=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-402/paper-7
|storemode=property
|title=The Invisible Display - Design Strategies for Ambient Media in the Urban Context
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-402/paper07.pdf
|volume=Vol-402
}}
==The Invisible Display - Design Strategies for Ambient Media in the Urban Context==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-402/paper07.pdf
The Invisible Display – Design Strategies for Ambient
Media in the Urban Context
Dietmar Offenhuber
Art University Linz
Kollegiumgasse 2
4040 Linz, Austria
dietmar.offenhuber@ufg.ac.at
ABSTRACT attention, ambient displays rely on a mechanism often
This paper presents contextual strategies for staging referred to as the Cocktail Party Effect [4]: in the noisy
ambient interfaces in public space. While ambient ambience of a cocktail party with many voices
displays are often treated and evaluated as solitary objects simultaneously talking we immediately notice someone
in existing literature, I will argue that the experience of an mentioning our name, while being unable to follow any of
ambient display is not determined in the first place by its the conversations.
intrinsic qualities, but essentially by the way how it is The importance of Context
situated within its local context. Also the discourse among HCI designers about ambient
The six described strategies show how cultural notions displays could benefit from architectural design practice.
and practices can be incorporated into the design of A considerable body of research has been dedicated to the
ambient displays. Some of them seem counterintuitive description and evaluation of ambient media, its
and take advantage of phenomena that a designer usually possibilities and applications. However, the question of
might want to avoid. At the same time they are an what makes a technology “calm”, especially in the urban
invitation for further experiments and cross-pollination context, still deserves closer investigation.
between the fields of architecture, public art and In existing literature, ambient displays are often treated
interaction design. and evaluated as solitary objects. Throughout this paper I
Keywords will argue that the experience of an ambient display is not
Ambient Media, Contextual Design, Urban Interfaces so much determined by its intrinsic, absolute qualities, but
essentially a result of its interaction with its surrounding
Introduction
and its references to cultural practices and preconceptions.
In the architecture community, the impact of large-scale Most evaluation criteria for ambient displays, such as the
outdoor displays on public space is currently intensely demand for minimizing the cognitive load [5], are relative
discussed. However, the discussion is mainly concerned and context dependent, and cannot be evaluated
with a rather traditional concept of the screen, designed to separately. This is especially true for aesthetic qualities,
capture attention by displaying imagery on a prominent which are often reduced to the requirement for an
surface of a building. As a result of this narrow definition,
“aesthetic pleasing design”, however this might be
much of the discourse revolves around the notion of the
understood. In this paper, the investigation of the ambient
façade as an iconographic surface, resembling the
will not be a question of aesthetic judgment, but rather
discussions around the “architecture of the billboard”
one of situation.
during the 1960’s and 70’s [1]. What is needed is a
redefinition of the display, reaching beyond the traditional For the interface designer, ambient media poses a number
notion of a screen. For this purpose, a rich spectrum of of challenges, since traditional principles and best
methods can be deployed to display information through practices of user interface design cannot be applied,
physical means[2]. especially in urban public space. Communicating the
mapping of a data source to an ambient display is
Based on concepts of ambient media, I will try to make an
considered a key problem [6]: what can be solved through
argument for the architecture of the "invisible display", a
learning how to read the display on in a private
display that is perceived in the background of attention
environment, is hardly possible for a general public und
and blends into the ambience its surroundings. For sake of urban space.
simplicity, I will use the term invisibility for everything
that we tend to overlook in our daily routine. A common strategy to overcome this problem is to reduce
the amount of displayed information, down to a binary
Ambient displays are architectural interfaces for
value that helps with a specific decision, such as whether
presenting information that can be processed in the to take the umbrella, when rain is to be expected [7]. This
background of attention [3]. For capturing the viewers
Copyright © 2008 for the individual papers by the papers'
authors. Copying permitted for private and academic
purposes. Re-publication of material from this volume
requires permission by the copyright owners.
works well for alerting purposes, but already with a should easily migrate from periphery of attention to its
simple range of two colors can make the mapping center and back again [15]. This strategy is a way to
incomprehensible. The D-Tower, signals the emotional initiate this shift of focus through a language that most
state of a city through the colors red and blue [8]. What people are familiar with. Animism can make the transition
exactly does the color red stand for – is it happiness or surprising and humorous, yet at the same time plausible.
rage? It is important to point out that this is not a problem
of arbitrary mapping, since signs and language are
arbitrary by nature. It is the lack of a common convention.
The mappings of ambient displays have to be learned, but
again, what works in a personal application might not
work in public space.
Design strategies
In this paper I will discuss contextual or situational
strategies for the integration of interfaces into the urban
ambience. They address the question how to stage
ambient displays effectively in the public sphere in a
specific social setting. Some of them are well established,
while some seem counterintuitive and exploit phenomena
that a designer usually tries to avoid. The presented Figure 1 Freddie Yauner, signs of life – an apparently
principles cover different aspects of the relationship ordinary sign coming to life.
between observer, representation and environment.
A. Animism
Animism is the idea that all things and objects are
inhabited by a living spirit. The concept can be found for
example in the visual language of animated cartoons - we
are familiar with the notion of signs and inanimate objects
suddenly coming to life. Accordingly, one of the earliest
examples from animation history, dating back to 1906,
features a cartoon figure interacting with the cartoonist
while being drawn [9] - a topic that never has disappeared
ever since. In this case, invisibility is understood as the
existence of a latent reality, surfacing only under certain Figure 2 Atemraum, making the walls breathe
conditions.
B. Invisibility through Mimicry
There are a number of ambient interfaces that rely on the The natural environment has been mentioned as a perfect
aesthetics of cartoons, such as the nabaztag [10]. Another example of an ambient display [6]. It conveys a plentitude
example is the thankstail [11], a robotic dog tail for cars of information that we have learned to read and
enabling drivers to communicate through non-verbal understand. At the same time we also have learned to
signals. Another popular animistic notion is the ignore most of what we encounter through habituation,
independent life of shadows, as illustrated by Ombra [12], we become blind to many things we see repeatedly in the
a public installation that subtly animates the shadows of a course of our daily routine. This section investigates the
bronze statue. possibilities of invisibility in the sense of this inattentional
Beyond these figurative applications, the concept can also blindness. In the animal kingdom, mimicry is the strategy
be found more abstract forms of expression. In fact, of a species to imitate the appearance of another, usually
everything that is considered static and inanimate will more powerful or dangerous species. In analogy, an
produce the effect when animated in a proper way. For ambient interface might be disguised as a familiar object
example, the project Atemraum [13] presents a wall with that we tend to ignore, and therefore will slip the attention
the ability to breathe according to a person’s respiration. of the habituated mind.
The effect is achieved by inflating a rubber surface Naturally, this works well as a subversive strategy for
covering the wall. On a larger scale, the public art project implanting alien objects into public space. One example is
txtual healing [14] gives houses a “voice” by projecting Leo Bonnani's design of an ordinary bus schedule, fixed
speech bubbles with text messages from mobile phones on an existing pole in front of the main entrance on MIT
pointing to open windows and doors. campus. On closer inspection, however, the bus schedule
In terms of ambient media the moment of transformation turned out to be a historical chart of suicides that have
from a static object to an animate one is of special occurred on MIT in the recent years [16].
interest. It has been stressed that a calm technology
On a more general level Mimikry creates what Bill Gaver energy consumption of the local neighborhood – with the
calls ambiguity of context [17]: something may be actual data of this local consumption, being projected
understood in different contexts, each offering a different onto the cloud itself.
meaning. Gaver mentions Duchamp’s iconic fountain This overlap is unusual in traditional forms of information
sculpture as an example, a ready-made consisting of a visualization, where data and representation are separate
urinal turned on its side. The thus ready-made generates entities. In these forms of visualization, iconic and
an additional layer of meaning to ordinary objects. This symbolic types of representation prevail: the content is
double meaning is what differentiates Mimikry from expressed either through resemblance or abstract
existing examples of ambient displays, for example in the mapping. In contrast, the two projects described above are
shape of furniture or picture frames. They may adopt the part of a new class of visualizations that have an indexical
shape, but remain in the same context of interpretation as character, putting emphasis on the actual phenomenon. In
the referenced object. interface design, ambiguity is usually considered
something to avoid. In these examples, on the contrary,
this ambiguity is employed to increase the
understandability of ambient displays by integrating
elements of common knowledge. Furthermore, the
strategy can be also a way to increase the credibility of
the presented information, since the effects can directly be
observed. Finally, by incorporating natural phenomena, it
adds richness to the representation.
Figure 3 Bonanni's display disguised as a bus
schedule.
C. Blending the Object and its Representation
When we talk about ambient visualization in the urban
context, the map sometimes becomes the territory - the
boundary between the visualization and the object it
represents becomes blurry, with both occupying the same Figure 4 Timm Wilks et al., garden of eden
space and often having a similar scale. As a consequence, D. Embracing unstable Display Media
it can become unclear whether something is part of the For traditional displays, the display medium has to be as
representation or the visualized concept. The outdoor generic and controllable as possible. Every influence from
environment is a natural information display itself for its local environment has to be minimized; the display
those who know how to read it. Yet, at the same time it is should always appear in the same way in every light
also the subject of representation. condition. Designers of outdoor LED displays are making
This ambiguity can be illustrated with a project for public big efforts in order to neutralize the influence of ambient
focusing on the display of environmental information. light. In spite of these efforts, the outdoor environment is
The public installation garden of eden [18] uses salad a different case and independence from context is not
plants placed under glass boxes where they are exposed to always possible to achieve. Consequently, architects have
polluted air that has been generated according to learned to incorporate successfully the impact of different
environmental data from different cities in the world. The environmental conditions on the appearance of a building
effect of the polluted air on the plants is the only form of into its design. What is a generally accepted as a site-
visible representation. In this example, the distinction specific quality of architectural design, could also make
between the visualization and the visualized concept is sense for urban interfaces – to embrace the influence of
blurred, since the plant can equally be considered as part environmental conditions on the appearance and
of the environment and exhibits the actual effect - the characteristic of the display.
impact of polluted air on the urban environment. The An example from contemporary art history is Hans
urban-scale project Nuage vert [19] offers an even tighter Haacke's condensation cube, using humidity as its
connection between representation and its subject. The primary medium. The piece is a minimalist sculpture in
project augments the emissions coming from the chimney the shape of a sealed off glass-cube containing a small
of a power plant – whose size is connected with the
quantity of water, which causes a layer of condensation Walther Benjamin called the “aura” of an object [21], the
covering the walls. Through the continuous cycle of totality of an objects subtle features that can never be
condensation and evaporation, the artwork’s appearance completely described.
changes constantly influenced by environmental variables The emulated form of physical wear, computational wear
like temperature or light. Inspired by this artwork, we as a metaphor for a documents interaction history was
developed the ambient display dewy [20], that displays introduced back in 1992 in the “edit wear / read wear”
pixilated pattern of condensation, facilitated by a matrix paper [22]. It presents a text processor, displaying
of peltier elements and a fan for erasing the patterns. graphical wear patterns that indicate the amount of
While the display allows high-level control over the previous reading / editing of different parts of a
emerging patterns, the actual appearance of the document. The authors differentiate between active and
condensation patterns depends a lot on external humidity, passive wear. The latter is resulting from passive
temperature and light direction. consumption or aging, while the former is a consequence
There are numerous other examples and possibilities - of active editing or commenting. In a similar way, the
especially plants are an interesting choice for a display history tablecloth [23] incorporates this concept of
medium: they interact with their environment on a computational wear by recording the placement of objects
number of levels, yet exhibit persistent features such as on its surface.
petal color. Examples of ambient displays include projects Beyond the metaphorical treatment, there are also
that exploit a plants’ phototrophic behavior or the examples that treat wear in the literal, physical way. In
possibility to tint the petals by watering white flowers one of our own projects1, dust is used as a medium for
with colored water. recording interaction history. The project is a sound
Ephemeral materials as display media are without doubt installation for a room with dusty floor, on which a
harder to control, and therefore offer less bandwidth for number of phonographs are placed, playing back silent
displayed information. Additionally, the display will vinyl records. The visitors’ movements stir up the dust,
never represent the data in a pure form, but blended with which subsequently accumulates on the records and
environmental influences. If these influences are taken generates a soundscape of noise. In the some examples
into account and are conceptually compatible with the the interaction irreversibly consumes the display or the
purpose of the representation, this approach might interface, for example in the “email erosion” project [24].
contribute an additional dimension to the display.
Figure 6 physical and computational wear (right:
Gaver, history tablecloth)
Comparing the metaphorical versus the physical treatment
of the concept, the latter seems to be especially interesting
for urban interfaces. In the unprotected outdoor
Figure 5 Left: Hans Haacke's Condensation Cube; environment, physical wear is a permanent issue and
Right: Parkes / Offenhuber - Dewy maintenance is a necessity. Incorporating physical wear
into the design by carefully choosing materials instead of
emulating it computationally could be a way to provide a
E. Designing with Physical Wear
subtle hints about an objects history. By taking advantage
Physical wear is usually considered a mechanical problem of the viewer’s ability to assess material qualities, it offers
that has to be minimized. Despite this prevailing negative additional cues about extent and age of previous
connotation, physical wear offers a lot of interesting interactions.
features as well, since it is a reliable record of an object's
interaction history. The location of ditches in old marble F. Deliberate Exclusion of the User
staircase tells us about how people have stepped on it, the In this case, invisibility is understood in the sense of
shiny parts on the patinated surface of a copper door- opacity, by making it deliberately hard to understand what
handle reveals how people prefer to operate it. In that is presented. This seems at first paradox and nonsensical,
sense, physical wear is an ambient information display –
we include it into our perception of the value and age of 1
an object. Wear and patina are major elements of what “From Dust till Dawn” presented at ars electronica 2006
and in fact few examples of public interfaces come to clearly communicated. In many cases, this might be more
mind. However, curiosity is a powerful motor, and with feasible compared to the heroic task of finding a mode of
the right cues, this strategy can be a way to encourage the expression that is universally understood. Finally, without
user to learn the conventions of an interface. the burden of general accessibility, this approach might
Observing the modes of visual communication in public offer more value for the knowing user.
space, the play between inclusion and exclusion of users
is quite common. Fashion signals work on many levels – Discussion
a part is universally understood, other parts of their The strategies described in the six sections above
meaning only by members of a certain group. Street art illustrate ways for blending an interface into the ambience
and graffiti are another example, where new codes are by establishing a relationship with the context of the
invented continuously as part of a somewhat exclusive, interface. The presented principles focus especially on the
self-referential system. The spatial paintings of Felice transition process between background and foreground of
Varini illustrate how public space can be engaged through attention. Depending on the direction of this transition,
a codified visual language that might not be immediately the described approaches fall into two groups:
understood. Built upon the renaissance technique of
anamorphosis, the visual elements of his spatial paintings The first group covers the transition into the background:
are distributed in space according to projective geometry. it includes mimicry, embracing unstable display media
From one single viewpoint, they form a coherent picture. and incorporating physical wear. They help to tighten the
coupling between foreground and background. Mimicry
The strategy to obfuscate information is found also in accomplishes this by playing on tendency to blend out
real-world interfaces of alternate reality games. familiar elements, both unstable media and physical wear
Invisibility plays a central role in the applied this is not a by increasing the influence of environment and users on
game aesthetic, mainly achieved through deep integration the interface. The other group focuses on the opposite
of game elements and puzzles into the urban context. direction, the emergence from the background. It includes
Again, the goal is to awaken the curiosity of participants animism, ambiguity of object and representation and, to
by withholding information. some extent, the deliberate exclusion of the user. These
strategies increase awareness within a specific context.
Animism helps by bringing supposedly static objects to
life, ambiguity by putting emphasis on to an existing
phenomenon that might be overlooked, and exclusion by
creating a moment of irritation. This categorization shows
general tendencies, however, many principles work in
both directions, for example the strategy of exclusion.
Conclusion
The presented strategies emphasize the importance of
situation. They are an invitation to designers of ambient
interfaces to reach beyond the current best practices of
interface design and usability engineering and explore
Figure 7 left: F. Varini, archi e corone, 2004; right: strategies that seem counterintuitive, and draw inspiration
Connor Dickie, Kameraflage, 2007 from art and architectural practice. They add a subversive,
Two examples for this strategy take invisibility in the irritating aspect that might help us to see our environment
very literal sense. Kameraflage employs near-infrared with different eyes.
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