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Digital Interfaces as complex systems of communication

MAGINES
conceptual design principles

This search begins with an obvious observation — and the contradiction it reveals.

The Observation:
Over the past forty years, digital interfaces have become the primary medium of global communication.
They have reshaped how we perceive the world and one another, affecting not only what we think, but HOW we think:

1. DIGITAL INTERFACES ARE TODAY OUR UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.

The Contradiction:
While we are fluent in this language, we remain largely inarticulate within it.
We can populate pre-existing templates with content, yet the ability to transform the structure of the interface itself remains the privilege of a few.

2. OURS IS A CULTURE OF GENERALIZED ILLITERACY.

This condition gives rise to the central questions of this search:

What if we could collectively communicate through digital interface language — not merely within it?

What are the true potentials of the digital interface as image, as language?

What kinds of realities might then emerge?

What follows is a response to these questions.
Our aim is to imagine creative uses of digital interfaces — digital interfaces as art — free from the constraints of templates.
To envision new practices of communication that empower individuals and communities to forge their own voices and manifest their online existences on their own terms.

We begin with an examination of the structures and grammars of digital interfaces — their graphical user interfaces (GUIs), their hyperlinked architectures, and the psychotechnologies that shape attention, cognition, and relation.

By deciphering the metaphors that govern their design, we can arrive at principles for imagining other interfaces — interfaces that educe reflection, play, and world-making.

In our approach we will consider GUIs, hyperlink structures, and psychotechnologies as a holistic field — both technical and symbolic, material and cognitive. We will call these systems MAGINES

Toward an Art of Digital Interfaces