Week 2 Readings: Manovich, Bush, Engelbart
The American Heritage Dictionary defines an interface as ?the point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as a printer or human operator? or, ?the layout of an application?s graphic or textual controls in conjunction with the way the application responds to user activity.? In very simple terms, the interface is the screen that separates the user from the inner workings of the computer. Manovich (2001) brands the interface as a code used to carry cultural messages, a transport mechanism. In what he calls the ?non-transparency of the code,? Manovich argues the interface becomes part of the message. Much like Marshall McLuhan?s idea that the medium is the message, ?the interface shapes how the computer user conceives of the computer itself. It also determines how users think of any media object accessed via a computer. Stripping different media of their original distinctions, the interface imposes its own logic on them? (p. 76, pdf version).
As interfaces change, so do our responses to them. To remember what a typical cultural interface looked like in the late 1990s, Manovich suggests going back in time to a random Web page. Take, for example, ncsu.edu. In 1997, as Manovich would have predicted, text dominated the site. By 2002, the site added some additional images and a list of news headlines, but it was still more like a newspaper than a Web site. The 2008 version of ncsu.edu allows users to view a new television commercial featuring the school, watch other videos, connect to its YouTube site, launch a campus tour and subscribe to text message alerts. Users demanded increased function and the school eventually complied. There is finally original content, inviting its users to stay awhile. Although far from perfect, this new version actually looks like someone with a degree in computer science built it.
Understanding the interface as the screen between the user and the machine, the database is what lies behind the screen. Manovich contrasts the database to the narrative, the linear path a story follows (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back). The database, conversely, is the entire history of their relationship broken into small segments. There is no pre-determined path for a database to follow; the segments just exist, ready to for the user to group them in any way he desires. Narratives rely on the database to recall the story. ?The ?user? of a narrative is traversing a database, following links between its records as established by the database?s creator,? writes Manovich (p. 200, pdf version). A user randomly accessing data, however, does not automatically create a narrative. ?More precisely, a database can support narrative, but there is nothing in the logic of the medium itself which would foster its generation? (p. 201, pdf version). Manovich illustrates the idea using common computer software. In the case of the Pro Tools audio editing program, the user begins with all the audio contained on the machine at her disposal (the database). As she works through the session, she assembles specific files to form a finished product (the narrative).
The question posed by Bush (1945) is how to manage this growing knowledge database. He proposes the concept of a memex, a futuristic mechanized system that stores a person?s knowledge and research library on microfilm. Engelbart (1962) applies this model to a series of index cards, containing facts rather than complete volumes. This system is not unlike what I used to write my first research paper in high school English. As you read an article, write each piece of useful information (a quotation, statistic, etc.) onto an index card. There will be an index card for the article itself, so the secondary card will only need the source number. Take all the index cards, arrange them into main and supporting points, and the paper comes together. While this still works, the thought of writing out all this information on an index card is incredibly tedious. We now save download articles as PDFs onto our personal computers. Cool kids like Jordan make notes right in the PDF using Abode Acrobat. Others just create a document, type in the source citation and copy and paste relevant text, easily moving our now virtual index cards within the document. Indeed, as Engelbart worked through his notedeck system he realized he did not have the capability to label the index cards precisely enough to be useful. By the time he (or some other researcher) would be able to perfect the system, he predicted the computer would replace the index card (p. 102).
The memex and notedeck systems also work largely on an individual basis, failing to make the collective body of knowledge more accessible. ?The difficulty seems to be,? writes Bush, ?not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present-day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record? (p. 36). To keep updated on our individual fields of interests, we now subscribe to listservs like CRTNET from the National Communication Association, RSS feeds from the New York Times or Wired and podcasts of ?On the Media.? While we may not take the time to actually read or listen to the information, we at least get the chance to skim headlines and save them for possible future reference.