MMRRI: MATERIAL MEDIATORS FOR A RITUALIZED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INTERNET

︎︎︎ 

In the era of the war for attention, where technological progress follows an economic drive to keep us connected for as long as possible, it is urgent that we understand the structures behind our seamlessly designed devices. As technologies grow in abstraction and complexity, they also become less tangible. Current devices are black boxes that have little resemblance to the button-heavy hardware of the past. This dematerialization, far from simplifying its understanding, only adds to the abstraction and the building of the digital myth. Algorithms, artificial intelligence, data processing... all allude to such an abstract reality that ends up being conceived and communicated as legendary stories, both of awe and terror.

Material Mediators for a Ritualized Relationship with the Internet are a series of domestic objects that aim to make our daily interaction with our devices and the net less abstract by bringing back materiality into our online smartphone use. Each mediator enhances one positive aspect of going online while limiting the most addictive patterns of the device. The accurate music recommendations from predictive algorithms, the knowledge and enjoyment brought by online videos, the intimacy and cosiness of reading on a small, discrete device; all are examples of the functionalities enhanced by each of the mediators. Their shape helps to visualize the complex, bodiless realities of the interaction; the metallic material also brings a sense of ritual into the use, making each action slower, less mindless and more meaningful.

MMRRI considers the smartphone the main vessel for plugging into the Web. The goal is to formulate a new, humanized way of accessing the Internet and enjoying its functionalities through carefully designed objects that also serve a symbolic, totemic purpose of ritualizing and elevating the experience of going online.

MMRRI are a series of domestic objects that use materiality to limit certain functionalities of the smartphone in order to enhance the most positive ones, allowing for a ritualistic, tangible relationship with the internet and its contents.

The shape of each object captures a positive aspect of a specific online action done with the smartphone while limiting the most negative and addictive ones. Three aspects or dynamics have been chosen based on the insights gathered through the research: faith, contemplation and retreat.

Faith is an appreciation of the personalization and recommendations brought about by predictive algorithms. It is a passive acoustic amplifier that covers the smartphone while magnifying the sound. The device entrance works similarly to a CD slot: once it is in, the user cannot interact with the screen, avoiding the overstimulation of infinite song choices, new releases and clips. This induces a more focused attention on the music as well as a sense of trust in the algorithm.

Contemplation is a nod to the knowledge and enjoyment provided by online videos. The most ritualistic of the series, its stair-like shape configures a small tabletop altar where the phone is placed on the higher level. After playing the desired video, candles are placed on the rest of the steps and lit up. This creates a delicate setup that elevates the content as well as enhances attention by discouraging the user from touching the phone to speed forward the video, read comments or find a new one to click on.

Retreat references the sense of intimacy and cosiness of reading on the smartphone. This feeling stems not only from the ability of the Internet to provide content for any kind of curiosity but also because the opaque back of the phone means no casual bystander can identify the subject matter (as they could in a book or magazine). The flaps surround the smartphone and constitute an extension of its opaqueness, imitating how one would turn inwards the covers of a paper to hide what they read.