Interfaces and Us: User Experience Design and the Making of the Computable Subject

201 Pages·2023·4.572 MB·English

by  Zachary Kaiser

INTERFACES AND US
ii
INTERFACES AND US
User-Experience Design and the Making
of the Computable Subject
Zachary Kaiser
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
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First published in Great Britain 2023
Copyright © Zachary Kaiser, 2023
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CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments x
About the Author xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
Laws of Love 1
The Historical and Conceptual Underpinnings of the Computable
Subjectivity 6
Are We and Our World Nothing but Data? 7
Fragmentation, Prediction, and Identity 7
New Normals and New Morals 8
Is the Computable Subjectivity Actually the Problem? If So,
What Do We Do? 9
Concluding by Way of Beginning 9
The Co-Constitutive Nature of Design, Design Scholarship, and
Design Education 10
Notes 12
1 HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ROOTS OF THE
COMPUTABLE SUBJECTIVITY 15
Introduction: Disrupting the Insurance Industry—“Convenience”
and “Freedom” 15
Producing and Looping, or, Biopolitics and Biopower 19
The Value of Convenience 22
Freedom and Countercultural Technocracy 24
The Selfish System: Cybernetics and Rational Choice Theory 25
Markets as Information Processors: Cybernetics and Economics 31
The Neoliberal Governmentality 32
Conclusion: Foundations and Ramifications 34
Notes 35
2 DATA=WORLD 39
Introduction: Can You “See” Your Dream Data? 39
Data and World: An Origin Story 45
Computational Instrumentation: Templates and Translations 47
How Computational Instruments Disappear 52
Conclusion: The Great Inversion, or, Operationalism’s Legacy 59
Notes 62
3 PREDICTION AND THE STABILIZATION OF
IDENTITY 65
Introduction: The Scrambling of Algorithmic Anticipation 65
The Digital Production of Fragmentation and Alienation 70
Ontological Insecurity: One Consequence of Fragmentation
and Alienation 74
The Digital Mirror Self: Soothing Ontological Insecurity with
Computation 75
The Role of UX in Producing, then Soothing, Ontological Insecurity 76
Consequences: Soft Biopower and the Proscription of Potential 87
Conclusion: Becoming Cyborgs 88
Notes 89
4 THE MORAL IMPERATIVE OF NORMALITY
THROUGH COMPUTATIONAL OPTIMIZATION 93
Introduction: The Optimized Professor and the Pressures of
Optimization 93
Measurement, Normality, and Morality: Two Origin Stories 99
The Moral Imperative of Self-Optimizing Technologies: The Case of
the Amazon Halo 103
Consequences: Anxiety, Superfluity, and the Instrumentalization of
Interpersonal Interaction 110
Datafied Superfluity: Bullshit Jobs, Bullshit People, and Teaching
from beyond the Grave 111
Conclusion: Fighting for Servitude as if It Were Salvation 120
Notes 121
vi CONTENTS
5 THE QUESTIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND
THE ROLE OF DESIGN EDUCATION 127
Introduction 127
Question 1: The Issue of Political Economy and Chile’s Socialist
Cybernetics 128
Question 2: The Role of Design Education in Resisting the “Reality” of
the Computable Subjectivity 133
Conclusion: Returning to Political Economy and the Limits of the Reformist
Approach 145
Notes 147
CONCLUSION: TOWARD A LUDDITE DESIGN
EDUCATION 153
The Politics of UX and the Computable Subject as the Ideal Political
Subject 153
The Lingering Problem: The Computable Subjectivity and Political
Economy 155
The Revolutionary Approach: Luddite Design Education 156
A Provisional Program of Luddite Design Education 162
A Luddite Design Education, Now 164
Notes 164
Bibliography 166
Index 179
CONTENTS vii
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Dr. Pawel Norway’s treatise: Computable Transformations of
Human Qualities to Those of a Visible Dream Memory. Courtesy the
Author 40
2.2 An enlargement of one of the plates from Dr. Norway’s book.
Courtesy the author 40
2.3 A subject viewing their algorithmically generated dream visualization.
Courtesy the author 41
2.4 A subject viewing their algorithmically generated dream visualization.
Courtesy the author 42
2.5 An image of the mobile interface for the Feel® app. © 2022 Feel
Therapeutics Inc., all rights reserved 55
2.6 An image of the mobile interface for the Feel® app. © 2022 Feel
Therapeutics Inc., all rights reserved 57
3.1 The Whisper prototype in a museum exhibition, 2014. Courtesy the
author 66
3.2 An example of Whisper’s output. Courtesy the author 66
3.3 Another example of Whisper’s output. Courtesy the author 67
3.4 Google’s Nest Hub interface. Courtesy Google. © 2021 Google LLC.
All rights reserved 79
3.5 Google’s Nest Hub data integrated with its Google Fit mobile
application. Courtesy Google. © 2021 Google LLC. All rights
reserved 80
3.6 The interface for Ōura’s app, including “readiness” (November 2021).
Courtesy Ōura. © 2021 Ōura Health Oy. All rights reserved 82
3.7 The Ōura website’s hero image as of October 2021. Courtesy Ōura.
© 2021 Ōura Health Oy. All rights reserved 82
3.8 The interface concept for Google’s AI Assistant in the eponymous
patent application, 2021. Image USPTO 83
3.9 One screen from Mindstrong’s patient-facing interface. Courtesy
Mindstrong 86
3.10 Mindstrong user interface for providers. Courtesy Mindstrong 86
4.1 ScholarStat’s Faculty Productivity Index “Ticker,” a device similar to
a stock ticker that would sit outside professors’ offices. Courtesy the
author 94
4.2 A still from a film in which ScholarStat’s faculty-facing interface is
featured. Courtesy the author 95
4.3 An image of the Amazon Halo App interface. Courtesy Amazon
Press Center 108
4.4 A screenshot of the interface to the scholars.msu.edu dashboard.
Courtesy Academic Analytics, © 2005–21, Academic Analytics,
LLC. All Rights Reserved 114
4.5 A screenshot of the interface to the scholars.msu.edu dashboard.
Courtesy Academic Analytics, © 2005–21, Academic Analytics,
LLC. All Rights Reserved 114
4.6 A screenshot from one of the Microsoft MyAnalytics emails that were
sent to me. Courtesy Microsoft 117
4.7 Microsoft Productivity Score administrative UI. Courtesy Microsoft 118
5.1 An image from the Elixir project. Courtesy Lorenza Centi 140
5.2 An image from the Elixir project. Courtesy Lorenza Centi 141
5.3 Christina Dennis’s social credit scoring exhibition prototype and
performance piece. Courtesy Christina Dennis 143
5.4 The prototypical social credit score shown to visitors as part of
Christina’s piece. Courtesy Christina Dennis 144
LIST OF FIGURES ix