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Jeanyoon Choi (b.1999) is a Computational Artist researching in interconnectivity and complexity through Multi-Device Web Artworks.

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jeanyoon.ch@oi /oi % cat brutal-interface-naked-interface

Brutal Interface/Naked Interface

2024-08-08

A brutal—or naked—interface makes its own algorithmic construction visible. I borrow the architectural idea of a structure that exposes the mechanisms normally concealed by its finish.

In Ω, the initial interface appears orderly and natural. As interaction develops, readable questions give way to fragments of code and eventually binary text. The aim is to expose layers that ordinarily precede the polished words a participant sees.

The implementation stages that exposure through an increasing omegaCount. It first wraps a question in component markup, then reveals conditional state expressions, function arguments and response paths. Later it displays a representation of the API request itself. Finally the text becomes bits, and the compressed line height turns those bits into a dense surface.

There is a problem with this approach. The exposure is itself an additional, carefully authored interface. I am not simply removing a cover and letting the existing structure appear. I am writing extra conditional statements to simulate the act of uncovering it.

The Centre Pompidou suggests the distinction. Its exposed services are part of the building’s actual operation. An ideal brutal interface might similarly reveal its structure through subtraction. My current version in Ω adds a representation of that structure. It intends to uncover the mechanism, but risks producing another image of a mechanism instead.

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