Liquid interface as a metatool

Abstract

A little more than 2 years after the last great wave of digitization, a consequence of the physical distancing necessary to control the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clearer than ever that we live in a culture mediated by interfaces. Everywhere we go we find ourselves surrounded, analyzed and processed by screens, smartphones, thermometers, microphones, sensors and cameras, the number of interfaces is constantly increasing to satisfy the desires of technologies, users and markets.

In its simplest definition an interface is understood as a technological artifact optimized for interaction and functionality capable of linking a user to a device / a device to another / a data network to those who analyze them. However, the interface also feeds into cultural and artistic traditions and plays an important role in our culture as art, entertainment, communication, work, education and business. It is a cultural way with which we interact, act, feel and create our world. In other words, it not only mediates between users and, but also between culture and echnological materiality (data, algorithms and networks).

This thematic essay proposes to rethink the interface from its liquid condition through metaphor and to situate ourselves in a contemporary scenario that requires understanding technological devices of amplified use as meta-tools, starting from the question: How to think of the interface as a cultural mediator when symbolic, ideological and political layers cross it beyond its objectuality?