Lou Fuiano
ITI Spring 2006
Duff

Final Essay

ITI: Always at it
The familiar definition of an interface is "Where two things meet". To think of an interface in the broadest sense, one could say that the way we choose to live our lives is a broad form of an interface. What paths we select, why we select them and how much of ourselves we dedicate. Simply put: How one meets life.

The Future is Now
My newest career path and interest is making work for the screen. It's no wonder why many of the readings for this class ultimately discussed software usage and web navigation. It's everywhere. I bought my first MAC in 1989. It was an SE 30 with a tiny black and white screen. I was running graphics programs; Freehand and Pagemaker. I was and continue to be astounded at the way this all worked. The "graphic interface" was revolutionary to the visual arts. It allowed me to start a business without a second thought. We could now draw and edit with the vector tool as opposed to pen, ink and french curves. Color and image decisions can be made immediately. It has made us better at what we do, more productive and more profitable.

The computer only served as a tool. A way to get things done. I had never really romanced it by reading and writing about it in detail... until now. My career as a print designer has made creating work for the screen irresistible. The idea of images having functionality is very exciting. These are no longer things we passively look at and interpret, but items we handle. Items that inform, transform and virtually come to life. In turn, it has transformed us; our perceptions of words and images, how we use them, and how we communicate with them.

The Interactive timeline is a form of graphic design I would love to make time for this summer. A chronology of information at a glance is very seductive both for it's design possibilities and it's order of events in time.

However, while I love this new form of media, working in front of a screen and tapping a key board still feels a bit wooden, as I'm sure many would agree. I'll be the first to rave about the remarkable interface of the color pallette in Photoshop and Illustrator. However, they will never feel the way it does to paint or draw. Sure you can edit, save, undo and create versions, but the experience and immediacy of spreading color, paint, with a brush on a surface remains very singular. Is it more "gestural" and therefore more HUMAN?

Feel the Pearls
PRE-DIGITAL MUSICAL INTERFACE
Traditional musical instruments are a curious form of an interface. Instruments are an interface that endure sustained usage - usually by the same person... Yet they still take a lifetime to master. While all instruments have these characteristics, wind instruments possess them in a very complex and beautiful way. Springs, rods, levers, nut, bolts, screws, lids, etc. open and close the keys with remarkable ease. Paris in the 1840's was the birthplace of the saxophone, the young upstart among the woodwinds. It is unique from other woodwinds in that it's made of brass and metal which allows it to play louder and more freely. This makes sense in that the saxophone was born into a much more crowded, noisy and mechanized world. The brink of the industrial revolution. However, the mother of pearl key buttons under each fingertip retains a much more sensitive design element of older instruments.

CONNECT THE HANDS TO THE VOICE
The way you are connected to the instrument and produce sound is also special in that you breathe into one end as though to speak. This odd "speech" produces airflow and vibration that the instrument processes as the sound resonates through it. Like all wind instruments, the player changes the pitch of the sound by changing the distance that the air travels. A transfer of the human voice through a mechanical object... Seems simple enough, but the range of tones and harmonics available is enormous. This offers each player a chance to create a unique character of sounds and dynamics.

I think I have always liked the fact that you don't actually see the instrument. You basically feel your way around. You hold it in both hands and operate the keys with nine of ten fingers, using the odd thumb to hold the weight of the horn. Each key is precisely placed so that your finger tips can smoothly roll, poke, shutter and shake the keys open and closed. Various points in the palms and the underside of the fingers are also used. Granted, the flue, oboe, bassoon and clarinet have similar characteristics, but the saxophone has something else. It is a much more playable, or "usable", instrument. It allows you to do more. Hence, it offers a wider range of expression.

When I first learned to play, my teacher would help me to focus by saying "Feel the pearls". This always allowed me to rest in the fact that this fangled mechanical object was designed to be played by human hands. Breathe and speak. Feel the pearls.

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