As a blogger, writer, consultant and all round Geek Chic I spend a lot my time in front of various screens. And so it has occurred to me that how we choose to sit, stand and lounge become moments of stasis in order to access and participate with our favourite Web 2.0 content. Much of the traditional geek setting has been the image of the nerd at a desk, sitting in close proximity to other nerds at other desks. The slash, dot, slash, dot battery hen likeness as roomful of programmers physically meld into their chairs. Such longer periods of stasis are physically involving and laborious! And so the story goes that there has been about a 'freeing up' and overcoming of boundaries such as spatial and temporal confines. By foregrounding the ways in which we have and can gain access to Web 2.0, places such supposed freedoms into a completely new context. Instead we remain bound to and reliant upon some form of technological device, as well as (at least for a moment) a point of stasis. Which is ironic when you consider how the Internet has traditionally been viewed as separate from the flesh fleshy self. Certainly there are already lifestyles and professions that require that the individual must be in one place for a set period of time, but none that are also without the organic richness of embodied contact, skin, touch, smell…
And so an active and empowered digital technology user I’m wondering if there is room for a new kind of interface that offers a new kind of interactivity? The taken for granted processes to produce and reproduce; text, images and even voice content online serve as recognition that as users we have moved beyond passive consumers to empowered producers. Nevertheless at present we continue with the same sum of technological engagement: Screen + You = physically demanding. Perhaps time for a new seated position.
Another version of this post is published by Maz Hardey @ Girl Geekdom blog
