What is a default interface ?
- What is the origin of this text
?
Almost unrecognizable, the Default Aesthetic can sometimes be a bit
disarming for the user. Its simplicity may even be interpreted as
an error and its content ignored. The Default Aesthetic is a product
of the Internet and the Human-Computer Interface. The artist's collective
Téléférique, which I’ve been a part of for three years, experiments
with a default aesthetic on its web site. This text refers to http://www.teleferique.org
and ftp://ftp.teleferique.org
as examples. The Default Aesthetic is less about an author or his
or her work than a collective idea, a context for working and living
on the Web. Our interface lacks design. It wasn’t conceived by a designer,
nor a human for that matter, but generated by a computer program.
In computer jargon, " By default " refers to parameters defined when
a computer program is launched, before the user has a chance to modify
it. At start-up, the display is initialized by default2. Its appearance
is defined by the program, which allows one to see the site. In French,
" Défaut " comes from the old French " défaute", " défaillir " which
means " to lack ", " to be missing ". In this definition, something
that lacks rules or a belief system is beautiful or successful, a
beauty by absence.
- Init interface
A site always begins with the transfering of a file onto a server
with the help of an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol), which is
used to place the file in the correct directory. Although every site
on the Web uses a branching structure of folders containing files,
it is usually hidden from the user. Téléférique has chosen
to show it. Our site gives access to a distant computer, usable by
the members of our collective and visible to everyone on the Web.
Connecting from any point on the planet involves scanning the micro-architecture
of the hard-drive of our server located somewhere in the Parisian
suburbs. One can see folders and the files they contain as well as
the date of their creation, their size and maybe a short description.
Connecting for the first time, those folders might remind you of your
first experience with a computer or your first Internet connection.
Who hasn’t gotten all excited upon turning on a computer and clicking
on a folder for the first time. The world of the computer is for the
initiated. Humans must get initiated with computers. Computers are
initialized by humans. But if a human forgets something or makes a
mistake, the computer corrects this automatically. The default interface3
can be considered a voluntary memory. We haven’t made a home page
in the form of a book with the cover ripped off. One has direct access
to the contents. Lacking a home page imbued with human intentions,
display is relegated to the program.
- Interface and Interback
A comparison can be made between the Default Aesthetic and a no man's
land. Reassuring like a handrail at the edge of a precipice, disturbing
like an administrative beauraucracy, such an interface puts the user
and the machine back to back, "interback" rather than interface. An
interface brings humans and machines closer, facilitating communication,
whereas "interback" distances them. The machine shows its ass, a simple
yet troubling gesture, which destabilizes the adversary. After a while,
the user starts to find his bearings. He takes notice of what has
changed and what has not from one visit to the next. Everything becomes
tangible, localized by an address (URL4 or IP) but from one second
to the next everything can change, files moved, renamed or erased.
It's not a big problem if one has made copies of everything. Luckily,
back-ups are always possible. Human relationships are much more complex
and rich but we can't reboot when we have a system error.
Art vs. Design
- The monopoly of design
Ten years after the Internet made its public debut via the Web, the
creation of interface has become the indisputable realm of graphic
designers (even in art schools). Fancy graphic page design tends to
hide the deep rhizomatic structure of the Net. By abandoning this
superficial layer, the default interface allows the machine to become
manifest, producing its own cultural codes (the representaion of memory,
time and hierarchy). Upon analysis, the graphical design monopoly
is problematic. Architects, better than anyone could design a web
site if one considers the architectural nature of the branching structure.
Industrial designers seem more competant for the job considering that
ergonomy is central to their work. Fabric designers might understand
computers better than anyone given the historical link with the Jacquard
loom.
Téléférique is a collective work. Several people participated
in its construction and insure its evolution. You will not see a hegemonic
graphical component but rather an overall Default Aesthetic. Such
an interface is relaxing in that it breaks with the notion of originality,
which depends on fashions and technological advances. On the other
hand, the question is not to prohibit graphic design on our server.
Locally, anyone can choose an aesthetic in the directory in which
his or her work resides. For marketing reasons, institutions, galleries
and even artists systematically team up with graphic designers to
pretty-up their work for a catalog or the creation of a Web site.
Hostages in a hostile marketing environment, we have decided to fight
back. Following the example of astromomers who have become active
to fight against light pollution in Western societies which prevents
them from observing the stars in the night sky, the Default Asethetic
defines an ecological framework in an oversaturated communications
environment. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,“The sky is the ultimate
art gallery just above us”. Without a doubt, this applies to the Internet
and information in general. Advertising pollutes information. Creating
a new site becomes more and more problematic because we are already
so bombarded with information. We are creating an information immune
system.
- Our paths separate
The relationship between contemporary art and applied arts is evolving.
Artists and designers seem to be inversing their respective skills
and zones of influence. They are mixing rather than merging. While
more and more designers are being shown in museums and galleries,
artists are infiltrating daily life in a quest for anonymity. Design,
once the realm of the everyday object is beginning to infiltrate the
neutral space of the exhibition. This change of context has allowed
many young designers to claim a new identity as author. Instead of
daily objects they propose models (limited series, prototypes), lifestyles
and trends. This has led certain artists to abruptly leave the exhibition
space all together in the wake of its transformation from autonomous
critical space to insidious marketing tool. Or never really showing
there in the first place, which is my case. I've decided to occupy
the space of the Internet. All I had to do was open the door and I
was instantaneously there. In contrast to a proprietary "multimedia"
interface, Macromedia Flash, for example, (599 euros as of July 10,
2002), a default interface is free. By default, information travels
freely on Internet for everyone's profit and not just a select few.
We are not poor. On the contrary we're rich without possessing anything.
The necessary tools are freely accessible by everyone (public domain,
GPL licence, Copyleft) even those allowing one to do e-commerce! Most
of them are open-source, meaning that they can be modified by anyone.
- The aesthetic of use
Design's warm welcome into the exhibition space has been made possible
by the transformation of art museums into cultural spaces. Marketing
and communication have become mainstays for the art museum. In the
1960s, one questioned why Parisian museums were empty. The advent
of Beaubourg has opened art to mass audiences as well as opened it
to include displines like design, dance and the cinema. The neutral
white-walled exhibition space has become more politically active even
in its marketing. If art, design and marketing have become more and
more intertwined, are their intentions really the same? Do art, design
and marketing use the aesthetic in the same way, with the same goals.
Interviewed in Art Press (July 2001), M/M, the graphic designers of
the art space le Palais de Tokyo, claimed to be more artist than the
artists they were in charge of doing the communication for. Maybe
it's a question of strategy, positing an artist-designer relationship
based on collaboration rather than sub-contracting. If in fact one
can speak of collaboration, they don't use the aesthetic in the same
way. For a designer he aesthetic is a means and for the artist it’s
the end result. The lines between design and marketing are becoming
ever more blurred. They propose concommitant services. In No logo,
Naomi Klein describes new marketing and branding strategies based
on the image rather than products: abstraction of the brand as image
at the expense of the object, conceptual added value, shopping space
as "experience" (IKEA), viral marketing (Starbucks). The products
are no longer important. Design and marketing overlap but don't use
communication in the same way. Marketing uses it as a means whereas
the designer uses it as a goal.
Programming default interface
- Machine Language
Computer programs generate a default interface. A programmer writes
the program, using code5. He writes text in machine language
that is interpreted by the machine.
Code is machine language like French is the spoken language in France.
The coder speaks the same language as the machine. The default interface
is often text-based by default. Text is more easily manipulated than
images and also travels much more quickly over the Internet. In the
default interface one can find traces of the programmer but nothing
really personal or subjective (neuroses or libidinal impulses) but
rather a wider distinction common to the community of artisans of
information and networks. "Artisans" makes me think of the word hacker,
the origin of which means someone who makes furniture with an axe.
Anti-design! The artisan, the hacker and the artist are all free-lance,
which allows them to preserve a certain amount of autonomy.
- Playing god
Skimming through computer jargon dictionaries one finds two terms
that can be assimilated to "by default": "canonical"6 and
"vanilla". Canonical historically means “according to religious law'”.
This religious reference may be ironic but this analogy is justified.
The coder's activity, giving instructions to the machine, is a process
of transforming words into actions. In almost all computer language
how-tos the first excercise is the same - write a program which outputs
"Hello world"! For Christians, the verb is defined as the word of
God. The Old Testament states: "By the words of Yahvé the skies are
created". Programming is like playing God. As an example, here's a
simple program, a counter that outputs numbers from 1 to infinity:
// in pseudo code the syntax is like :
i=0 // counter initialization to 0
loop: // creation of a loop
print i // counter displayed on screen
i=i+1 // counter incremented
goto loop // back to loop
// in C standard, the instructions take one line :
for(i=0;;i++) printf("%d ",i);
One line of code suffices to generate an endless process. About as
interesting as spinning round in a square room, I admit. The French
word for computer, ordinateur, also has religious overtones.
The person who introduced this word into the French language, Yves
Perret, justified his choice as follows: In the dictionary Littré,
"Ordinateur" is an adjective designating God as He who gives the world
order.
Recent object-oriented languages like C++ and Java, which appeared
in the1990s, reinforce the reification of computer code, accentuating
its materiality. Object-oriented languages consider each problem as
a class from which objects are created as instances. Object-oriented
languages allow you to manipulate a concept as an object (Platonic
philosophy). Each problem to be resolved becomes an object. For example,
Eat with hands is a class, which has methods (to shock grandma,
to amaze grandpa) and properties (speed of gesture, gross-out level).
MOOs (Mud-oriented Object) are role-playing text-based multi-user
spaces on Internet that use the same logic of manipulating text objects
to create virtual worlds. Say I want to create a sled. If I want it
to be red the other users will read that it is red. If a user puts
my sled in another part of the game space, it will no longer be in
its original location. The world opens up just by using words, without
moving, sitting quietly in an armchair in front of a screen.
- Vanilla flavored
The other synonym for "by default" is vanilla7 flavored,
vanilla being America's favorite ice cream flavor, the default flavor.
A vanilla program is a basic version without options like flashy buttons
and menus. The American way of life and the standardization of taste
are significative of Western culture and its capacity via language
to unite and homogenize cultures. Programming languages are all written
in English and originate in the United States. Instructions like Printf
or the operators like if..then, switch, while,
common to numerous computer langages are terms used daily by programmers
all over the world on their personal computers. Computer code has
become an international language like English and on a more fundamental
level, the alphabet. Vanilla is to taste what programming is to language,
standardisation. For Marshall MacLuhen in Understanding media,
the Western phonetic alphabet which is used to speak many different
languages using the same set of signs constitues a technique of uniformisation:
"Civilization is built on literacy because literacy is a uniform processing
of a culture by a visual sense extended in space and time by the alphabet."
But English, as communication protocol between humans, and code, as
communication protocol between humans and hardware, are used in different
contexts. English is employed for the globalization of international
exchanges while computer code (any programming language) allows private
individuals to share the same interests, peer to peer. English can
optimize the mergers of multinational companies while programming
has been used to create a new operating system, which is free and
not motivated by the rationalization of work and time (Linux). Vanilla
brings to mind an old-fashioned dessert, modest but still delicious,
a pleasant moment to share with friends, an elegance also embodied
in the default interface.
- Spiritual and rational
Should vanilla and canonical be thought of as ironic
allusions to puritanical America, Christian fundamentalism being an
extreme example? Despite the logical rigor necessary for programming,
the vernacular language of coders is ripe with spiritual word play.
Is it the rational rigor that makes programmers go a bit nuts. Logic
pushed to its extreme limits often gives rise to impossible situations
and uncanny worlds. According to Eric S. Raymond, the science-fiction
that hackers love is a mixture of rationality and magic. Pierre Versins
the author of the Encyclopedia of Utopia, from science-fiction
to extrodinary voyages calls science-fiction "romanesque rational
conjecture". It's no accident that hackers are fascinated by Escher's
perspective tricks. It can be assimilated to doctors who love Dali's
images because they are full of the sick and the damned.
The Default Aesthetic represents a simple and light-handed response
to a complex world. A default solution is a quick one. The Default
Aesthetic looks serious but hides a gambler spirit. The Interface
is initialized by default like the begining of a game. A game in which
programs can be thought of as artists and search engines as excellent
curators.
The Default Aesthetic
- My little bureaucracy
Everyone is already familiar with default interfaces without actually
knowing it. Every computer and operating system in the galaxy (Mac,
Windows, Unix) uses them. Your computer uses the desktop metaphor,
representing information as files within folders. Every computer is
a little bureaucracy. This omnipresent metaphor resonates differently
in different cultures, religions and ideologies. Imagine the Dalaï-lama
checking his e-mail. Would the Default Aesthetic be Zen for a Buddhist,
austere for a Christian, in accordance with the Islamic Sharia? Many
daily activities are done by default. When you wash your hands in
a restaurant's bathroom, there is a default water temperature. Have
you noticed it's often freezing, so cold that often you end up not
washing your hands, by default? Have you ever woken up so late that
you get dressed in yesterday's clothes, by default; all day, you've
got to deal with yourself as you are by default, a certain no frills
beauty. It may seem insignificant but it's not, it represents a micro
protest, tiny but symbolic. Imagine that you select your children's
name by default, using the name of the Saint corresponding to his
or her birthday. This could become problematic in that if your boy
is born on the 4th of September his name is Rosalie.
- By default
and Ready-made
In the hands of an artist, the austere aspect of the Default Aesthetic
can take on the allures of functionalism, suprematism, minimalism
or conceptual art. But in fact there are no revolutionary or utopic
pretentions. "By default" is more ordinary, although we can link it
in some ways with Duchamp's ready-mades. Linguistically they are both
idioms, "by default" is used as an adverb and "ready-made" is used
here as a noun. An expression made up of a group of words, the idiom
is often ossified by tradition, making its appearance in language
by extension, by habit. In 1913, Duchamp borrowed the idea of "ready-made"
from everyday language to describe contemporary art and the way it
functions.
A default interface is "ready-chosen" rather than "ready-made". We
have installed our site and our server by carefully following the
technical manuals. I would distinguish "choosing an object as an artistic
act, an absence of making" and "setting up a server with default parameters,
an absence of choice". This refusal of choice is motivated by a rejection
of graphic design as the unique mode of existence for art on the Internet
and in a networked society. Upon trying to imagine a painting by default
I realized that it just didn't work. By deduction, I've decided that
the Default Aestetic is network-based. Painting is almost strictly
an individual art. Warhol and Basquiat made collective paintings,
but two people don’t really form a community. "Art and Language" made
some well-known group paintings but they seemed to be more about creating
a label, an identity than making a group painting. Martin Kippenberger's
paintings look like they were done by several people but in fact he
is alone.
- All in the same direction
Websites create human relationships because the Internet is group-oriented
by default. But the Default Aesthetic concerns the permanency of relations
between human beings and machines. We all look the same direction
toward the machine, rather than towards each other. All of our bodies
are hunched over a keyboard, facing a screen. But this doesn't necessarily
mean that we are slaves to computers. Think of a group of demonstrators
standing up to the government or to the G8. We turn our backs to interfaces
and yet become comfortable with programs. We now live among the machines.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the French prime minister, when speaking of
income tax stated recently "we shall put the cursor on the priorities
which (...) ", instead of the usual expression "we shall point at
the priorities which..." (26/08/2002). In other words, the government
apparatus becomes software. Wilèm Flusser in his book Towards a
Philosophy of Photography gives an interesting definition of apparatus
which conveys both machines and systems in general: « A toy that simulates
thought and is so complex that the person playing with it cannot comprehend
it; its game consists of combinations of symbols contained in its
program; while fully automated apparatuses have no need of human intervention,
many apparatuses require humans as players and functionaries. ».
[1] Designer : a person who creates and draws
plans for things, usu. beautiful objects: She is a great designer of women's
clothes (book covers, home interiors, etc.). The Newbury House Online
Dictionary
[2] Our Web
site is viewable with "mod_autoindex" module of Apache Web server.
This module provides for automatic directory indexing. Our FTP
is defined by the browser either Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla or any software
to browse Internet. E.Cliquet
[3] Interface : (physical chemistry) a surface
forming a common boundary between two things (two objects or liquids or
chemical phases) 2: (computer science) a program that controls a display
for the user (usually on a computer monitor) and that allows the user
to interact with the system [syn: {user interface}] 3: the overlap where
two theories or phenomena affect each other or have links with each other;
"the interface between chemistry and biology" 4: (computer science) computer
circuit consisting of the hardware and associated circuitry that links
one device with another (especially a computer and a hard disk drive or
other peripherals). Hypertext Webster Gateway from UCSD
[4] URL : Uniform Resource Locator. A standard
way of specifying the location of an object, typically a web page, on
the Internet. Other types of object are described below. URLs are the
form of address used on the World-Wide Web. They are used in HTML documents
to specify the target of a hyperlink which is often another HTML document
(possibly stored on another computer). "The Free On-line Dictionary
of Computing, http://www.foldoc.org/, Editor Denis Howe"
[5] Code : Le code source est la représentation
dans un langage humainement compréhensible du fonctionnement d'une oeuvre.
Le langage est choisi initialement par l'auteur. Ce langage peut-être
également standardisé, normalisé ou tout au moins reconnu et utilisé de
la même manière par un ensemble de personnes. Le code source peut être
complété de commentaires et de documentation en langage naturel. Le but
du code source est d'être utilisé par un dispositif de transformation
en langage compréhensible (processeur, compilateur, interpréteur) par
une machine numérique (un ordinateur) qui donnera le code machine. L'utilisation
de ce code sur la machine donnera l'oeuvre. Erwan Esnault
[6] Canonique : [very common; historically,
`according to religious law'] The usual or standard state or manner of
something. This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics.
Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because
they mean the same thing, but the second one is in `canonical form' because
it is written in the usual way, with the highest power of x first. Usually
there are fixed rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical
form. The jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired
its present loading in computer-science culture largely through its prominence
in Alonzo Church's work in computation theory and mathematical logic (see
Knights of the Lambda Calculus). Compare vanilla. ``the
Jargon File 4.1.0'' by Eric S. Raymond
[7] Vanilla : [from the default flavor of ice
cream in the U.S.] Ordinary flavor, standard. When used of food, very
often does not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla extract! For
example, `vanilla wonton soup' means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed
to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla
Version 7 Unix can't run on a vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize
chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as
distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that
the latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'. For
example, when hackers go on a great-wall, hot-and-sour soup is the canonical
soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though
it isn't the vanilla (wonton) soup. ``the Jargon
File 4.1.0'' by Eric S. Raymond
[8] Hacker : [originally, someone who makes
furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of
programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed
to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One
who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming
rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of
appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work
using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are
correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast
of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who
enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing
limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover
sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network
hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker. ``the Jargon File
4.1.0'' by Eric S. Raymond
Links to others ressources about Default Aesthetic:
Le Jargon Français
(Hacker french dictionnary by Roland Trique)
Ken Coar (Programmer of "mod_autoindex"
module for Apache web server)
Kevin Hugues (Designer of Apache Web
server icons , 1993)
Jean-François Pillou
(author of a text about computer's history)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(International Dark-Sky Association)
Tour Martini (Aesthetic by
default from point of view of Yves Bernard & Alain Geronnez )
Pseudodictionary (slang
connotation of "by default", definition of lbd)
New
Mediaeval Aesthetic (premice of the aesthetic by default, Rebecca
E. Zorach, 1994)
Annexe
- Thanks & License
Thanks to my beta-readers Erational,
Makoto,
Robin and
Sonia
Special thanks to Jeff Guess for the english translation.
Copyright © 2002 Etienne
Cliquet.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published
by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being
LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with
the Back-Cover Texts being LIST. A copy of the license is included
here.
- Readers contributed notes
Suggestions about this text are welcome. I'd be very happy to hear
what you have to say. I'll use it for myself to add some rectifications
and new ideas for future versions. And it's here
.
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