A bit on calm technology
Hello!
I hope today is treating you as good as you're looking (wow!)
I'm fresh out of the Web à Québec conference. I myself presented, earlier on tuesday, about generative art! It was in French, and I believe the WAQ won't release recordings, so I might remake this talk in English at a later date.
On this last day, we had a wonderful opening keynote from Amber Case, on the topic of Calm Technology.
So I just wanted to quickly riff on Calm Technology principles – principles that open up interesting questions in how the digital world should be shaped to serve and empower the human side of people.
↑ Layers, 2019
You know, in these last months, I haven't been producing much new art. This newsletter's art has turned out a lot more exclusive than I thought!
A technology shouldn't require all of our attention. Only as little as needed, only when it's needed.
Like last time, the hammer is a timeless example of a tool that espouses this principle: Even while it's in your hand, what you're focused on is the nail and the wood, not the hammer. It's not invisible, but it's as unnoticed as it can afford to be.
Photo taking applications are relatively good at limiting the attention they command, too. Phone operating systems contribute to this, by offering very accessible shortcuts – often allowing us to start taking pictures while the phone is still technically locked. You pull it out, take a picture, put the phone back in your pocket. Nice!
On the other hand, to pick at a common example, in-car controls have been slipping downhill these last years, what with the growing love for turning everything into a touchscreen.
There's a good chance you've thought about this already. A physical, touchable control for something like air conditioning or music is a really great interface. You can interact with it while you keep your hand on the wheel and your eyes on the road.
Meanwhile, touchscreens are interfaces that ask for your eye and hand at all time during use. Bret Victor calls this a pictures under glass interaction, which I think is a great way to describe it.
Technology should respect that your primary task is not computing, but being human.
It's an interesting lens under which to evaluate the digital world. Even as we perform tasks such as playing browser games or liking pictures shared by others, the final goals are towards ourselves, the bumbling bits of flesh and feelings we are. We want to relate to others, to feel joy, to not feel alone when we're sad. We want to know we're physically safe and mentally okay.
Just how much content and how many publications are shoveled out on social media channels in the name of engagement? Those are machine words and machine measurements.
It's a bit of a conundrum. Just like the tools that simply make us efficient don't waste time boasting about making us efficient, the technologies that make us happy just leave us alone once we're happy. They don't spend time telling us to notice they made us feel better.
I have a hard time internalizing the idea that for something so important and so unmeasured, unmeasured is how it should probably be! Until we have some established happiness capital or currency, I presume.
Speaking of! Last week, I moved the Dispatch to Buttondown. Contrary to Substack, it allows me to completely disable read receipts in these emails, which I appreciate. It feels much less dissonant for writing what I write on here.
(Substack still has my deep gratitude for allowing me to get this writing habit started at all!)
🖤 Loved lately
When the lyrics aren't coming, they're coming. A great short letter by Nick Cave – that Nick Cave – on creativity and the unplannable, unschedulable process that leads to creation.
Tools for better thinking – A collection of tools and techniques for understanding problems and taking potentially complex decisions. Each is concise, and useful!
Stephen Mangiat's visual art is breathtaking, and feels like staring at a wood fire: captivating, complex, and meditative.
https://twitter.com/smangiat/status/1369824806233731073