The Interface Effect (PDF)

Interfaces are back, or perhaps they never left. The familiar
Socratic conceit from the Phaedrus, of communication as the
process of writing directly on the soul of the other, has returned
to center stage in today's discussions of culture and media. Indeed
Western thought has long construed media as a grand choice between
two kinds of interfaces. Following the optimistic path, media
seamlessly interface self and other in a transparent and immediate
connection. But, following the pessimistic path, media are the
obstacles to direct communion, disintegrating self and other into
misunderstanding and contradiction. In other words, media
interfaces are either clear or complicated, either beautiful or
deceptive, either already known or endlessly interpretable.

Recognizing the limits of either path, Galloway charts an
alternative course by considering the interface as an autonomous
zone of aesthetic activity, guided by its own logic and its own
ends: the interface effect. Rather than praising
user-friendly interfaces that work well, or castigating those that
work poorly, this book considers the unworkable nature of all
interfaces, from windows and doors to screens and keyboards.
Considered allegorically, such thresholds do not so much tell the
story of their own operations but beckon outward into the realm of
social and political life, and in so doing ask a question to which
the political interpretation of interfaces is the only coherent
answer.

Grounded in philosophy and cultural theory and driven by close
readings of video games, software, television, painting, and other
images, Galloway seeks to explain the logic of digital culture
through an analysis of its most emblematic and ubiquitous
manifestation - the interface.