from Hacker News

Ethnographic research on Dynamicland

by heystefan on 1/22/22, 3:40 PM with 20 comments

• by miki123211 on 1/22/22, 7:44 PM

  The problem I see with Dynamicland and similar ideas is that the internet exists now, and there's no going back. A physical, room-sized computer system might have worked in the early 90s, but not any more. Collaborating asynchronously with people across the world is something we do regularly now, and Dynamicland doesn't lend itself well to such collaboration.

  The beauty of computers is that information is not tied to any physical manifestation. Several people can work on a document, one using the screen of their phone in Palo Alto, another using a braille display in Puerto Rico and yet another using voice control in Beijing, all at the same time. Once one person updates their representation of the document, all the other representations follow. The document isn't inherently pixels or sound waves or Braille dots, those are merely manifestations of some underlying, more fundamental structure that exists purely in the digital realm.

  Dynamicland takes this flexibility away. Once we start keeping code in binders in a desk, those binders effectively become the code, every other representation must ultimately be derived from the contents of those binders. More importantly, there's no way to automatically reflect the manipulations made to those alternate representations on the paper contained in the binders. This basically undoes everything the internet has given us, making technology much more elitist and harder to access.

• by hitekker on 1/23/22, 12:16 AM

  Bret Victor appears to have dug himself down a rabbit hole that few want to follow.

  I think I've seen seen this pattern with esteemed but overfunded creatives. No constraints, no outside pressures lets their ambition run rampant. Their project swells into a formless blob; a generic vision, an absent strategy, and infinite amount of time to do anything their hearts desire. Over the years, the participants conduct a disconnected, purposeless exploration that goes in circles. The everyday motions will revolve around the colossal, omnipresent but invisible pride of the project's "visionary". Kind of like planets around a blackhole.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_and_the_Cobbler is an unfortunate but enjoyable example of a similar cycle played over decades in Hollywood.

  https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/medium-has-pivoted-so-ma... might also be relevant too.

• by Pulcinella on 1/22/22, 4:58 PM

  Well it’s nice to get some insight into Dynamicland, even if it’s not very flattering.

  I do wonder if the project is still under active development. I imagine it’s very frustrating to not have much to show after more than half a decade of development.

• by indymike on 1/23/22, 12:59 AM

  I've never seen Dynamicland before... HN surprises again. This is actually a very interesting experiment. How do we really blend computing power, and sensors with human activity? So many little things going on, and very little of it I've seen explored before - and honestly, having a computer that can scan, measure and visually project on anything in the work area is actually useful. Sometimes we get little glimpses of what life will be like in the distant future, and this seems more likely to be of great utility than, say environmental isolation style VR.

• by mcshicks on 1/23/22, 5:30 AM

  I remember reading about Dynamicland on hacker news, I think quite a while ago. A few years ago (pre-covid) I went to the very popular art exhibit "teamlab borderless" in Japan, which was fascinating. While I understand their goals are completely different, looking at Dynamicland again today they look pretty similar in some ways visually and how they approach making things interactive. Beyond the fact of using projectors (and sensors) it seems like they have some of the same philosophy.

  From dynamicland's website

  "A humane dynamic medium embraces the countless ways in which human beings use their minds and bodies, instead of cramming people into a tiny box of pixels."

  One guest, after spending time at Dynamicland, held up his smartphone and shouted, “This thing is a prison!”

  From teamlab borderless "athletic forest exhibit" webpage

  "Humans understand the world with their bodies and think with their bodies

  Creating and telling stories that move people emotionally is not a skill that can be achieved only through repetitive training in writing compositions. Stories are spun from the experiences that are cultivated while exploring the world with our bodies.

  Humans understand the world with their bodies and think with their bodies."

  https://dynamicland.org/ https://borderless.teamlab.art/concepts/athletics-forest/

• by spdegabrielle on 1/22/22, 9:11 PM

  I would be nice it it delivered something. Such a shame.