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Subject: Bandwidth and the Deceiving Beauty of the Interface
From: micz <h0444ygr@rz.hu-berlin.de>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 17:21:28 METDST

* * * * *


Bandwidth and the Deceiving Beauty of the Interface<P>

1997, Micz Flor<P><BR>

Where bandwidth defines the ground to build on the interface
becomes the architecture (and compression the construction
work).<P>

With the problem of the global pipelines being the limitation
of bandwidth comes a new problem to the browser near you...
To deal with limited bandwidth means to rely on compression.
WYSIWYG is what the screen displays. The product on the end
of the line is what the machine (i.e. computer) constructs
for you.<P>

Broadcasting on the net means to think of effective ways to
reduce the amount of information. Spot the paradox: the more
redundancy you find in the original information the more of
the information can be sent at a given period of. This is one
way of dealing with information. Jpeg comes to mind, real
audio, or the trend to use black and white gifs instead of
full colour. Compression on that level is always a
compromise. How close can you get to the 'real thing'? <P>

The other way is trying to explain to the machine what the
'real thing' is - without sending any particular or specific
information about it. HTML works along these lines (version
1.0 - in the land of no tables and noframes). VRML does the
same thing. The information which needs to be brought across
is reduced to the idea behind the 'thing'. Instead of
transporting the complete information of a cube one only
needs to transmit the command to built a cube. Control files
of that kind can get away with low bandwidth and maximum
consumer pleasure at the other end - given the fact the plug
in works... The solution becomes a philosophical challenge.
How many 'things' is the 'real thing'? (cross-platform
compatibility is the key word - the relation between the
world, perception, cognition and cross-platform applications
goes beyond evolutionary philosophy...). What we rely on is
the appropriate reconstruction of information.<P>

On-line: compression is the aesthetic prosthesis of
information. In the context of mutual influence between the
application and the compression it establishes an aesthetic
on its own. <P>

Beauty is in the control files of the beholder and vectors
become the personal style of the producer. Following the
observation that computer based text editing is a writing
tool which does not produce 'one' text but many texts (of
which at any time one is the most recent 'one'), we might
think that this multi-version chaos is over once we decide to
call it a day and publish the latest version. ...only to find
that we are facing another chaos. <P>

The act of distribution relies on compression and creates a
situation in which the so called final and distributed
version again becomes 'many texts'. What is being broadcasted
is a file with instructions of how to create the display of
information at the other end. And there is only limited
control over that process. There an amount of trust on either
side of the line. The sender transfers his/her product in a
form which can be expanded, extracted or constructed at the
other end. The receiver relies on the capacity of it's tool
(i.e. computer) to expand, extract or construct the
information without losing any of the content. <P>

At first sight this seems to be a design problem but in fact
it is a content problem. The Hybrid WorkSpace page itself
with it's Java applets and frames is only one example of a
content based project which relies on the process of coding
and decoding. (It has been tested for many browsers, but how
can one be sure? There is as many uncertainties as there is
browsers.) Many times this effect is consciously used by
projects dealing with disinformation or negative interaction.
Check the source files of some of the 'net art projects' on
the documenta server (this is not my definition - just using
the consensus terminology to make communication easier).
Inside the files you view there is more information than you
are able to extract by merely using the browser. [or try:
http://www.b.shuttle.de/art-bag/bandwidth/ which contains
this text three times].<P>

The browser is a device constructed to make the problems and
limitations of bandwidth invisible. And by being such an
'active' device it also blanks out parts which it either does
not understand or does not want to understand or is not
allowed to show. The control of the control file has an
impact on the information. At that stage the surface reveals
the interface. Just like the sudden pause in the real audio
transmission the lack of information is the emergence of the
interface. Is the nature of the medium?<P>

The problem: WYSIWYG is an idealised axiom which might even
derive from the intention of the French or American
revolution. The browser is an application which tries to make
us believe to be the same. But: what you see is what your
operating system, your browser and your plug ins understand -
and if you are lucky that is what you were intended to get.
<P>

Compression is the content prosthesis of information on the
net. In the context of mutual influence between the
application and the compression it establishes a content on
its own.