The Interface Effect

Interfaces are back, or perhaps they never left. The familiar Socratic conceit from the Phaedrus, of communication as the process of writing directly on the soul of the other, has returned to center stage in today's discussions of culture and media.Indeed Western thought has long construed media as a grand choice between two kinds of interfaces.Following the optimistic path, media seamlessly interface self and other in a transparent and immediate connection.But, following the pessimistic path, media are the obstacles to direct communion, disintegrating self and other into misunderstanding and contradiction.In other words, media interfaces are either clear or complicated, either beautiful or deceptive, either already known or endlessly interpretable. Recognizing the limits of either path, Galloway charts an alternative course by considering the interface as an autonomous zone of aesthetic activity, guided by its own logic and its own ends: the interface effect.Rather than praising user-