Cyberstition | concept | brief | theory |

Theory

Before the technology leap some 100 years ago, peopleÕs relationship to the technology was more direct. Once they had a tool, they would understand more or less how it functions, and could take some action to repair it in a case of malfunction.

The technologies getting more complicated, our responses to their malfunctions became more irrational, yet many times still effective. Ie. Tapping a frozen clock might well revitalise it due to some stuck cogs being released in the shock.

Digital technology, as it has become virtually disembodied, does not react to such treatments, yet we keep on practicing them due to the lack of alternatives.

Mobile devices, though essentially meant for communication, are developing wider variety of additional features, especially in entertainment. We begin to build more personal ways of using this technology, and expect more from it. - Having become disempowered through the technology becoming hidden, need to have at least pseudo-control over it is worth considering. Eventhough the system is not to tackle the source of the problem, it is aimed at enabling us to cope with it better, more joyfully.

The group of people that would be likely to benefit / use the system would be either the technologically illiterate ones, who might genuinely believe some of the suggestions the service provides, and hence would experience some kind of feeling of control over the technology, though only in their imagination, or people continuously using the technology who are faced with these little malfunctions everyday, and being provided with more playful approach to these, might well enjoy the system.

Much of the service could be provided simply through the SMS / image messaging services. Updating the software in the phone would in principle be equally easy, but politically probably harder to execute. Also, on a wider scale, as the service could range over wider variety of devices, PDA's laptops etc.