Hindsight Reader
Preface
Forking Paths
Human Ecologies
Sensory Selves
Computational Matters
Hindsight Reader

Hindsight signifies looking back, evaluating, considering the past in the context of the future or present. As practitioners working amidst the uncertainty of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the authors in this publication ask the question: How will our practices shift, expand, and emerge anew? As the screen becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, this collection of work interrogates images on the pixel-by-pixel level, revealing the interfaces and mechanics of the virtual world. The authors question the social and political dynamics of digital experiences, embracing tweaks, glitches, and reconstructions as new ways of questioning human existence.

 

As disciplines, design and technology tend towards fast, visual, and intuitive styles of communication. This publication, as a written form, asks for patience and thoughtfulness. In return, the writers open doors into the depths of their work, sharing experiences, insights, and labor behind the scenes. The writers in this publication bring cultural and social context into the light, centering their own stories and those of their communities as part of the larger critical narrative around their work. As the possibilities for sharing work present unfamiliar challenges, Hindsight Reader reveals a rare glimpse into context and significance that would otherwise be lost in the sleek and final products of design and technology.

The Editors | Keaton Feigeles, Anna Garbier, Anna Harsanyi, Cassandra Hradil, Jess Irish, Jamie Keiles, Aliza Mahmood, Carolina Melo, & Karen Nguyen

Forking Paths
The narratives in this section bring together personal experiences, collective histories, and lived realities. They coalesce around the notion that storytelling is not cohesive and whole, but rather is built through complex intersections, recursions, and deviations. In a moment when virtual spaces loom larger than our quarantined homes, narrative becomes a discursive map through which we chart our forays into the digital. These stories spring from our self-isolated present to reflect on past experiences and envisage ways to trace, chronicle, and imagine the future.
Human Ecologies
Humans are in constant conversation with our environment. We eternally shape and reshape one other, sometimes for better - but often for worse.  Some of these narratives present solutions — intervening optimistically in the fraught relationship between humans and their world. Others simply dramatize the exchange, revealing dynamics that are often left unseen. By considering ecology in its many different forms: the earth, the city, the media landscape, the biomes that inform our health and well-being, the writing in this section explores those tensions. Each one challenges readers to pursue a new perspective.
Sensory Selves
Now more than ever, the seams of reality have come apart. Old truths are revealed as mere constructions: from the objectivity of news to the mythology of gender to the very boundaries that set our bodies apart from the increasingly real digital realm. We invite you to explore our ever-shifting sensory self, that inhabits a subjectivity in an age when our perception is continually evolving. Here, there is reason to second-guess yourself. Data becomes dollars. Sexuality is fluid. The feeling of touch is not proof of anything. As you read, consider that the perceived real is just one spectral point on a subtle yet vivid spectrum of selves.
Computational Matters
Working with code and digital tools as material, this section considers the ways virtual forms leave tangible, lasting effects on lived experience. Whether looking at the social impact of technological advancement, to the endless creative possibilities of AI, to the emotional implications of machine learning, these writers critically examine the conversation around the political and cultural value of digital systems. The writers in this section mold, modify, disassemble, and experiment with ubiquitous digital interfaces to challenge their significance in our reality.