The cathedral and the bizarre
Does it seem like everyone has suddenly started talking about a “new normal” lately? This clumsy shorthand implies a loss, a begrudging acceptance, and a blandness that papers over both the tragedy and possibility of what comes next. In this week’s issue we discuss a variety of innovations and developments that show just how interesting and inclusive the “new weird” could be.
— Alexis & Matt
1: Input in the age of coronavirus
If your face is covered and you don’t want to touch anything for fear of infection, then many of the digital interfaces we use on a daily basis become incredibly challenging. We can no longer use facial recognition to unlock a phone or pay for groceries. Every touchscreen — at an ATM, at the store, at the airport — becomes a potential risk vector. As a result, the pandemic may result in changes to our everyday interactions. We already see tech companies quickly tackling the facial recognition issue. Short-term, new versions of iOS will recognize if you’re wearing a mask and quickly default to passcode entry. Longer-term, companies like Rank One are working on periocular recognition, which can identify people using only eyes and eyebrows.
But Matt Webb takes this conversation one step further to explore possibilities for what alternate interfaces for public computing might look like. As he points out, when the last generation of public interfaces was being developed, we didn’t have many of the technologies we have now, like broadly deployed smartphones and better AI and computer vision, so there is a whole new set of viable opportunities to investigate. He proposes a few innovative ideas that utilize gestural input, QR codes, and augmented reality, but more importantly, he puts forth some principles to consider when redesigning these kinds of public interfaces:
Discoverability (how do you know the interface is there? Public computing has a ton of first-time users)
Privacy/security (think of using an ATM on a public street)
Familiarity (like, weird is fun, but not too weird…)
Accessibility
Viability
Public computing and two ideas for touchless interfaces
Think about ATMs, or keypads on vending machines, or Amazon lockers, or supermarket self-checkout, or touchscreens on kiosks to buy train tickets. Now there’s a virus that spreads by touch, how do we redesign these shared interfaces?
2: The picture of a conversation
Alexis had several friends and colleagues send her this link last week with “I think this is relevant to your interests” notes. In a multi-part comic/essay, Max Krieger digs into the constraints of how we represent conversation in software, and explores possible alternatives. As he describes it, conversation is a rich repository of ideas and concepts, but “conversational media has compressed, engraved, and linearized our thinking, as if our ideas weren’t designed, but transcribed.” He walks through the various needs of participants in conversations, such as outlining, threading, quoting, emphasizing, embellishing, and reminding, and proposes some alternate interfaces for chat. We didn’t find the proposed UI hugely compelling, but love the way he unpacks user needs around chat and questions the status quo. Once there’s an industry standard for how things work, it can be easy to mistake it for the only way. It’s always valuable to step back and rethink what our interfaces afford and what they limit so that we can discover new approaches.
Cognitive Tools for Augmented Conversation
3: Using a bottom-up crisis to push top-down solutions
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press conferences have become a national experience during this crisis, but recently he had a special guest: Eric Schmidt, formerly the chairman of Google and Alphabet, and now chair of both the DOD’s Defense Innovation Board and the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. He was there to announce his leadership of a new blue-ribbon committee that will re-imagine the future of New York State using technology in every aspect of civic life.
This approach is not new for Schmidt or for Alphabet, or indeed for Amazon, Microsoft or other tech giants. Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs has been trying to build out a waterfront neighborhood in Toronto as a test bed for a tech-enabled smart city, though it canceled the project under intense criticism from residents around privacy and data collection, as well as the economic conditions brought by Covid-19. The ideas embedded in “smart city” proposals — continued automation, personal surveillance, and on-demand service — also underpin the expansion of apps like Uber and DoorDash, zero-hour employment and “flexible” scheduling at Starbucks, and the continued shifts toward freelancing in many creative industries. The difference is that now those proposals are being framed as essential to protecting public health, which may dampen necessary conversations about surveillance and data privacy that should accompany any such efforts.
There’s no doubt that innovation will be required to remake our society and rebuild our economy in the coming months and years. We must be sure that we don’t use this crisis as a cover to push already-unpopular policies that deteriorate privacy and further economic inequality, and instead imagine how technology can promote a more just, equitable and safe tomorrow.
Under Cover of Mass Death, Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia
Big tech’s emerging pandemic shock doctrine demands heavy public subsidies for a no-touch, socially distanced coronavirus future.
4: The next new things
In the early days of television, many TV shows consisted of actors in formal clothing standing in front of microphones acting out radio plays. It took time for the medium to evolve, for creators to understand what was newly possible, and how to make this new technology into a creative force all its own.
As we come to terms with what entertainment is like in a world where physical presence is (at least temporarily) forbidden, we’re starting to see how today’s “reading radio plays” is turning into tomorrow’s new art forms, particularly as we look at virtual and augmented reality. As just one example from Will Oremus’s newsletter below, take the late night talk show. Almost overnight, every show took its existing format of monologues and guest interviews to Zoom and did little else to adapt. On the other hand, screenwriter Gary Whitta saw the opportunity to try something wholly different, and set up a scripted, virtual talk show in Animal Crossing. They can bring people from all over the world into a virtual space, and once there, can do things with sets, characters and scenes that could not be done in real life. We’re eager to see what new forms, like Fortnite’s gun-free “party royale” mode, emerge as we find new ways to express ourselves and connect with people.
Virtual Reality Won. Just Not the Kind You Think.
Online spaces like ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Animal Crossing’ are replacing the physical world.
5: Real agents for virtual celebrities
Lil Miquela is the epitome of a modern social media influencer: She sings, she endorses fashion brands, and keeps up a running commentary on her life for her 2.2 million Instagram followers and 550,000 TikTok fans. And now, like many of her influencer peers, she has signed with an agent. The difference is that Miquela isn’t real. She’s a “synthetic influencer” created by LA firm Brud and is part of the emerging trend of virtual celebrities that are increasingly as popular and relevant as their human counterparts. Creative Artists Agency has signed Miquela and will be working with Brud to place her in film, tv, commercials, and more. Given that we’re in a moment where getting real actors in a room together is risky and complicated, virtual celebs may become even more viable and desirable for future projects.
From The Uncanny Valley To Hollywood: Miquela Is CAA's First Virtual Being Client
Miquela has signed with Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency (CAA), capping her remarkable ascent from the uncanny valley to Hollywood.
6: Socially-distant communal dining
In these somewhat bleak times, it’s nice to see moments where something lovely emerges from the tragedy. And of course, it comes from a bunch of Dutch artists. Mediamatic, an art center in Amsterdam, has created “serres séparées”, or mini greenhouses, for their on-site restaurant. These glass enclosures provide safe places for people to dine together while keeping their airspace separate. While inspired by the horror of coronavirus, they are actually rather charming and romantic.
Testing Serres Séparées at Mediamatic Biotoop
Later this year we will serve our visitors amazing plant-based dinners in their own little greenhouse.
One literary role-playing thing
You are seminal American modernist poet WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS.
It is late at night and you are HUNGRY.
Investigate the KITCHEN for something to EAT.
Gotta Eat The Plums! with William Carlos Williams by weecalrobot
A ludic prequel to William Carlos Williams’ poem ‘This Is Just to Say’
Six Signals: Emerging futures, 6 links at a time.
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