Interface Avant-garde and Media
Steven Johnson recently pointed to a review of his book Interface Culture (a groundbreaking text and still a frequent reference for my own writing). In his review, William Blaze, questions the existence of an interface avant-garde subculture that Johnson discussed in his work. Blaze claims that there seems to be a microculture(s) but nothing that could constitute a subcuIture. I have to leave the distinction of microculture and subculture up to the cultural critics simply because I don’t understand it, but I do understand what constitutes avant-garde and I think a lot of innovation in interface design and art has already happened. I think part of the reason for a lack of awareness of this fact however, is do to a general misunderstanding of what constitutes interface design and what defines media.
