Constrained Space(s)
Metaphorically,
the design of the
player's interface establishes
both actual and imaginative relationships
to the sounds the technology retrieves. And for
now, at least, the metaphors employed by the player
are strikingly similar to those employed by most radios. On trying
the player
several years ago for the first time, we
searched for streaming audio sites, clicked on the
player's icons
for Stop and Play, manipulated the little volume lever,
and
so on, noting the varying
quality of sound we were receiving. We were, at least
for the
moment, less interested in what was coming
across than in the fact that we could hear anything
this way. Our
office computer, which had been silent
or nearly so, was now talking, even singing in a way
that was
comforting in its familiarity.
But surprisingly, alas, a little boring, too.
That is,