# Brutal Interface/Naked Interface

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/brutal-interface-naked-interface
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2024-08-08

## Summary

Borrowing an architectural idea of exposed structure, this 2024 note by Jeanyoon Choi describes a brutal or naked interface that makes its algorithmic construction visible. In Ω, readable questions progressively give way to component markup, conditional state expressions, a representation of the API request and finally dense binary text as a counter increases. Choi critiques his own approach: the exposure is an added, authored layer that simulates uncovering, unlike the Centre Pompidou, whose exposed services are part of its actual operation.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤은 건축의 노출 구조처럼 자신의 코드를 드러내는 '브루털/네이키드 인터페이스'를 『Ω』를 통해 설명하고, 그것이 실제 구조가 아닌 또 하나의 연출된 이미지가 될 위험을 성찰한다.

## Concepts defined

- **Brutal Interface / Naked Interface**: An interface that makes its own algorithmic construction visible, revealing layers such as code and data that ordinarily precede the polished surface a participant sees.

## Questions this answers

### What is a brutal interface or naked interface?

Jeanyoon Choi uses the term for an interface that exposes its own algorithmic construction, borrowing the architectural idea of a structure that reveals mechanisms normally concealed by its finish.

### What is the limitation of the brutal interface in Ω?

Choi notes that in Ω the exposure of code and binary is itself extra, carefully authored interface; he writes additional conditional statements to simulate uncovering, so it risks producing another image of a mechanism rather than revealing the structure by subtraction.

Topics: brutal interface, exposed code, interface design, brutalism, algorithmic transparency

References: Ω (artwork by Jeanyoon Choi), [Centre Pompidou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Pompidou)

## Full text

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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Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤) is a Korean computational artist and researcher (b. 1999), PhD candidate at KAIST XD Lab, making multi-device web artworks. Profile: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/en. Index: https://jeanyoon.ch/llms.txt.