001001110101111011101 – Databases / Meta-Narrative & Cultural Form

By | November 16, 2014

Finding cultural relevance in databases is no easy task, but the discovery (or implementation) of meta-narratives in databases has begun to give their aesthetics a cultural form. From questioning browsers such as internet explorer and netscape and how they provide web portals that are based on the format of the printed book, this new form explores databases aesthetics in a manner that questions how they should be operated and presented. It could be argued perhaps that this is a necessary first step in the design of digital infrastructures, allowing users time to adapt to new medium by utilising familiar interactions. It is the same reason that Apple designed an interface for the Ipad that makes the page ‘flip’ or ‘turn’ over, instead of just instantly providing the next screen. This allows the user to become comfortable using a digital device that in time, will and should develop methods of interaction that are more reflective of the technologies capabilities. This in turn begins to address the question of technology ethics.
 
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By hiding the true capacity of technology with clever and intuitive interfaces, designers and scientists will give users a dangerously immoral underestimation of their technologies capabilities. Every time a user is ‘surprised’ by a piece of technology, it shows how much is being completed in the field without public supervision and accountability. We as a society are responsible for the management and control of technology not only in an environmental sense, but also in a ‘humanity’ sense. This is perhaps one of the points address by database meta-narratives and cultural forms.

One thought on “001001110101111011101 – Databases / Meta-Narrative & Cultural Form

  1. shannon Post author

    Interesting discussion of skeuomorphic design. I’d be curious to hear more about the ethical and moral dimensions. Let’s talk about this in class.

    Reply

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