Haptic perception meets interface aesthetics: Cultural representations of touchscreen technology in the aftermath of the iPhone 2007

Abstract

The touchscreen is something other than a boundary between real and illusory worlds, or what Anne Friedberg (2009) calls a "virtual window" (p. 96). The aesthetics of that 'something else' is not determined by the technology itself, but by its use in a myriad of cultural practices including how it is represented as a commodity and an experience. This article examines the representation of touchscreen technology following the release of the iPhone in 2007, comparing a Nine Inch Nails rock concert and Blackberry commercial from 2008 with Bjork's album/app Biophilia and an American Express advertisement from 2011. Comparing these media experiences reveals a representational shift that occurs between the introduction of the touchscreen and the cultural integration of this technology just three years later. A focus on breaking through the frame of the screen shifts into screen interfaces as the building blocks for the virtual construction of "hybrid space" (De Souza e Silva, 2006).