34 Comments

Well written, Brett. Your article has helped contextualize some recent personal reflections on my career as a graphic designer and future projections. When I was back in arts high school dreaming of a creative career, it definitely wasn’t laying out digital rectangles inside a physical hand-held rectangle, to make a rich corporation appear trustworthy. After years of experience I am well aware that designers are instrumental at shaping the look of corporate interfaces. Design is a powerful tool that helps build trust with faceless corporations (or distrust…lol @the above Oatly debate.) I have always tried to use my powers for good, but it feels like the opportunities to do that while making a living, are narrowing - this is probably the case in other domains as well not just design.

I’m not completely pessimistic about the future, but it is indeed a strange reality we are living in—with friendly faced interfaces masking a much darker reality.

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Hey Tina, long time no see! Really glad you find the piece helpful, and thanks so much for your comments. I've had opportunities to work in the past with design students (e.g. at Camberwell College of Arts), who face this exact issue you mention - wanting to channel their creativity in positive ways, but often finding themselves hired to channel people into corporate enclosures. It's a big issue, but also glad that you're finding ways to be optimistic

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The only relief is a daily connection with non-interfaces.

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So true

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Great piece ! Kept on raising my head, the insights you reveal kept on triggering thoughts ... And that's the best thing words can do.

One of those thoughts, btw, was Wikipedia: maybe the one and only interface that still belongs to "us", that is not a mirror (and is identical to all of us), that is made by "us" and where all the links belong to "us" ... ?

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Really glad you like it! Yep - I'm with you on Wikipedia. It still retains that peer-to-peer feeling of the early Internet, which is why I donate to them every year. I don't want to necessarily romanticise Jimmy Wales, but it's pretty amazing that Wikipedia is one of the biggest platforms in the world, and yet resists advertising etc.

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Yes, very revealing distinction between the ‘Big Bang Billionaires’ and Jamie Diamond et. al.

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Ha ha, I like the phrase 'Big Bang Billionaire'. Thanks

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It's hard to begin commenting on this piece, because it tells só much. All the pieces that fit together in this piece... it's just so awesome!

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Thanks Johan - really appreciate that

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Your exploration of the layers of interfaces that mediate our interactions with the world is both fascinating and deeply insightful. The analogy of interfaces as simplifying surfaces that distance us from the underlying systems is a powerful way to illustrate how disconnected we've become from direct experiences.

I particularly appreciated your historical perspective, showing how our engagement with the world has evolved from visceral, direct interactions to increasingly mediated ones. The discussion about the personification of corporate entities and the role of tech barons adds a compelling dimension to the narrative, highlighting the growing influence of technology and corporate power on our perceptions and interactions.

Your piece encourages a much-needed reflection on how these interfaces shape our reality and the implications for our sense of community and individuality. Thank you for this thought-provoking read.

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I'm really glad the article resonates with you Mohsen - thanks so much for your support!

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Wow I can't help but admire the depth of reality about the corporate as a legal person. From Africa, I can confirm that informality here is still the normal even though governments are struggling to urge everyone to be formal. We want every to be a taxpayer more than anything else. Our lives have been virtualised and every where we go, we have data about ourselves. Our digital selves are turning against blooded selves and it's only a matter of time we lose our innate selves (and already we have started).

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Thanks for the comment Edwin! I'm from South Africa, so always appreciate the view from the continent

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Nice to know you belong here!

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Great read.

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Thanks Brett. Your article gives greater depth and complexity to my own work on a new genus of platform middlemen building AI security systems for unmanned retail spaces with the intention of disciplining the potential thief while monetizing the repeat customer.

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Thanks Peter - I'm glad you find it useful!

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I like it

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Terrific article!

Your comment / sentence: ( Corporate interfaces now literally stick to us like an inescapable coating. ) is so sad but true!

Well done

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Really glad you like the article Jeff - thanks for the support

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So, so true.. it makes me sick that these tech bros have so much power combined with so much emotional ignorance, lack of self awareness and insensitivity to natural systems. I am holding a smartphone right now, but will be ditching it soon and reverting to a mobile phone. I will never give my kids a screen. I can only hope that more people will read your work and take back their lives.

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Thanks for the support Jade. I often think about returning to a 'dumb' phone because there really isn't much that's smart about the smartphone. I guess the problem is that we're often required to use this technology now, or else face exclusion from the job market etc. Fighting screen addiction will be a major battle going forward, but one we need to face

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Brett, very nicely done, and I especially appreciated the graphics. (You might recall that my Intermittent Signal is about 40% about images.) Longer point, will send you a note. For now, keep up the good work!

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Spot on, very clear, very useful, thank you.

You say "A BP press release is not going to say ‘Hi, this is BP here..." but I think this behaviour does happen, most particularly in food branding and marketing, which is the most infantilising - and in a way, craven - of all. Oatly is the worst culprit in my view, but it's everywhere, at least in the UK. Will keep an eye out for specific examples

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Good point Parsifal. I always associate the rise of 'wackaging' (wacky packaging) with Innocent Smoothies, which always came with that chummy and infantalizing messaging all over their cartons. I actually can't bring myself to buy Oatly, precisely because the packaging is so overtly inauthentic. You're right that food packaging pioneers the personal pronoun - with the product branded with 'try me', rather than 'try this thing that our workers made'

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I think you're right about Innocent, they made a huge leap forward in that regard. And I can't buy Oatly either, the deceitfulness of it turns my stomach...

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I think Oatly's grossest message so far was a panel on the back of their package that named their CEO as 'employee of the month'

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Yuck yuck yuck

I think I remember seeing that one... with a line drawing that was supposed to show the ceo doing some washing up, but to me looked more like he was wanking into the sink, while smirking at us over his shoulder.

There is something about the brazen falsity of it all that I feel very viscerally and makes want to vomit - as if it's trying to turn me inside out. Having said that, I'll glory in the contadiction that I have consumed said product today (because someone left a carton here, and I'd rather not waste all those resources). There is something about the metaphor of swallowing stories, and finding ideas palatable or digestible, that hits home very deeply

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‘Eat me’ and ‘Drink me’ started with Alice, and we all know where *that* led.

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It seems Brett Scott has read this book: "The Metainterface: The Art of Platforms, Cities, and Clouds" by Christian Ulrik Andersen and Søren Bro Pold, https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262037945/ He ought to quote it.

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Also, in addition to my first comment, I'd like to add that the accusation implicit in this kind of comment stems from a mindset that's common mostly to people who are fully employed in academia, which I am not. The fact that other thinkers like yourself notice similar things to me is great, but, as a self-employed freelancer that isn't paid to read academic literature, I'm not required to know every instance of this, or every book or article that covers similar topics to me. It would be more constructive if you said something like 'hey Brett, I see your work bears similarity to my own. Have you read it?' I would then tell you, 'No, Søren, I haven't, but thanks for letting me know. It looks very interesting'

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I actually haven't. I'll look into it though. Thanks

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I liked "the 3 new faces of corporate personhood" but didn't find much of interest outside that section.

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