Window
Original reading here
Last week in class we talked a lot about the penetrability (or impenetrability) of digital walls. In thinking about the affordances of windows, this brings up some interesting thoughts. Physically instantiated windows, generally, are two-way viewing devices. Though the reciprocity of viewing is often mediated by heights and angles that make it uneven (someone viewing a street from above is able to see much more of a scene than someone on the street below looking up and into a window). When one is looking out, one is aware that someone can look in at the same time. Using the screen-as-window metaphor, this shifts the paradigm.. The internet is a window into so many things, but I am not being viewed while I am gazing through it. I think this indicates a crucial difference between the physical window and all later iterations of such. Though yes, as mentioned above, when one is in a darkly lit room, it is possible to look out the window at someone without them noticing, there is still the knowledge of the possibility that one may be being observed - this knowledge, on some level, has an effect our behaviors while viewing.
It’s interesting to take a look at the ways in which environmental circumstances mediate the reciprocity of viewing. I am reminded of taking the train from New York to California - on long haul Amtrak rides from Chicago on, there is a viewing car that is almost all windows, from floor to ceiling. The seats swivel 360degrees and one is able to gaze out on the landscape and towns that you go hurtling through. The residents of these towns, however, have no ability to look into the train’s windows, because of the speed at which it travels. The Savannah preference in motion I suppose.
posted by Amanda @ 5:23 PM,
