I had an interesting discussion with Miles today about what the feeling of being online. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because of my self-surveillance project that snaps a picture of my desktop every 15 minutes on all 3 of my screens if they are active (and sometimes my iPhone too, though that is not automatic). I've now collected close to 500 screenshots and looking at them in a fast (10 screenshots/second) sequence it doesn't even get close to the feeling of being online. I'm going to investigate varying the duration of each frame by random amounts and see how that changes things. I've added a bit of blur to the movie for privacy but here is what the movie for one my screens looks like for now:
226 screenshots (test) from Maria Lantin on Vimeo.
The feeling of being online is hard to describe. It's not embodied but it can feel vast and rich. It sometimes feels social but sometimes anxious. Much of my time is spent processing the information that is coming at me (the social network as recommendation engine). Making decisions about this information seems to be the source of a low grade anxiety stemming from a reluctance to spend time and the fear of missing out (FOMO). There are moments of relaxation into a time commitment such as watching a show, scanning family albums, or programming an application. There are quick smiles like interesting pictures in twitter. There are lots of interruptions, little blips and popups. Email anxiety is never far but seems to ebb and flow depending on time of day and how much the physical world needs my attention. There is a both a satisfaction to answering email and an anxiety about the conversation progressing too quickly from there. There are moments of boredom when there is not enough will to separate from the online but not enough interest to continue (the feed has slowed and the stand-bys are exhausted). There is definitely a feeling of being in the flow of information but it is usually interrupted by having to click or type which brings me back to the screen. A bit like being into a novel and someone asking you a question about work.
The more I think about it the more the rhythm seems to be important. I'll see about adding different timings. I also thought about doing a character recognition scan which would give me a data set to maybe assign an emotional 'score' to an image (many of my screenshots are mostly text). Either way I'd like to play around with adding an emotional curve which can then be mapped the lung breathing pattern.
A song for this post.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
It is interesting how when taken in rapid succession there is a feeling of schizophrenia. Unlike the typical aesthetic of going to work sitting down and setting up there is the frantic world that exists within the screen.
ReplyDeleteI feel like speaking in monosyllables when watching as there is so much going on with no resolve.