<pclass="p-style">Carbon is a device that translates graphite markings on paper into signals that manipulate sound and visuals. Carbon’s interface is pencil, paper, and an LED screen that reflects the user's marks on paper and translates signals from other modules into light and color.
<br>A synthesizer features knobs, sliders and buttons that allow the user to manipulate sound. The opposite ends of a knob or a slider represent two ends of an axis such as slow and fast or low pitch and high pitch, or, in case of buttons, on and off or play and pause. Each of these elements, controlling singular values, combine to form an interface between the musician and sound.
<br>On a scale of visible and invisible, the interface of the synthesizer is very visible.
<br>It’s difficult to interface with a synth intuitively. The user needs to be knowledgeable about how to make music to experiment or improvise. The interface doesn’t respond to gestures other than turning knobs or dragging sliders. The large number of controls on a synth means these controls need to be arranged in an efficient way. Thus, more important controls which are used more often are more eye catching and easier to reach. While this is important for function, it also creates a bias on ways of interfacing with sound. Some aspect of sound are more important to manipulate while some can be left alone for the most part.
<br>Carbon is an experiment on the effect interfaces can have on decision-making and the creative process.</p>
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<p>The knowledge of how to use pencil and paper is much more widespread than the knowledge of playing an instrument. Replacing the interface of a synth with a sheet of paper and a pencil opens this device up to people who wouldn’t know how to interact with a musical instrument. The user can make decisions based on the way they want to move their hand or the shape of marks they want to leave on the paper. In a way, Carbon is also a translator between audio and visual. A musician can use the sound output of the synth to guide their drawing in the same way an illustrator can use shapes on paper to control sound.
<pclass="p-style">The knowledge of how to use pencil and paper is much more widespread than the knowledge of playing an instrument. Replacing the interface of a synth with a sheet of paper and a pencil opens this device up to people who wouldn’t know how to interact with a musical instrument. The user can make decisions based on the way they want to move their hand or the shape of marks they want to leave on the paper. In a way, Carbon is also a translator between audio and visual. A musician can use the sound output of the synth to guide their drawing in the same way an illustrator can use shapes on paper to control sound.
<br>Carbon is born out of a desire to interface with a medium one is unfamiliar with. The lack of technical knowledge in music that started out as an insecurity ended up guiding me through this project in exploring how I can interact with the unfamiliar through the familiar.</p>
<br>Imagine a device, that would ask such questions.
<br>DISTRACTION MANAGER is a wearable "notification" generator, a stimulator for awareness, a trigger generator for a human being.
<br>The user interacts with the device - by turning the knob they decide on how often on the scale/sequence from 5 to 60 minutes they they would like to hear the short high-pitched sound it produces.
<br>Even more, the Distraction Manager (DM) works only when it receives coequal activity from the user. The user has the responsibility to complete the function of the device, to fill in the missing commands of the protocol of sensibilization.
<br>PROTOCOL: The Distraction Manager is switched ON by the user, the time sequence adjusted. -> The Distraction Manager produces the sound. -> The sound triggers the user. -> The user consciously activates their own set of questions. -> The user responds to these questions and makes adjustments that optimise their being. -> ...
<br>The sound that the Distraction Manager makes acts as a productive disturbance, triggering the user to pursue with their own questions.
<br>It exists to sensibilize its user, to induce the development of good habits and taking care of oneself, to enhance focus, to reveal inner states and to manage distraction.
<p> It only works when and if the user is successfully triggered to complete their steps in the protocol, asking and answering their own set of questions.
If the user fails to internalize the protocol, ignoring the sound, failing to reach a symbiotic union with the device, the DM is deemed to be completely dysfunctional and futile.
The interaction between a human and this device can be a productive and an inclusive relation.
(Of course, looking from the antropocentric human perspective, the device can't really feel it, can it?)
Humans (in all instances) are the ones that give devices their life and their meaning, whereas this device challenges its user to reform their own behaviour - at an expense of the human no longer being blinded by other devices and the countless possibilities of use that they possess and distraction that they compell us with.
(What a traitor it is, this device!)
DM is simple, its physical interface is minimal and its purpose is as complex as the user wants it to be. We can consider the DM as a highly inclusive interface, as its user is in charge of the great majority of the devices' functions. The interfacing does not take place in the material world, nor in between the lines of code, nor the rumble of wires. It happens in the mind of its user, discretely and without the need for the knowledge of translation between the language of the human and the language of the device/system/chip.
Each interaction between this device and its user is specific to the needs of the user. You get triggered and you are the one asking the questions.
A device to interface with yourself.
The Distraction Manager is meant to be used as a training-tool that develops the users' internal methodologies for awareness. It highlights the possibility to re-program, to rewire our subconsciousness by enhancing the users' reflexes produces by a response to the DM stimuli. It is only necessary to use this pragmatic device until the questions posed do not anchor into the subconscious mind, the trigger becomes automatic, the pull towards awareness instinctive, the protocol internalized. This is only reachable by repetition that eventually reinforces the habit and embeds the changed behaviour.
Then - the device is not needed anymore. It has served its purpose.
-
Normally, the goal of creating an interface would be to make it as user-friendly as possible, achieving the desired output with minimal input from the user.
This is not the case with the Distraction Manager. The users' input is far from minimal. In fact: as much input as the human gives, as well the device functions!
Ranging from complete uselesness to accurate relevancy.
The inspiration for the way that the DM is put together derives from the observation and usage of contemporary interfaces – black boxes that conceal their internal workings, seducing the user that remains ignorant to the intrinsic networks and protocols that these devices use.
Induced ignorance masked in a sleek design.
The Distraction Manager empowers its human user to take control, to exercise their capability of intervening into the protocol of the device.
The primary action that a human derives from their wish to manage their distraction (the initial reason to use the DM), switching on the device and choosing a desired time sequence of the trigger production. When the sound appears, as a mid-protocol occurence, the human considers it as an input, triggering the sensibilization protocol. This is where the human and the machine encounter, interface eachother, creating an inter-system communication. The actual output of the DM is the changed state of mind, the management of distraction that the human reaches when the protocol is repeatedly and successfully completed.
The causality of the final output is unpredictable and specific to each individual, whose conceptual input (set of questions) to the protocol is the unknown variable, that depends on the initial motivation and the needs of the individual.
-
Machines have shaped humanity more abruptly, causing a shockwave stronger and more lasting than any other occurences ever since our species first stepped into existence. Tracing the legacy of tools, humans have always striven for the bettering of our lives, towards the simplification of mundane tasks.
Somewhere along the line, it seems, we have lost control over what kind of tools/machines/devices we produce and how we do it, for whom and why. How we use them and who is the boss.
Since the "discovery" of the internet, our bubble of known or possibly-known has blown up. Complexity arose and hit us hard.
It is alluring to have all the humanity's knowledge accessible anywhere, anytime. It is also perplexing.
(Is curiosity thriving?)
"The world" is a distraction generator, the excessive flood of impulses results in the loss of sharpness in our sensory experiences, perception.
Our generation is severely shaped by the immense power of connectivity, the dominance of accesibility. This is why it is urgent to reassess the notion of relevancy.
Making choices, being focused, having a mission, a clear direction, following a single strong impulse has become an end in itself, being also a desirable fundamental skill to have in order to manoeuvre the entanglements of today.
To completely eradicate distraction would mean to cut off from the world that provides it, to seclude oneself in order to minimize the impulses.
The task is not to battle distraction, it is to manage it.
(Its management is necessary for our mental health.)
I consider distraction as the current systems' strongest tool that makes us obedient and conformed. Our attention is being perpetually pulled from one to the other flashy impulse, headline, infinite irrelevant content packages, our thought stream being disrupted.
Propaganda of today is strong, its tactics are detrimental, ardvertisements bomb us on every step. The outside world penetrates our mind with such a zeal, it is almost impossible to resist it, to finish the thought we have just started without interruption.
To be continuously interrupted, infused with the flood of impulses makes us blind, numb, insensible, inattentive - mainly to ourselves as bodies, as homo sapiens situated in the midst of this complex intertwinement of overwhelming impulses. Our time and conscious attention are swallowed by the black hole, made out of the substance called: distraction. We have sucessfully managed to forget about ourselves, indulged in the virtual reality that became the mirage in the desert of our time.
Being distracted prevents us from noticing that we are governed and manipulated, it takes away our empowerment and therefore we are weakened, not able to intervene, to react. We are less aware of our own emotion, our attention span is shortened, the capability of complex thoughts is crumbling, we dedicate our time to instant indulgence instead of managing our long-term well-being, satisfied by the virtual quick dopamine fix that we are entitled to receive.
It is a hard task to rewire our mind anew and adopt more optimised patterns of functioning. We run on an autopilot of our subconscious mind taking decisions for us in a much quicker way than the rational, analytic consciousness though. But that does not mean that it is optimal, how we would want it to be. The Distraction Manager disrupts this autopilot and triggers a crucial moment in all of this distractive complexity, it aids us to develop the good habit of checking-in with ourselves from "time to time", a moment of presence and self-care.
Sensibilization is the first step. By taking it, we reclaim agency, we empower ourselves to see, to react, to change.
We have the capability to expand our attention from only seemingly relevant matter, missing out on the core of the issue, the hidden mechanisms and intrinsic causes of things, if we are not distracted by any of the random impulses that try to trick us. Distraction works like a magician does - guiding our gaze where he wants to, while the real trick happens outside of the area of our attention. If we develop our potential, sharpen our awareness of things, if our sensibility is well-trained we can reveal the trick of the magician, understand better, direct our focus in the midst of the urge to simultaneously process a lot of information.
-
Being sensible to ourselves holds another asset. It makes us instinctively sensible to others, our empathy grows. This leads to a change in the way we communicate, being more sensitive and compassionate.
Communication is the basis of any community, of any conglomeration of individual parts, striving towards mutual understanding and well-being.
Separate individuals, modules get interconnected by efficient communication channels, functioning as one organism. The overall function of a system is a sum of specific functions of its constitutive parts.
Community is a modular system.
Social contracts are so deeply embedded in us that we don't even see the very possibility of them being questioned, hacked, shaped, remodeled. We are used of acting and interacting in certain ways. We mostly don't react until the moment when something suddenly hits us – when the way humanity functions reveals itself as cruel at a very explicit level. Then, it is too late.
Isn't this aggravating, maddening? It calls for action, it calls for the change in our subconscious patterns of interaction that would allow undistracted, direct, honest, raw and well-intentioned exchange of content.
The optimization of the whole system can happen only by optimising individual parts that constitute it and this is what the Distraction Manager does – constructs a proposition for reality, an experiment in the everyday life as a form of resistance to the unsocial politics of today, especially regarding awareness of oneself, expanding onto the awareness of others and reciprocal communication.
Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures and the mechanisms of contemporaneity, seeing its faults and difficulties, acknowledging other people (especially) within our communities. Reacting and being critical to ignorance, to distraction, to the means of control governing us, elegantly masked and fragmented, omnipresent and sly. Making, creating something that is beneficial for others. Sharing individual insights, combining and producing new forms of knowledge. Merging and cross-pollination qualities of separate particles. To empower and be empowered.</p>
<p>Flakes is an audio playback device that combines the functionalities of an analog cassette tape player and a digital sample playback module1. Merged together in the case of an old desktop cassette recorder, this hybrid machine allows both different audio playback techniques to consolidate each other’s technical limitations, make use (and abuse ? misuse) of their capabilities in order to emphasize their ‘unique’ characteristics.
<pclass="p-style">Flakes is an audio playback device that combines the functionalities of an analog cassette tape player and a digital sample playback module1. Merged together in the case of an old desktop cassette recorder, this hybrid machine allows both different audio playback techniques to consolidate each other’s technical limitations, make use (and abuse ? misuse) of their capabilities in order to emphasize their ‘unique’ characteristics.
<br>By connecting the available outputs to inputs and using the adjustable knobs on the interface, the user has the options to mix, modify and let the samples from both analog and digital sources interact with each other to create new, unexpected sounds.
<br> >Note 1: Despite both only being capable of playing lo-fi** samples, the analog device can make recordings and play them back directly and the digital module's behavior is fully programmable, allowing to make use of feedback, phasing, gate triggers, pitch control functions, and configurable functionalities as desired and more.
<br>How it works: A speech sample (saying IN-SIDE OUT) is cut into pieces so the separate words can be divided to the digital module (programmed onto) and analog tape loop* (recorded onto its magnetic tape). While the analog tape loop is prominent and continuously plays the same slice, the digital module runs a program that allows the recorded sample to (start playback on a trigger and) jump between different starting positions and loop sizes start playback. Played together, random flakes and new combinations of the separate words are constantly being generated in real-time. They correct and complement each other, making new combinations of the 3 words: IN-SIDE-OUT.</p>
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<p>HOW: more detailed (for website only)
<pclass="p-style">HOW: more detailed (for website only)
<br>The starting point of this research was an analysis of the Meergranen* module, originally designed as a sample playback device to function within a modular Eurorack** setup. While testing its capabilities, a lot of its technical limitations were exposed: the module could only hold a preloaded 4-second sample in a low-resolution audio quality (8000Hz). Besides that, the experience of being new to this technology, electronics, and programming, it frustrated me that I couldn't comprehend what was happening inside this module and what caused these limitations. Instead of opening it up (I just manually assembled and soldered it), I had to connect this PCB full of weird electronic components to a computer to see what complex code it was running to 'just play a crappy sample'. But I noticed it could do very interesting things too; it allowed input signals to modulate the playback speed, and influence other behaviors and get unexpected results.
<br>During my research*, I noticed the similarities between the playback technique of an analog cassette tape loop*** and the software-based sample module. Unlike the digital module, the mechanism of the cassette tape player shows how it works at first sight: while physically running, it plays the sample over and over when it encounters the recording on a certain position on the tape. Its technique seems transparent; it looks like it has nothing to hide. It comforts because we are familiar with it and understand it because it's visually present. I realised that in a way, it mimics in what happens inside the 'black box'* of the digital module. To play a sample in a loop: the micro computer runs a certain code that contains the converted data of a digital sample (converted into hexadecimal numbers). When it encounters a certain position, it plays the sample over and over again.
<br>With these findings, I made an inventory of each unique characteristic, the potentials of both playback techniques and their technical limitations and research on how they could work together, influence and fight each other. I started to write new and alter existing code to create the tools to construct the hybrid device so I could explore it more when interfacing it myself.
@ -195,13 +76,13 @@ Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures
<p>Generator is a module that translates voltage into video signal. The voltage can come both from the power source of the module and the outputs of other modules that can connect to it. It is both self-controlled and sound-controlled so it can be a stand alone object or part of a bigger constellation. It is an image maker that explores the visual possibilities within the limitations of the hardware and the code. Coding was a substantial part of this process – sometimes pointing me in the right direction, sometime presenting setbacks and frustrations and and at other times creating unexpected outcomes. The goal at first was unknown and mysterious and I came to realised that I will discover it as I go. Once I got the module to work with the LCD screen, it became my canvas. As I progressed, I realised I wanted the user of the module to be able to generate images and examine the possibilities of this medium. I created this version of the “etch a sketch”, in which the user alternates between the sense of control and randomness. On the one hand the rules of the modules are mostly clear – there are 5 brushes, you can determine their size, and you can draw across the X and the Y axis. On the other hand it takes some time to learn how to control it, there are many options to discover and it can be influenced by other modules' outputs that cannot be controlled directly. </p>
<pclass="p-style">Generator is a module that translates voltage into video signal. The voltage can come both from the power source of the module and the outputs of other modules that can connect to it. It is both self-controlled and sound-controlled so it can be a stand alone object or part of a bigger constellation. It is an image maker that explores the visual possibilities within the limitations of the hardware and the code. Coding was a substantial part of this process – sometimes pointing me in the right direction, sometime presenting setbacks and frustrations and and at other times creating unexpected outcomes. The goal at first was unknown and mysterious and I came to realised that I will discover it as I go. Once I got the module to work with the LCD screen, it became my canvas. As I progressed, I realised I wanted the user of the module to be able to generate images and examine the possibilities of this medium. I created this version of the “etch a sketch”, in which the user alternates between the sense of control and randomness. On the one hand the rules of the modules are mostly clear – there are 5 brushes, you can determine their size, and you can draw across the X and the Y axis. On the other hand it takes some time to learn how to control it, there are many options to discover and it can be influenced by other modules' outputs that cannot be controlled directly. </p>
<p> Finally, the screen clears every 10-12 seconds so you have a limited time to draw your image. The act of refreshing the screen seemed natural because every image we make is unique. It is almost impossible to make exactly the same image, so each one created is one of a kind but also temporary and fleeting, soon to be replaced by another image. All of these combined reference the experience of creative coding. There is a magic in randomness, producing while exploring and getting unexpected outcomes. My wish was to embed a personal perspective– happy “mistakes”, making adjustments while working and viewing the tools that we use as partners of the process and not just a means to an end. I encourage whoever builds this module to explore the coding and try to see where she/he can take it, what can happen while playing with code.</p>
<pclass="p-style"> Finally, the screen clears every 10-12 seconds so you have a limited time to draw your image. The act of refreshing the screen seemed natural because every image we make is unique. It is almost impossible to make exactly the same image, so each one created is one of a kind but also temporary and fleeting, soon to be replaced by another image. All of these combined reference the experience of creative coding. There is a magic in randomness, producing while exploring and getting unexpected outcomes. My wish was to embed a personal perspective– happy “mistakes”, making adjustments while working and viewing the tools that we use as partners of the process and not just a means to an end. I encourage whoever builds this module to explore the coding and try to see where she/he can take it, what can happen while playing with code.</p>
<p>GLARE is a speculative interface trying to explore what lies behind the boundaries of the usual input devices. The idea for it arose out of the impression that most of music production interfaces require a deep understanding of the subject and thus impose a considerable hurdle on the average user.
<pclass="p-style">GLARE is a speculative interface trying to explore what lies behind the boundaries of the usual input devices. The idea for it arose out of the impression that most of music production interfaces require a deep understanding of the subject and thus impose a considerable hurdle on the average user.
<br>Music is in itself something very intuitive and emotional and as it is something profoundly satisfying and an excellent method of emotional self reflection the making of it should be accessible to a broad audience. This approach is not only aiming to provide a new controller for musicians, but to put the creation of music into the lives of individuals as a practice of leisure and self-realization.
<br>Dancing, usually a way to deal with music after the process of producing it has ended, is a direct and very personal translation of music. Provided the necessary interfaces are available, making music could and should be as simple as dancing to it.
<br>GLARE module is being controlled by gestures only and thereby works in a very intuitive way. The movements controlling the auditive content can resemble the motion of dancing.</p>
<p>Modular Linguistics is based on a series of electronic objects which are programmed to speak. The words chosen to be part of its vocabularies are spoken in unison, generating new associations between terms.
<pclass="p-style">Modular Linguistics is based on a series of electronic objects which are programmed to speak. The words chosen to be part of its vocabularies are spoken in unison, generating new associations between terms.
<br>voice.say(spINTRODUCTION);
<br>The process of constructing language, both written and spoken, has always been modular. Modularity presupposes a certain compatibility between interlocking parts—this is the crux of language. Modular Linguistics then, is not a claim for the discovery of a new function within the field of linguistics, but simply an emphasis on its constructibility instead of its descriptive abilities.
<br>However, orality is strictly interlinked with sound as a carrier of language, which invests the act of speech with multitudes of aesthetic qualities. The sonic and phonetic dimensions of language are what articulates speech, while simultaneously imposing its ephemerality. As Walter Ong fundamentally states:
@ -240,7 +121,7 @@ Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures
<br>It is then important to consider the recording of language as not only a practice of writing, but also one of speaking and listening.</p>
<br>The voice appears here as an electronic anomaly: a synthetic placeholder for a missing vocal anatomy. You are now faced with a device which is able to speak—a disembodied voice sounding from an electronic circuit. The voice struggles to articulate through the constraints of a lo-fi sound output. Some sounds fade and are left to exist only as the memories of certain phonemes in the listener’s cognitive effort. Although, listening is performed without the ability to localize the precise source of the sound. It is therefore an acousmatic voice with origins unknown. As Mladen Dolar puts it in What’s in a Voice?:
<br>“In this universe it is more appropriate to say that the voice, far from being a self-expression, a harbinger of interiority and individuality, is more like an intruder, a foreign body, a prosthesis, a bodily extension, an artificial limb – it is never ‘authentic’, it is never just an expression. The voice has like a spectral autonomy, it never quite belongs to the body we see, the voice never sounds like the person emitting it, there is always a gap, a Verfremdung, a mismatch, a ventriloquism.”2
<br>The possibility of producing new words with distinct speculative qualities is why the construction of neologisms is a practice that proposes to constantly reinvent and revise the use of language as pertinent to a certain time. A neologism can manifest as a cut-up: a swift or abbreviated manner of swapping and shifting connotations. Or in other words, the (un-)intentional clumsiness of hot-gluing a semantically loaded prefix to an unsuspecting root-term.
@ -292,10 +173,10 @@ Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures
<p>A physical object, which goals are to generate a practice of storytelling, inspired by the ways disparate narratives can come together to create inroads into the unknown (or the obvious).
<pclass="p-style">A physical object, which goals are to generate a practice of storytelling, inspired by the ways disparate narratives can come together to create inroads into the unknown (or the obvious).
<br>With this in mind, this module is an arena to explore how protocols can induce new forms of inventiveness in the act of storytelling, grounded in the cohabitation of a multiplicity of standpoints, rather than a linear, all-encompassing narrative.
<br>Its interests and uses will reside in the stories you decide to generate through it.
<br>LANGUAGE GAMES :
@ -359,10 +240,10 @@ Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures
<p> >>>> okokokok >> what >> don’t be scared >> seven [‘7’] is a straight forward .print&.read device >> you can play the prewritten poem [‘seven.ino’] or you can write your own >> [‘7’] can manipulate text >> it can send an outgoing message or be interrupted by an incoming one >> [‘7’] enjoys repetition, coincidence & a gentle touch >> to channel text the module needs to be connected to a TV screen through a video input >> a video signal is broadcasted and can be listened to in mono >>>>>> mhmhmhmh >> how >> how i approached hardware >> 7 knobs & 7 buttons arranged in no particular hierarchy >> i wanted to create a humble device with clear manual functions >> an interface that makes you feel in control >> this urge became clear after getting familiar with a term ‘calm technology’ during the Special Issue X >> calm technology - a type of information technology where the interaction between the technology and its user is designed to occur in the user's periphery rather than constantly at the centre of attention >> how >> how i approached software >> working within the framework of the tv.out library and a television monitor determined certain features of the program, such as its esthetics and its interface >> with a subject in mind the content of the poem [‘seven.ino’] was developed and written while learning how to code with Arduino IDE >> the way the poem unfolds to a user depends on his/hers interaction with [‘7’] >>>>>> ghhrrghrrr >> </p>
<pclass="p-style"> >>>> okokokok >> what >> don’t be scared >> seven [‘7’] is a straight forward .print&.read device >> you can play the prewritten poem [‘seven.ino’] or you can write your own >> [‘7’] can manipulate text >> it can send an outgoing message or be interrupted by an incoming one >> [‘7’] enjoys repetition, coincidence & a gentle touch >> to channel text the module needs to be connected to a TV screen through a video input >> a video signal is broadcasted and can be listened to in mono >>>>>> mhmhmhmh >> how >> how i approached hardware >> 7 knobs & 7 buttons arranged in no particular hierarchy >> i wanted to create a humble device with clear manual functions >> an interface that makes you feel in control >> this urge became clear after getting familiar with a term ‘calm technology’ during the Special Issue X >> calm technology - a type of information technology where the interaction between the technology and its user is designed to occur in the user's periphery rather than constantly at the centre of attention >> how >> how i approached software >> working within the framework of the tv.out library and a television monitor determined certain features of the program, such as its esthetics and its interface >> with a subject in mind the content of the poem [‘seven.ino’] was developed and written while learning how to code with Arduino IDE >> the way the poem unfolds to a user depends on his/hers interaction with [‘7’] >>>>>> ghhrrghrrr >> </p>
<p> >> why >> in the beginning of the Special Issue X i was intrigued by DadaDodo >> DadaDodo is a program that analyses texts for word probabilities and then generates random sentences based on that >> sometimes these sentences are nonsense but sometimes they cut right through to the heart of the matter and reveal hidden meanings >> i was also interested in the experimental poetry examples mentioned in Florian Cramer’s “words made flesh” >> but why >> repetition of text is a method that i practice during live vocal performances >> a partial looping of a poem functions as a transition or/and an emphasis >> as a poet i am interested in a life of a written static poem-block >> when a poem does not have a voice present how could it still rustle? >> [‘7’] is a first prototype towards that idea <<<<<<</p>
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<br>Imagine a device, that would ask such questions.
<br>DISTRACTION MANAGER is a wearable "notification" generator, a stimulator for awareness, a trigger generator for a human being.
<br>The user interacts with the device - by turning the knob they decide on how often on the scale/sequence from 5 to 60 minutes they they would like to hear the short high-pitched sound it produces.
<br>Even more, the Distraction Manager (DM) works only when it receives coequal activity from the user. The user has the responsibility to complete the function of the device, to fill in the missing commands of the protocol of sensibilization.
<br>PROTOCOL: The Distraction Manager is switched ON by the user, the time sequence adjusted. -> The Distraction Manager produces the sound. -> The sound triggers the user. -> The user consciously activates their own set of questions. -> The user responds to these questions and makes adjustments that optimise their being. -> ...
<br>The sound that the Distraction Manager makes acts as a productive disturbance, triggering the user to pursue with their own questions.
<br>It exists to sensibilize its user, to induce the development of good habits and taking care of oneself, to enhance focus, to reveal inner states and to manage distraction.
</p>
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<p> It only works when and if the user is successfully triggered to complete their steps in the protocol, asking and answering their own set of questions.
If the user fails to internalize the protocol, ignoring the sound, failing to reach a symbiotic union with the device, the DM is deemed to be completely dysfunctional and futile.
The interaction between a human and this device can be a productive and an inclusive relation.
(Of course, looking from the antropocentric human perspective, the device can't really feel it, can it?)
Humans (in all instances) are the ones that give devices their life and their meaning, whereas this device challenges its user to reform their own behaviour - at an expense of the human no longer being blinded by other devices and the countless possibilities of use that they possess and distraction that they compell us with.
(What a traitor it is, this device!)
DM is simple, its physical interface is minimal and its purpose is as complex as the user wants it to be. We can consider the DM as a highly inclusive interface, as its user is in charge of the great majority of the devices' functions. The interfacing does not take place in the material world, nor in between the lines of code, nor the rumble of wires. It happens in the mind of its user, discretely and without the need for the knowledge of translation between the language of the human and the language of the device/system/chip.
Each interaction between this device and its user is specific to the needs of the user. You get triggered and you are the one asking the questions.
A device to interface with yourself.
The Distraction Manager is meant to be used as a training-tool that develops the users' internal methodologies for awareness. It highlights the possibility to re-program, to rewire our subconsciousness by enhancing the users' reflexes produces by a response to the DM stimuli. It is only necessary to use this pragmatic device until the questions posed do not anchor into the subconscious mind, the trigger becomes automatic, the pull towards awareness instinctive, the protocol internalized. This is only reachable by repetition that eventually reinforces the habit and embeds the changed behaviour.
Then - the device is not needed anymore. It has served its purpose.
-
Normally, the goal of creating an interface would be to make it as user-friendly as possible, achieving the desired output with minimal input from the user.
This is not the case with the Distraction Manager. The users' input is far from minimal. In fact: as much input as the human gives, as well the device functions!
Ranging from complete uselesness to accurate relevancy.
The inspiration for the way that the DM is put together derives from the observation and usage of contemporary interfaces – black boxes that conceal their internal workings, seducing the user that remains ignorant to the intrinsic networks and protocols that these devices use.
Induced ignorance masked in a sleek design.
The Distraction Manager empowers its human user to take control, to exercise their capability of intervening into the protocol of the device.
The primary action that a human derives from their wish to manage their distraction (the initial reason to use the DM), switching on the device and choosing a desired time sequence of the trigger production. When the sound appears, as a mid-protocol occurence, the human considers it as an input, triggering the sensibilization protocol. This is where the human and the machine encounter, interface eachother, creating an inter-system communication. The actual output of the DM is the changed state of mind, the management of distraction that the human reaches when the protocol is repeatedly and successfully completed.
The causality of the final output is unpredictable and specific to each individual, whose conceptual input (set of questions) to the protocol is the unknown variable, that depends on the initial motivation and the needs of the individual.
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Machines have shaped humanity more abruptly, causing a shockwave stronger and more lasting than any other occurences ever since our species first stepped into existence. Tracing the legacy of tools, humans have always striven for the bettering of our lives, towards the simplification of mundane tasks.
Somewhere along the line, it seems, we have lost control over what kind of tools/machines/devices we produce and how we do it, for whom and why. How we use them and who is the boss.
Since the "discovery" of the internet, our bubble of known or possibly-known has blown up. Complexity arose and hit us hard.
It is alluring to have all the humanity's knowledge accessible anywhere, anytime. It is also perplexing.
(Is curiosity thriving?)
"The world" is a distraction generator, the excessive flood of impulses results in the loss of sharpness in our sensory experiences, perception.
Our generation is severely shaped by the immense power of connectivity, the dominance of accesibility. This is why it is urgent to reassess the notion of relevancy.
Making choices, being focused, having a mission, a clear direction, following a single strong impulse has become an end in itself, being also a desirable fundamental skill to have in order to manoeuvre the entanglements of today.
To completely eradicate distraction would mean to cut off from the world that provides it, to seclude oneself in order to minimize the impulses.
The task is not to battle distraction, it is to manage it.
(Its management is necessary for our mental health.)
I consider distraction as the current systems' strongest tool that makes us obedient and conformed. Our attention is being perpetually pulled from one to the other flashy impulse, headline, infinite irrelevant content packages, our thought stream being disrupted.
Propaganda of today is strong, its tactics are detrimental, ardvertisements bomb us on every step. The outside world penetrates our mind with such a zeal, it is almost impossible to resist it, to finish the thought we have just started without interruption.
To be continuously interrupted, infused with the flood of impulses makes us blind, numb, insensible, inattentive - mainly to ourselves as bodies, as homo sapiens situated in the midst of this complex intertwinement of overwhelming impulses. Our time and conscious attention are swallowed by the black hole, made out of the substance called: distraction. We have sucessfully managed to forget about ourselves, indulged in the virtual reality that became the mirage in the desert of our time.
Being distracted prevents us from noticing that we are governed and manipulated, it takes away our empowerment and therefore we are weakened, not able to intervene, to react. We are less aware of our own emotion, our attention span is shortened, the capability of complex thoughts is crumbling, we dedicate our time to instant indulgence instead of managing our long-term well-being, satisfied by the virtual quick dopamine fix that we are entitled to receive.
It is a hard task to rewire our mind anew and adopt more optimised patterns of functioning. We run on an autopilot of our subconscious mind taking decisions for us in a much quicker way than the rational, analytic consciousness though. But that does not mean that it is optimal, how we would want it to be. The Distraction Manager disrupts this autopilot and triggers a crucial moment in all of this distractive complexity, it aids us to develop the good habit of checking-in with ourselves from "time to time", a moment of presence and self-care.
Sensibilization is the first step. By taking it, we reclaim agency, we empower ourselves to see, to react, to change.
We have the capability to expand our attention from only seemingly relevant matter, missing out on the core of the issue, the hidden mechanisms and intrinsic causes of things, if we are not distracted by any of the random impulses that try to trick us. Distraction works like a magician does - guiding our gaze where he wants to, while the real trick happens outside of the area of our attention. If we develop our potential, sharpen our awareness of things, if our sensibility is well-trained we can reveal the trick of the magician, understand better, direct our focus in the midst of the urge to simultaneously process a lot of information.
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Being sensible to ourselves holds another asset. It makes us instinctively sensible to others, our empathy grows. This leads to a change in the way we communicate, being more sensitive and compassionate.
Communication is the basis of any community, of any conglomeration of individual parts, striving towards mutual understanding and well-being.
Separate individuals, modules get interconnected by efficient communication channels, functioning as one organism. The overall function of a system is a sum of specific functions of its constitutive parts.
Community is a modular system.
Social contracts are so deeply embedded in us that we don't even see the very possibility of them being questioned, hacked, shaped, remodeled. We are used of acting and interacting in certain ways. We mostly don't react until the moment when something suddenly hits us – when the way humanity functions reveals itself as cruel at a very explicit level. Then, it is too late.
Isn't this aggravating, maddening? It calls for action, it calls for the change in our subconscious patterns of interaction that would allow undistracted, direct, honest, raw and well-intentioned exchange of content.
The optimization of the whole system can happen only by optimising individual parts that constitute it and this is what the Distraction Manager does – constructs a proposition for reality, an experiment in the everyday life as a form of resistance to the unsocial politics of today, especially regarding awareness of oneself, expanding onto the awareness of others and reciprocal communication.
Being sensibilized, gaining awareness and gradually understanding the structures and the mechanisms of contemporaneity, seeing its faults and difficulties, acknowledging other people (especially) within our communities. Reacting and being critical to ignorance, to distraction, to the means of control governing us, elegantly masked and fragmented, omnipresent and sly. Making, creating something that is beneficial for others. Sharing individual insights, combining and producing new forms of knowledge. Merging and cross-pollination qualities of separate particles. To empower and be empowered.</p>
