aesthetics

The aesthetics of a tool can bring us joy, discomfort, peace, or any number of emotional responses. People made the decisions about the user interface, the possible workflows, the graphics and design, etc. with, one would hope, the end-user in mind. These emotional responses happen in the body and have various sensual responses. Culkin, making a pun on message, likens our tools to massages because of how they affect our sensual experience....

The visual components of both information and how we interact with information (such as using arrows to draw connections in the quotation below) reinforce the sensual aspect of working with information, knowledge, and metadata. In particular, this person’s statement that they make their “thoughts hold hands” brings a physical and almost erotic element to how they visualize the network of their thinking. i love arrows -> and drawing connections -> noticing patterns -> making my thoughts hold hands ->1...

Interacting with information in any capacity triggers sensual responses and resonances in our bodies and minds (which are also our bodies). Metadata workers describe and organize knowledge and information. This requires tuning in to those pleasurable or otherwise sensual reactions as organizing principles. I’ve come to think of the body as a computer, taking in more data from more sources than we could ever consciously consider. Our emotions are a vast subterranean intelligence, drawing on not only our senses, but the genetic memories of our ancestors and endless layers of communal thought....