• International conference Screen Operations. Conditions of Screen-based Interaction
• The workshop investigated the relationship of screen and operation in visual culture, interaction and architectural design, computer history, medicine and warfare. We discussed the aesthetic, epistemic and operational modalities of screen operations in order to trace their political, technological and historical implications.
• 13.–14.7.2016, Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, with Kathrin Friedrich.

Abstract: Contemporary imaging, sensor and display technologies have turned viewing predominantly into using. Interacting with visual devices and interfaces such as virtual reality headsets, augmented reality apps or navigation systems situate users in space both within and beyond the boundaries of the screen, for instance when playing Pokémon Go on a smartphone, or when superimposing medical images on a patient’s body. Narrative media such as stereoscopic movies, volumetric cameras or curved displays also require a visual practice that spatially aligns image and viewer. In the case of a stereoscopic projection, for example, the spatial impression of the image is most intelligible and convincing if the physical position of the viewer corresponds with the camera-viewpoint. Screen-based technologies increasingly merge the levels of action and perception. With image production and transmission being possible in real time, screens are no longer spatially fixed and temporally subordinated devices that display static images, but are increasingly integrated into visual practices. The correlation of screen and operation in graphical user interfaces, touchscreens or augmented reality applications, turns the viewer first and foremost into a user.

Image credits: The Parallax View, Peder Norrby