the thought of people walking around talking wirelessly to people who were not physicaly present sounded pretty absurd back then.

People are adaptive, specialy when the value of the activity enabled by a new technology is beneficial or perceived as such. Technology itself is disruptive; it imposes a behavioral change (you did things X way, now you need to do it Y way). It imposes a number of new ways/means/tactics that we’re willing to put up with so we can take advantage of what it delivers.

The amount of annoyance one is willing to put up with to adopt a new technology to perform the same activity with marginal benefit is what we call a tool’s ‘learning curve’. That’s where the power of everyware lies (or at least one of it’s many advantages). It brings to front all that potential (enabled by new technology), but behind the familiar facade of the environment you already live in and are familiar with. There is no perceived ‘acceptable’ nuisances to endure in order to harvest the benefits of the new technology. It feels natural. It allows for a (simingly) slow/gradual (and yet quite immediate) transition into an unfamiliar activity.

I wasn’t used to walking around on the street and talking into a hands-free bluetooth device until six weeks ago. I didn’t have a mobile until last year. I don’t even think about it now, it’s just “there”. That’s a damn fast adoption to a new technology in my mind – and most people wouldn’t even consider this particular example “everyware” – you can only wonder how powerful real everyware adoption can be.

David Heller — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:35 GMT

Well, to talk advantage of this moment, I’d like to announce that Adam will be speaking at the very next IxDA even in New York City on Thursday, March 9, @ 6:30p.

Adam Greenfield Discusses Ubiquitous Computing

From smart buildings that subtly adapt to the changing flow of visitors, to gesture-based interfaces like the ones seen in Minority Report, computing no longer looks much like it used to. Increasingly invisible but present everywhere in our lives, computing has moved off the desktop and out into everyday life–affecting almost every one of us. In this talk, Greenfield will explain how such “information processing dissolving in behavior” is reshaping our lives.

EVENT DETAILS
When: Thursday, March 9, 2006, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Where: Parsons Design Lab 55 W. 13th St. on the 9th Floor
(map info: http://tinyurl.com/b26u2 )

All are welcome!

RSVP
Please send a message to nyc (at) ixda (dot) org to let us know you are coming. Walk-ins are definitely welcome if space is available.

Interaciton Design Association: IxDA
For more information about IxDA, please go to http://ixda.org

matt schick — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:35 GMT

The idea of being constantly “on” intrigues me: If an entire community is constantly on, couldn’t that lead to more real and true relationships between people by exposing their true selves to eachother? It would be a paradigm shift in personal relationships, but perhaps one for the better.