Map publishes ambient technology e-paper
The graphic design for The Future of Ambient Technology: The view from Map, an e-paper produced by Map Project Office (image: Studio.Build)
Map Project Office, a London-based industrial design practice, has published an e-paper looking at ambient technology.
Titled The Future of Ambient Technology: The view from Map, the e-paper discusses the rise of connected devices in the home, and proposes design strategies for the creation of such devices. “When designed well, [ambient technology] can improve our lives, enhancing the way in which we consume information and allowing us to behave as we would normally and go about our day,” Map says.
Written by industrial designers Jamie Cobb, Matthew Cockerill and Chris Weightman, the e-paper is intended to interrogate the ways in which design treats ambient technology, setting out principles and ideas for its successful integration in domestic settings. “We think there’s an argument for actually making [technologies] obvious again and not blending them in so people know how wired that home is,” writes the studio. “When I go into somebody’s home, how do I know how sensitive and responsive or intelligent it is? How about making some physical elements in the room to make things clear?”
To mark the release of the e-paper, which can be accessed here, Disegno is pleased to republish one of the articles from the publication: ‘Ambient technology and the screen’.
Ambient technology and the screen
The e-paper features illustrations and graphic design by Studio.Build.
Computer scientist Mark Weiser coined the term ubiquitous computing in 1988, over 30 years ago: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear, they will weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” In other words predicting the merging together of our physical analogue world with the digital world. The development of ambient technology has not had the luxury of being developed from the ground up with its own vocabulary, instead being conceived as a medium to replicate what happens on a screen. But the amount of information you get on a screen isn’t congruent with ambient computing.
What happens generally when the technology comes along to move beyond screens is people ask how would our screen-based experience play out in the ambient space? For example, they might ask how they control music with their voice, taking an existing idea and making it become ambient. Looking beyond this, Map is focussed on the new behaviours that this technology will enable rather than how it can support already existing needs. The obvious thing would be extrapolating out the dots of the straight line of the experience, but to ask whether this unlocks totally new behaviours in the home is a more interesting question.
“Ambient tech shouldn’t just be replicating what’s happening on the screen, as that’s a battle where the screen is always going to win.”
Screens are sometimes thought of as not being human, while ambient tech tends to be seen as more empathetic because it is controlled by gestures or behaviours. In fact, a screen is a very human thing in the way that we gesturally input onto it. Ambient tech shouldn’t just be replicating what's happening on the screen, as that’s a battle where the screen is always going to win thanks to it being the most efficient and the richness it has as a medium.
Our approach is therefore not to replace the screen, a tablet for example is a really beautiful way to interact with that technology. In addition to this, there are simpler lo-fi things that can help us to achieve a balanced relationship with technology and that can live alongside this existing archetype. With a screen, you lean forward, are immersed and focussed on the task at hand.
Lean back experiences allow us to facilitate doing other things whilst getting information, we are not wholly reliant on that singular transfer of information and can instead have a more nuanced information exchange. We can ‘lean-back’ with the right ambient tech, giving people more choice about the way they communicate and stay connected, picking the appropriate tool at hand for our data consumption.
The full The Future of Ambient Technology: The view from Map e-paper may be read here.