Abstract
Digitalization reveals the world in new varieties and forms. This power to unveil not only transforms human outreach and actions, but also changes our conceptions; about whom we are, about our uses and about human horizons for sense-making. In this paper, I explore experience design and the aesthetic turn in contemporary research in human–computer interaction and interaction design. This rather recent interest in aesthetic experience is in my view a move away from a view of digitalization as instances of objects aligned in networks, with certain features, qualities and properties, towards an understanding of digitalization as a relation to the world, to itself, and to what it means to be human (e.g. Technology and the character of contemporary life. A philosophical inquiry. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984, Holding on to reality. The nature of information at the turn of the millennium. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999; Questioning technology. Routledge, New York, 1999; The question concerning technology and other essays. Harper and Row, New York, 1977; Technology and the lifeworld, from garden to earth. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1990). As such my attempt in this text is to outline a conceptual account concerning what it might mean to designate digitalization as experienced rather than as what we traditionally think of it—as a cause of what we perceive. The paper is based on some previous work suggesting that a focus on the beauty of digitalization (i.e. the beast) entails the possibility to investigate ambiguous meanings of digitalization, meanings that are intrinsic to digitalization but have so far received little or no attention. My suggestion is that there are aesthetic and/or sublime dimensions inherent in digitalization that involves the realization of meaning that are becoming increasingly important in both use and design of digital materials. Hence, the particular focus on aesthetics as implied by the title of this text refers to a pervasive quality harbouring meaning that through a phenomenological lens could be regarded as the material basis of digitalization. The paper concludes that it is crucial to conduct more thorough studies of the relationship between aesthetics and digitalization if we are truly interested in exploring the potential of digitalization in our lives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bakardijeva-Rizova M (2000) The internet in everyday life: computer networking from the standpoint of the domestic user, PhD Thesis, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada: School of Communication
Bakhtin M (1990) Art and answerability: early philosophical essays. University of Texas Press, Austin
Benedikt M (1991) Cyberspace—first steps. MIT Press, Cambridge
Boland R (1987) The in-formation of information systems. In: Boland R, Hirscheim R (eds) Critical issues in information systems research. Wiley, Chichester
Borgmann A (1984) Technology and the character of contemporary life. a philosophical inquiry. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Borgmann A (1999) Holding on to reality. The nature of information at the turn of the millennium. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Croon Fors A (2006) Being-with information technology: critical explorations beyond use and design. PhD Thesis, Umeå University, Sweden: Department of Informatics
Csikzentmihaly M, Rochberg-Halton E (1981) The meaning of things. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Dewey J (1934) Art as experience. Perigee Books, New York
Dourish P (2001) Where the action is. The foundations of embodied interaction. MIT Press, Cambridge
Ess C (1999) Cultural attitudes toward technology and communication: new directions of research in computer-mediated communication. AI Soc 13:329–340
Fällman D (2003) In romance with the materials of mobile interaction. A phenomenological approach to the design of mobile information technology, PhD Thesis, Umeå University, Sweden: Department of Informatics
Feenberg A (1995) Alternative technology. The technical turn in philosophy and social theory. London, UK, Routledge
Feenberg A (1999) Questioning technology. Routledge, New York
Feenberg A (2005) Heidegger and Marcuse: the catastrophe and redemption of history. Routledge, New York
Hassenzahl M, Tractinsky N (2006) User experience: a research agenda. Behav Inf Technol 25(2):91–97
Heidegger M (1971) Poetry, language and thought. Harper & Row, New York
Heidegger M (1977) The question concerning technology and other essays. Harper and Row, New York
Heim M (1987) Electric language. A philosophical study of word processing. Yale University Press, New Haven
Husserl E (1931) Ideas: general introduction to pure phenomenology. George Allen and Unwin, London
Ihde D (1990) Technology and the lifeworld, from garden to earth. Indiana University Press, Bloomington
Ihde D (2008) Aging: I don’t want to be a cyborg! Phenomenol Cogn Sci 7:397–404
Kazmierczak E (2003) Design as meaning making: from making things to the design of thinking. Des Issues 29(2):45–59
Laurel B (1993) Computers as theatre. Addison-Wesley, Reading
McCarthy J, Wright P (2004) Technology as experience. MIT Press, Cambridge
Norman D (2004) Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic Books, New York
Nye D (1994) American technological sublime. MIT Press, Cambridge
Nye D (2006) Technology matters. Questions to live with. MIT Press, Cambridge
Oudshoorn N, Pinch T (2005) How users matters. The co-construction of users and technology. MIT Press, Cambridge
Petersen MG, Iversen OS, Krogh PG, Ludvigsen M (2004) Aesthetic interaction—a pragmatist’s aesthetics of interactive systems. In: Proceedings of the 5th ACM conference on designing interactive systems processes, practices, methods and techniques, pp 269–276
Ramirez R (1991) The beauty of social organizations. ACCEDO, Munich
Rasmussen LB (2007) From human-centred to human-context centred approach: looking back over ‘the hills’, what has been gained and lost? AI Soc 21(4):471–495
Redström J (2001) Designing everyday computational things, PhD Thesis, Göteborg University, Sweden: Department of Informatics
Redström J (2006) Towards user design? On the shift from object to user as the subject of design. Des Stud 27:123–139
Redström J (2008) RE: definitions of use. Des Stud 29:410–423
Schutz A (1975) On phenomenology and social relations. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Sengers P, Gaver B (2006) Staying open to interpretation. Engaging multiple meanings in design and evaluation. Des Interact Sys (DIS), June 26–28
Shedroff N (2001) Experience design, Indianapolis. In: New Riders
Spiegelberg H (1982) The phenomenological movement: a historical introduction. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, London
Stolterman E, Croon Fors A (2008) Critical HCI—a research position proposal. Des Philos Pap 1
Tractinsky N (1997) Aesthetics and apparent usability: empirically assessing cultural and methodological issues. In: Proceedings of CHI 97, pp 115–122, ACM Press
Tractinsky N, Hassenzahl M (2005) Arguing for aesthetics in human–computer interaction. I-com 4(3):66–68
Tractinsky N, Shoval-Katz A, Ikar D (2000) What is beautiful is usable. Interact Comput 13(2):127–145
Turkle S (1995) Life on the screen, Identity in the age of the internet. Simon & Schuster, New York
Turner P (2008) Being-with: a study of familiarity. Interact Comput 20:447–454
Udsen L, Erik J, Helms A (2005) The aesthetic turn: unravelling recent aesthetic approaches to human–computer interaction. Digit Creat 16(4):205–216
Verbeek P-P (2008) Cyborg intentionality: rethinking the phenomenology of human-technology relations. Phenomenol Cogn Sci 7:387–395
Wright P, Wallace J, McCarthy J (2008) Aesthetics and experience-centered design. ACM Trans Comput Hum Interact 15(4), Article 18
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fors, A.C. The beauty of the beast: the matter of meaning in digitalization. AI & Soc 25, 27–33 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0236-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0236-z