jdq

writer and composer

I have come back to you as I left: a fool.


v21
@v21

this image (from the Wikipedia page for Focus-plus-context screen) is such a great collision of totally different computer aesthetics.

we have on the top layer of the image the callout + logo on the right hand side. this has a vibe like the back of a software box, you know, from the days when software was something you went to the back of a store to buy.

we have a giant map of San Francisco, being looked at intently by a young man, in a manner suggesting this is his job. that his job is to spend all day looking at a big map & say things intently into a headset. cyberpunk vibes (specifically it reminds me of Dredd, but that's just because I saw Dredd earlier this week. Dredd is great. anyway!)

we have a IBM Model M keyboard being operated by a person in a short sleeved shirt. classic computer vibes, I'm sure we're all imagining a pocket protector coming into view if he turned towards us. I'm hearing a dot matrix printer in the corner chewing it's way through a big ream of green & white striped paper. You remember the type, that paper where each sheet is attached to the next & the edges have holes and tear off really satisfyingly? No? Well, I do. Did you know: I am 30 to 40 years old?

and then, as a final aesthetic layer, just coming in sideways, we have the huge gold frame the display is mounted in. like. what! imagining a factory churning these out, all in a nice frame. imagining inventing this new type of display, but oh, the only way it works, actually, is if we put it in a gilt frame, sorry.

wild image.


v21
@v21

I just read Matt Webb's latest post, outlining an early history of collaboration systems, and the setup he sketches at the end, the idea of a shared group view & then individual views, well, it reminds me of these screens.

(Also there's the "map room" idea vs the fact this dude is looking at a map - but that feels maybe a little more incidental)

The idea that there's two modes of interaction, an overview, big picture mode and then a fine detail mode. A way of looking that uses the whole retina & a way of looking that uses the fovea. A way of looking that you naturally do with others, and a way of looking that you naturally do by yourself.

And there's another thread that pulls between Matt's post & this concept of Focus-plus-context screens - VR. The spatially that Matt describes, the idea of being situated socially with the people you're working with, of having a sense memory for where information is, for building up a map in your head of the map... that sounds like, in an era of remote working, like VR. And Focus-plus-context screens? Well, they're finally maybe getting their day in the sun, as a solution for the high demands that VR puts upon computer hardware. VR headset manufacturers are experimenting with varying the screen resolution across the display - high res in the center, low res for peripheral vision. I guess it will feel kind of like wearing virtual bifocal glasses??


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