Invisible Interfaces

Bolter talks a lot about computer interfaces such as the Desktop (GUI) replacing command line interface and says that transparent immediacy has the goal of completely hiding the interface and allowing the viewer direct contact with the media.

“In this sense a transparent interface would be one that erases itself, so that the user is no longer aware of confronting a medium, but instead stands in an immediate relationship to the contents of that medium.” (Bolter, 2000, p.24) For those of us that have grown up with computers and digital media, the idea of an interface without icons, buttons or windows to navigate is quite strange and hard to imagine. We’ve grown so used to this interface we often forget it’s there. They have become second nature to us. That we have to learn how to use computers rather than have the innate ability to interact with them as we would objects in every day life, tells us that these interfaces are unnatural. “Nevertheless, the possibilities of the windowed style have probably not been fully explored and elaborated.” (Bolter, 2000, p.33)

However, technology is now at a stage where virtual reality is now becoming possible, where a person can become completely immersed in a virtual world that has little to no interface but is instead controlled by the body of the person using it. A good example of this is the Oculus Rift headpiece that allows you to see almost your full natural field of vision in the game you play, but also control where the camera points by turning your head to where you want to look instead of using an analogue controller.

As New Media exists solely on technology, we interact with it via interfaces. When one medium is represented in another, it’s called remediation (Bolter, 2000, p.45) so the same could be said of a painting given a digital form. Manovich calls this change from Old to New Media, transcoding (Manovich, 2002, p.63). We go from being able to interact with the physical object naturally to having to interact through an interface which is unnatural though as technology improves along with our understanding of it, that interface can be come transparent.

Bibliography
Bolter J.D, (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media New Ed. (MIT Press)
Manovich, L (2002) What is New Media and Principles of New Media from the Language of New Media (Cambridge, Mass :London MIT Press)