[-empyre-] Search, privacy, data - the abuse of encapsulation

[Andrew Prior]

Nice point Rob.

9.) Infrastructure, complexity and use: The problem with iPhones is that they aren't shitty enough. Again, this is linked to the logic of encapsulation, and the ability to save us time, as per the Western infrastructure of career enforcement and obsession with social attention 'sharing'. Platforms are part and parcel of this simplification; I believe that the expected success of iPhones, iPads, Androids, even the ubiquity of Cloud Computing all work on this logic of forced complex removal. [...] Platforms embellish an almost obscene level of private encapsulation. I'm being grossly unjust to the technical details here, but in summary complexity is worth fighting for. (This ties into Andy's point on the oppositional character of glitch - my view would be this is a genuine form of computational complexity, where information is irreducible to a user's 'understanding' - i.e corruption or overload).


Yes. I think the encapsulated character of interfaces is a really important issue that noise and glitch practices address - disturbing these closed off, simplified, 'non stick' contexts is of primary importance.


Interfaces (and the logic of encapsulation that articulate them) are arbiters of noise and signal. Nevertheless, whilst their influence when operational is toward standardization, when they break it moves towards fragmentation and dislocation: obsolescence means they soon become the source of new noise, embodying outdated assumptions, giving realized form to fragmented schema. Whilst broken or obsolete interfaces may represent a certain dislocation, once repurposed they also offer the possibility of bricolage and revitalized meaning, outflanking homogeneity even in the act of repetition. Still this tactic can only ever work at a level of representation and aesthetics....

I wonder what role noise might play in polluting the data mine?

Best


Andy