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As daily users, content producers, new media maniacs, we are responsible for defining, imagining, envisioning what we can do with computers, and what we would like them to be. And I'm not just talking about the frayed fringe in the limnal periphery, I'm talking about mainstream commercial applications, their icons on the desktop, the pictures on their boxes, the images in the animated banner ads, the sales copy in the catalog.
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The metaphors and attendant imagery that we use to describe "computing" function beyond perfunctory packaging of the goods, they frame our perceptions and understanding of the tool. The actual tool in question, "the computer," is really orthogonal to the challenge I'm posing. Of greater relevance are the abstract and concrete goals for which digital media are merely means--by goals I mean to implicate everything from financial success, idea generation, market innovation, artistic creation, communication, to getting a date and getting a paycheck.
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I end, as a I began, with a confession. I'm a web drone. I probably spend more time facing my computer than another person. I negotiate the imbalance between addiction and alienation with this piece of machinery, and previous to that I theorized about its potential. I've invested many a MG of meaning into this medium, and I have certain visions of what I'd like to see it become, how I'm interested in manipulating the relationships we have with our technology. And I view the representation of that relationship, whether through imagery or text, as a mode of exploration for both defining and rupturing that connection.
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Situated from a feminist perspective in the sticky socio-political matrix of culture, the generic representation of computers and computer users is socially reactionary and limiting. From a designer's point of view, the common cannon of computer imagery is dead boring and borderline pathetic. In texting this rant, my intent has been to draw attention to those images we take for granted, that we no longer even "see" because they are such familiar props. Recognize that their meaning is far from trivial, and imagine how you might go about exploiting the icons for your own digital devices.
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