about   |   mailing list   |   writing   |   archives

Hush

 

A tangible reminder of expected social norms for receiving and making phone calls in this space – the SAS lounge Copenhagen. The booth plays at least two roles: the obvious – a dedicated space where travellers can natter; and secondly a creative yet subtle reminder of the social norms for this space. Knowing and helping people understand what is acceptable behaviour can be especially challenging when the travellers that use this space hail from such diverse cultural backgrounds.

I’m intrigued about the role of services such as You Tube in helping (certain) people figure out what are ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ behaviours in any given context. Or in the context of an airport lounge? That a video of ‘offending behaviour’ is posted online near real time with sufficient information to identify the ‘offending’ person(s); that that person’s lo-fi agent i.e. rss feed tagged for their name pulls that content from the net; that a video+ of them is waiting for them when their flight arrives home. And in our near near future? That the feedback mechanism is near instantaneous – you will have a greater awareness of acceptable behavioural boundaries because their online reaction to you is being monitored, evaluated and where appropriately fed back to you in read time.

Given all this – who would want to manipulate the feedback mechanism to encourage particular kinds of behaviour. Who indeed.