INTERFACE
A story by David Mellor © 1997.
Ounce's life wasn't exactly gove,~ed by computers. He had "tar one ~q9sive would tall ~ relationship with them.rike all of us. he depended on micro-technology without realising it- each morning. as he made toast; an electronic brain was ensuring the correct level of brown-ness. He stepped into a warn shower, which, thanks to a pvc-programmed nund I'~c>{.'. ~t ~imew exactly Low hot he wanted the water to be. Alniost every lien of brown and white goods is designed using nucrochips and electronic circuitry to be user-friendly. for granted. They are designed to be taken HIFI FRIDGE WASHER PHONE TV TOASTER SHOVVER RADIO- ALARM CENTRAL-HEATING ANSV\lBR-PHONE GAMES- MACHINE VIDEO Afler all ~ would have the faintest idca how to repair ouc of hr these items; should it go wrong? Although nnas%--prodtLoed, these items are +1z4 niale to fit in with your suri-oundings.what thi/iieviiabl/rneans,is that your surroundings, i.e. your Vat, decor, flirnittire, even yourself have to change to acconimodate th&j,~. They secrn to be absorbed into the interior FC~tt~i o~s ~rna*atyiat A Mtchen cupboard could be an oven or a dish- washer, a shelfif II ofbooks could conceal a~~TV w4~y NT'- hogk-ar-h-HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIP, UNTHINKING TECHNOLOGY IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED,. NAMING, ADAPTATION, CUSHIONING, HUMANIZING Hi5 rernote~control (able to control e'ery appliance in his coirfovtable lounge) was caild h~s"ij~dt~." and tP4's was mislaid the consequences ware serious. Everything Lad to be turned over. Chairs moved, bins emptied. Eve~4hing would jinction, of course, without this infra-red commuricaton but this would completely alter Ounce's relationship with his (appliances). Even if he were ahie to flnd his camouflaged TV & Video, manually setting and operating them \vas something alien to Ounce to whom this would be deemed a great and unneoessarv e~er[lon.Apart fron his blissfijl electronic family life 0 w H,s omce job was unfulfilling yet eQ him h menta y to do anyrhing about it- This morning, his electronic fiends came to his rescue ag~n, late as usual. Ounce woke (to his radio-alarnn), showered and ate breakfast (toast, what else?) with seasoned efficiency. In less than ten minutes, he was out of his front door, just In time to see the No. 7 bus appearing ro~nd the corner. (¼e was issued with a printed ticket as he entered the bus) He never thought to analyze the various mimbers and codes printed on it. In his blissifil innocence, ignorance, couIdn't~care-Ie5sness, these codes track his every move, relaying information about him. I '~Interface" O~ 19~7 0 J Mellar or rather the cc'nmei-cicd statistic that he represents each morning on his short bus ude into work. He alighted one stop earlier this light and hed anranged to meet withdrew £40 from the hole in the taste, and it was his/her birthday behu:>d) This was pertbrmed with ~which an organ gnnder's monkey WQ t yr morning. Ens wallat was foeling rather his friend for lunch- ~Ve learn that he wall, as his f6end had quite an expensive He left his receipt/information slip (¼ the habitual ease and nonchalance with goes about his routine. 2 5 6 9 His PIN-rntmbcr coincidentally resembled the dog-legged bus route he needed to take to get from his flat to the cashpoint. Of course he didn't reahze this. ~o Ounce they were simply the numbers that amved in the post two days after his bark card. He stepped past the reception into his office three minutes late. lie had clocked tip a total of (SO~3x3) minutes of ~tra holiday in "is way since starting his jobs years ago: one statistic which kept him going as he to-ed and fro-ed from work each day. He sat for the n-th time, in his office,~so long since he could remember the novelty orhis flrM day in the job. 3 "Intedace" 019970 J Mellor H~5 office was situated next to the printer room where nine dot-matrix printers rat-a-tat-tatted and chattered incessantly. He had begun not to C C notice them qufle quickly, (. but to anyone who tang him tifli it was a nuisance as one ~couldn't hear what he was saying- His voice was interinittently di~wned out by this appalling arrhythmic racket. This particular morning, however, after a particularly heavy night of drink- and dru£-fuefe&'fbnting the night before at a club in to'~-n, he was not up K for any noise polluboj\4'He decided to make himselfa strong cup ofcof~e and try and see himself through till lunch Lime when he could get away £br that precious hour The caffeine didnt distract him from the unusually vociferous nine-pin printers. Moreover it seemed to accentuate the sound they made. In what was usually din, Ounce imagined he could porceive beautiful rhythms being played out by this electro-mechanical nine piece orchestra. He, not usually so fanciful consciously decided to work or, forgetting this stupid notion. The printers, however, carried on p~aying Ounce didn't want to hear them he was concentrating on his work. His concept of time was driflin~. lie didut listen, hut lie conldrit help hearing this invasive noise. Hi~ eardrums were vibrating, nevertheless. The sound ofthe dot matrix/disk drive WHIRR-CHATTER SW SEP CONSTANT DIGITAL RHYTHM EXTRA-SOUND tapped on his eardrums ard started to regulate the pattern of his brain-waves. His breathing and [hinking and hlinkin~ became digitally 4 "Intedace"0 1997 fl J MetEor synchronized with the Incessant a-noise and clicking white goods. Re idiosyncratic/habitual body movements, tapping penclifoot, sneeze, clicwin&. conscio~sly computer controlled. This beat, teohno-rrschanistic treble-tull tinny drum staccato tune back and forward muLti-layered rmythm subju&ated in Ounces listening strata to background noise, was joined by the hum from a hundred disk ddves throughout the office building. Ounce did hot hear/listen hut these non-setective sounds were unconsciously regulating his hearing, speaking, thinking, moving. He became ambidextrous. His typing improved, becoming so much more efficient, at one with his keyboard he could almo~t forget about his even, movement, so natural, unthinking and pre-designed. His counting improved, he could tell the time without locking at the clock. Re became temporally and spatially more self-aware as though he had an internal clock, which allowed him to segment his day week and hour perfectly. This use oftime alloweti him to concentrate on his wishes, creativity, desire to be wild, to think about bus tbure be self-reflective, productive. This had a spiritu~ benefit, an awakening, like a drug (but organizational and rationalizing not dislocating). emitted by omnipresent buzzing involuntarily coordinated his scratching leg, twflch, stutter, His life-signs became sub- As he sat down to his desk; he felt not in control of his own physicality. This he put down to drink and got on with work. All the while in the background/foreground, noise is like skin the sound of the dot-matrix/disk drive buzz whirr chatter sweep constant digital rhythm tapped on his eardrums and started to regulate (imperceptibly at first) Ounce's cognisance, his thought patterns. his breathing his blinking, becoming digitally synchronised. On or Off, measured; digitally efficient. This was just the start 0 a process which occurred over the next week or so. He would begin to notice certain changes happening Frach morning spookily, he woke upjust before his radio alarm went off. As he got on the bus, his ticket was being printed out, ever before he had stated his destination and tendered the correct fare. These were external changes, which he found amusing, yet thought not a lot about. The personal character changes, and changes that OLhnce Pelt bound tn make, were also ofinterest. He enjoyed fluid funky music before the monient of change, but more and more found himself listening to techno, industrial sounds, even tinding musical pleasure in a ticking clock, the i-evolutions of his tumble dyer. The annovance felt when car alarms or house burglar alarms 6 Inteiface" © 19970 J Maim sourded during the day had faded to become a perverse pleasBre, antI when two or more went off at the same timQ oh the joy It was logical imperative enjoyment, he felt compelled. Throughout this transforination his way of clothing himself took various turns Almost immediately he rejected colours, instead preferring monotone regular patterned shirts and canvas trousers (this was a faidy obvious first step as we reminisce). When he discovered fractal patterns ard Niardeibrot boy oh boy Hawaijar shirtsi! The depth ofcolour. Correspondence to friends and his once well kept diary (now in order to his life/existence becomes diarize-flinction), takes the format or circuit diagranis/program listings rationalizing every aspect and ~ging conventional signs to convey complex emotional messages. Increasingly the letters lie receives from friends these messages >do not compute> His life becomes a series of binay logical decisions which can be traced back rough simple flow charts. These take the place of his diary, which used to be filled with pictures and colourful language, doodles drawn during the day to keep nm sane His memory becomes like a computer database, storing and accessing alpha-numenc inforniation witlh cross-coded linkages helping him think inure human. rIle way he took to combirg his hair in a very particutar way one could count the rdges made by the specially selected comb. 7 '~Intedace" © lee? 0 J Mellor At work it was the same story though not only did he find his basic body-flinctions regulated or controlled by what could be described as some elertro-rhythmical foroc; as he becomes more receptive he is a receiver of electro-static-magnetic-wave-impulses, which surround us all, but to which we are largely obli~ous (except the occasional hum). lie understands the nature of a digital alarm clock the philosophy of an engine management system; the brutal uncompromising character of the production line control computer in the factory neKt door (not to mention its foul language and bad use of grammar). This is initially higtdy novel atd interesting liberating for a man who had been so unreceptive since starting his job three years ago. As he became more receptive he could also use his techno-force factor to program his more complex day-to-day actic,nb suuh a~ wa~king, small talk laughing his work, He could program better/more efficiently acquired by him. improvement in his doing far less. Th perceivint any loss much more lo'ing, better persor. preparing food, personal hygiene, even niaking love. these functions so that he could perform them - that he had done before tllis strange skill/Corce was His work-mates/managers starred to see a marked wo'.kload/peribrmance, even though he was in-body C same went for his girlfi-icrid and family who, not of character intimacy or warmth? found Ounce to be caring, charming, sexy, potent: generally an all round He could section/compartrientalize his brain and use his 24-hour day writing/thinking/making art work/surfing the ret/interfacing with other computers and processors on a neural-natural level (most had unstistaining S '~Intedac&' 0 leer n J Metlor conversational capabilitie~ so this became quite dull). on a parallel level. This meant he could be totallv absent a way he never before thought possible- Turned off tuned in- He had always could go off on travelling) to operating. No- been a bit of a day dreamer, but in this extreme way, he one big brain bender for days or weeks on end (like time emerge his pro-programmed 'real life hi ncti0ns'~ still one had 'nissed him and l,c hadri missed out ~antasy takes pracuce and you're getting better all the trme. To Ounce this was the real Cybenspace: a place or space he had ci~ated with the help of this computer-aided braiji- lie could go and live virtually. while the rest of the world went by, controlled and super efficient; managed by machines. Solitary, contact mainly with machines; ally- cyl)el--contact will' humans is done using technological agents. Vour desires, loves, fantasies, what you really want to be doing, is played out by your mind, while your body and basic mind flinction goes on earning money keeping friends, caung, exercising etc., in parallel Whilst Stirviving bodily in the present; he is able to live in his own past, accessing the electronic brains of survei~lance Systems, banking computers, GPs' databases, mains electi-ical appliances, entertainment box offices; work computers, bus ticket machines, shop ulls. This described his etiltural identity (and also his parallel; atLiomaric one) in a physically intangible way yet directly linked to his actions, the materialism of today's society. Flis free-computer cyher-ideal was simply a tool of a materialistic society. This depressed him. His 9 "Interface" 0 laS? b J Mellor cylber-spatial fantasy was not a pure expression of his freedom from constraints of modern livin~ even using those constraints in an alternate way to express himself more Freely. those constraints-
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, he caught a virus. how this started affecting the way/accuracy/speed information is communicated around the body OlOlOlOlOl digital data is made up of on/off polar messages:, meaning is affected when communications are virused/flawed. Opposite meaning is conveyed like tree probability diagrams, confusion occurs in switches virus affected paths lead to varying outcomes, a confu~ion occurs He could emerge, from a long period of logged-in cyber-spatial fantasy living out, and not know where he was. Me was only truly distressed in his own mind-space, but the cold-virus was markedly affecting the smooth running of his real-life programs, which were supposed to take care 0£ his day to day living. melancholic feelings come about. Cold, physical and mental dysfunction-junction. The things that once made Ounce happy were to work, to produce, to externalise, to paint to draw, to speak in his own language, to write, to think, to act, to do. All of these things, however, were gradually suppressed by a daily regime of banality which stuck His brain in safe mode and sucked the energy out of his once vital limbs. He thought he had become liberated from that, but now those things are also impossible to recapture. He realises the distance between his off-line mind cyber-self and his on-line, real world, mental and physical exo-skeleton. He i~: free, but can gain no concrete enjoyment from the world. Or cyberspace. He is flimsy. a representation of himself and the realisation that he cannot ever again experience reality is scary.
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