Delicate Balance is an interactive work designed to allow
a Siamese Fighting fish to determine the direction that it moves along
a wire, so it can explore its environment, beyond the limits of the
tank. Bettas like many fish have excellent sight, giving them the
ability to see far outside the tank. The Betta determines its direction
by crossing one of two break-beams which activate a motor to move
the tank in the direction which the fish looks to the outside world.
The best real/virtual machine interactions are those that are
transparent to the users, be it a fish or human being. If we do not
sense the mechanisms by which we communicate with the machine and the
machine-interface instead senses our presence, desires or needs
(expanding our vision) then this user interface can be thought of as
transparent.
The convergence of sense extension and computer-mediated intelligence
continues to collapse the gap between the organic and inorganic world.
While these systems expand the spectrum of senses available to humans
and sometimes to other animals, I wonder if they will be used with the
proper spirit? Intelligent systems or sense extension lenses are getting
progressively more transparent and embedding themselves into deeper
levels of our sensorium and culture whether they offer real value or
not.
Thus the perceptual aberrations that may occur are often less clear as
they have in effect joined with our senses. Language, glass lenses and
electronic senses are simultaneously forming and informing our
understanding of the complexity of natural systems. It seems logical
that human based systems should be designed with ecological principles
in mind, to permit sustainable interdependent systems of humans, animals
and the technotope.
