Calendars:Networked Media Calendar/Networked Media Calendar/04-04-2022 -Event 1

XPUB1 & (XPUB2 lecture part of curriculum): 11:00 - 13:00 lecture visiting guest Brendan Howell ----> in the aquarium

14:00 : XPUB & (XPUB2 optional) begin 2.5 day workshop / https://wintermute.org/

pad of today: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/workshop-with-brendan-howell-day-1

"The last 40 years of computer soft- and hardware development have brought great leaps in terms of access and ubiquity of digital screens. Many of them are unquestionably useful and informative to millions of people every day. But with this increasing prevalence of screens, there is a creeping standardization of transactional ways of everyday life. The dominance of big corporate platforms has further stagnated design to a narrow range of interaction possibilities specified by “Human Interface Guidelines”. The time has come for designers and artists to imagine and invent new ways of participating in digital networked life.

What if we got rid of the screen?

Some will see this as sacrilegious or absurd but it is certainly a radical gesture. Putting aside the screen is a big challenge to the way many of us typically think but it might help find forms of interaction that are more personal, local and embodied as well as hopefully, more sustainable, both socially and environmentally.

The system is constructed using free/libre/open hard- and software components, especially for print, databases, web-scraping, audio playback and tangible interaction. Currently, it exists as a working prototype with software "bureaus" which allow a user to read and navigate news, web sites and social media entirely with the use of various printers for output as well as a barcode scanner, a document camera or custom electronics for input.

The author will present his working "Screenless Office" as a very personal, perhaps eccentric way of resisting the standardization and hyper-stimulation of digital lifestyles. While the system more or less works for one person, it is not in any way intended to represent a universal solution. Workshop participants are invited and will be supported in any efforts to experiment, modify, hack and extend the system to suit their own ideals of a more convivial everyday life."