Haptic Perception Meets Interface Aesthetics: Cultural Representations of Touchscreen Technology in the Aftermath of the iPhone 2007
Katheryn Wright · Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities · 2017
The touchscreen is something other than a boundary between real and illusory worlds, or what Anne Friedberg (2009) calls a "virtual window" (p.96).The aesthetics of that 'something else' is not determined by the technology itself, but by its use in a myriad of cultural practices including how it is represented as a commodity and an experience.This article examines the representation of touchscreen technology following the release of the iPhone in 2007, comparing a Nine Inch Nails rock concert and Blackberry commercial from 2008 with Bjork's album/app Biophilia and an American Express advertisement from 2011.Comparing these media experiences reveals a representational shift that occurs between the introduction of the touchscreen and the cultural integration of this technology just three years later.A focus on breaking through the frame of the screen shifts into screen interfaces as the building blocks for the virtual construction of "hybrid space" (De Souza e Silva, 2006).