Dana Elkis
Picture this, looking busy or unreachable for the sake of it, picking up your phone without any explanation when talking to your friends, shifting your body uncomfortably as if undoubtedly what’s playing out on your phone is more important than the moment, mindlessly reacting to every prompt. ‘The bureau of push notifications’ is a Satirical reflection to our relationship with push notifications.
https://danaelkis.github.io/thebureauofpushnotifications/index.html
Description
‘The Bureau of Push Notifications’, a web-based interactive performance coupled with digital inquiries of the personal relationships between push notifications and people. The project attempts to re-think our infatuation with push notifications by humanizing them, showing how society conforms and builds them into our social cues.
In the performance side of the experience, Dana, sole employee of the Bureau of push notifications, attempts to embody the “soul” of a push notification. The performance can last up to 6 minutes. It begins by Dana asking the audience to imagine that she is a push notification. Sitting the audience down to talk about the past and future of the relationship they’ve had for over 18 years. Revealing the moments of happiness, frustrations and some accusations that were never aired. True to form, Dana (the push) communicates simultaneously with real-time push notifications. Allowing the audience to interact with the video content. This work tries to emulate the ever-present tension of people wanting to be both connected and disconnected, pushing the phone away while longing for a new push.
In the digital inquiries, ‘the bureau of push notifications’ presents a series of three observations: (1) A visual study of physical responses to push notifications. (2) A “Push language” translation proposal to the deterministic “aggressive” system-level vocabulary that exists today and (3) Exposure therapy in audio form that provides introspection on ourselves and allows us to break free of the conditioning.
In reality we choose our media hubs and the it’s access to us, we can curate our own world, choose what content we want to satisfy our needs and who can communicate with us. Such external media cues like Push notifications have a powerful role stimulating our consumption habits. Increasingly taking the place of in-person communications by filling the void and letting us feel wanted, desired and even understood. Tailored content targeted at us constantly pulling us deeper into this habit Not by choice but by design. Users, left to navigate their ‘operating system settings’ without a clear hierarchy of relevance, find all push notifications seem to have the same level of importance.
This world has become “safer” and even gives us ‘cover’ to recede into it when feeling threatened, trying to impress or look unapproachable. This crutch is increasingly becoming harder to penetrate as onlookers have little chance of knowing what is happening in our personal world.
By creating ‘the bureau of push notifications’, I am attempting to question the rise and minting of the social norm surrounding push notifications. Concluding a reflection on the state of the push notification cultural habits that are forming in our “always-on” society.
Classes
Thesis
Presentation Video
https://danaelkis.github.io/thebureauofpushnotifications/index.html