CyberKant: a User Interface

Catalog description

We take online traffic for granted. It is well known that readily intelligible navigation of today's virtual surround was made possible by the graphical user interface. This driver of digital literacy, famously associated with Xerox PARC, was popularized by Steve Jobs in the 1980s. Less well known is that the visual vocabulary informing our computational practices first developed with the urban sprawl of Berlin. Kantian philosophy and German High Modernism played a key role in the process. These cultural resources advanced a workable template for the user-friendly conceit of intuitive signage and wayfinding. We will visit sites across the city that speak to this historical legacy.