The Four Practices?
Challenges for the Archaeology of the Screen
Erkki Huhtamo
A simple Google search of what a screen is defines it as “a fixed or movable upright partition used to divide a room, give shelter from draughts, heat, or light, or to provide concealment or privacy.” Nowadays, the idea of screens still remains the same – something that divides a space or provides privacy. From my perspective, I think the archaeology of the screen has modified our behaviour in more ways than we could have ever imagined.
In our society, it seems as though screens exist as a catalyst for certain social behaviours to take place. Our mobile phones are slowly becoming essential tools for surviving in public, they help us avoid unwanted conversations and uncomfortable eye contact. On our MRT trains, mobile phones are used as a tool for ignorance. “If you don’t see the old person you don’t have to give up your seat“. If this were to be the case, a pair of sunglasses too, can be seen as a screen. The darker the lenses the better, for some of the older generation ladies on the train. “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me“. Screens have evolved from something functional to becoming a tool that enables an escapist behaviour of sorts, providing us with the unsaid right to behave in a certain manner, or perhaps existing more as an excuse.
The Apple Smartwatch, for example, is a tool that on the surface, sounds like the perfect device. What better way than to compact all your mobile essentials into a portable and wearable device that humans have owned for centuries? Despite the benefits of convenience, the watch as an artefact is something that in my opinion, should be taken with more consideration. At a glance, any band worn on the wrist would be immediately associated to the telling of time. Over the years, we have developed a behaviour to occasionally check our wrist watches, an action which could be read in many ways – an indication of the need to leave, to rush to someplace or to excuse oneself. With the existence of the Apple Smartwatch, which pushes the boundaries of what the initial function of a watch is to more than what the artefact was intended to perform essentially, the behaviour that it enhances is one in which comes across as unpleasant and rude. A friend which owns one of these Apple Smartwatches constantly comes across as a busy person with the need to rush off or leave, appearing to have something more important at hand than the time that we were spending together. In actual fact, it was just a vibration or light up from the screen of the watch from a notification that he received.
Huhtamo’s concept of what a screen is begins by looking/peeping through an optical device, or through means in which reality is altered or alternatively created. Due to the increasingly digital nature of screens, it appears inevitable that it would eventually evolve into something that we exploit, to create an alternative reality and barrier for ourselves in the real world. Screens should be designed to suit existing human behaviour/needs and not be considered an interference in the activities of daily life.
