
The Screenless Office - marttt
http://screenl.es/
======
pmlnr
On the site, under '3\. Slow Computing':

"Another aspect of contemporary screen-based culture is the constant psychic
conflict often referred to as the "Attention Economy". In just trying to watch
one youtube video, a typical user is confronted with dozens of other appeals
to focus somewhere else: comments, ratings, related videos, advertisements,
video responses, etc. Because screen-based interaction is premised on temporal
immediacy, we are, as users forced into a state of hyper-attention where we
must constantly fight against the, largely commercial, attempts to make us
look at something else. When we remove the screen (and by necessity, simplify
the interface) we introduce a new form of temporality, where the speed of
interaction might more accurately reflect our ability to percieve and
understand information."

I think this is the important part of the whole idea. On the other hand, and,
in my opinion, you can achieve a similar experience as:

1\. use a laptop and/or desktop

2\. disable your notification system on your desktop

3\. browse the web with an extremely simple browser, like w3m

4\. one display

5\. full-screen mode

6\. don't scroll gradually; read from top to bottom and use pgup/pgdown

I found this the best way to focus on content and work, however, most
workplaces won't tolerate not responding to instant messages and
notifications.

~~~
d4nt
> most workplaces won't tolerate not responding to instant messages and
> notifications.

This. IM conversations take longer than in person ones (or video chats), have
a higher rate of misunderstandings, cannot be flagged for follow up or
bookmarked for reference, and the red blobs contribute to higher stress
levels. It adds nothing to productivity, IMO. Yet being ‘present’ on slack is
the new being at your desk before the boss.

~~~
optimuspaul
My experience has been different. Things like slack have actually increased my
ability to focus and get things done. My SLA for responding to slack is 2
hours, I can't focus on any one task for longer than that. Every two hours of
so I check messages and respond then. It's great, it's far more relevant and
filtered than email is and it isn't people showing up at my desk every 5
minutes.

~~~
pmlnr
> it's far more relevant and filtered than email

Huh? More filtered than email? Where in most cases you used to have sieve
level server side filters and any kind of filter on the client side (in the
real, desktop email clients era)? The capabilities of email filtering have
been diminishing for many years, so I may even believe this is becoming true
these days, but it certainly is shocking.

~~~
pwinnski
Not the person to whom you're responding, but my work email includes many
messages from people who don't work for my company, while my Slack client
doesn't. Not all of the Slack messages are relevant, but they are all more
relevant than messages from outsiders.

~~~
detaro
Sort all email not from your company in a different folder or inbox, problem
solved thanks to the filtering ability the GP talks about?

------
breakpointalpha
Not to take away from what is being done in this project, but I had to read
the HN comments to figure out that this was a set of software for printers.

The project could really use some better copy on the landing page.

~~~
Kamshak
idk if this was updated but i figured this out from the landing page in
~10secs. It's in sentence 3-4 on the page. If you're not reading the copy but
instead comments only why complain about the landing page

~~~
ChristianBundy
You mean this?

> It is constructed using free/libre/open hard- and software components,
> especially for print, databases, web-scraping and tangible interaction.

> Currently, it exists as a working prototype with software "bureaus" which
> allow a user to read and navigate news, web sites and social media entirely
> with the use of various printers for output and a barcode scanner for input.

That's _really_ not clear. Also, your "if you're not reading the copy but
instead comments" thing was both snarky and incorrect. Both are fine, but it's
not recommended to be both disagreeable and wrong at the same time.

~~~
fps
What part of "read and navigate news" and "printers for output and barcode
scanners for input" isn't absolutely crystal clear? It fully and clearly
explains what the system can do and how you interact with it. Do you not know
what printers are? Barcode scanners? News?

~~~
scott_s
Because it explains the _mechanics_ but not the _intent_. Once you intuit the
intent by reading more, you can go back and read the mechanics and get it. But
in general, it's hard for readers who have no context to pull intent from
mechanics. It also helps to acknowledge up front what's different, rather than
first presenting the abstraction for that difference ("bureaus"). Something
like: _The intent of our project is to remove screens from modern computers.
We explore presenting information only through physical printouts, and input
only through barcode scanners._

~~~
rhencke
Something like this?

"Another aspect of contemporary screen-based culture is the constant psychic
conflict often referred to as the 'Attention Economy'. In just trying to watch
one YouTube video, a typical user is confronted with dozens of other appeals
to focus somewhere else: comments, ratings, related videos, advertisements,
video responses, etc. Because screen-based interaction is premised on temporal
immediacy, we are, as users forced into a state of hyper-attention where we
must constantly fight against the, largely commercial, attempts to make us
look at something else. When we remove the screen (and by necessity, simplify
the interface) we introduce a new form of temporality, where the speed of
interaction might more accurately reflect our ability to perceive and
understand information."

[http://screenl.es/slow.html](http://screenl.es/slow.html)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
This kind of writing is not generally accessible so it's unclear and takes
more effort to parse than more simplified language.

For example:

 _Because screen-based interaction is premised on temporal immediacy, we are,
as users forced into a state of hyper-attention where we must constantly fight
against the, largely commercial, attempts to make us look at something else_

While I personally like the way this sentence is written, and is similar to my
natural writing style, it's not easy to parse.

It could have as easily been written as:

"For most people, the time they spend on the computer is littered with
distractions, and intentionally so, as corporations want to capture your
attention by suggesting another video, viewing more content or offering a
shiny ad."

You keep the emotion and information (lossy), but make it easier to read.

------
egwynn
I'm seeing tons of comments about this thing being wasteful or impractical, as
if these weren't specifically discussed in the source material. They were.
They know. Here's their statement from the "Why" page:

    
    
        By calling this creation an "Artistic Operating System",
        we assert that it should be unique and personal, even
        peculiar in its way of representing and interfacing with
        the rest of the media world. In this sense, it is freed
        from the implicit social requirement that new
        technological projects conform to standard principles of
        progress, universality and efficiency. There's no need
        to claim to be the "Next Big Thing" or to even suggest
        that anyone, other than the creators of this device,
        should use it. However, its existence serves as a
        polemic for a more diverse, inclusive and participatory
        interface culture where new technological systems might
        be judged for their poetic qualities instead of
        marketability.

~~~
mfukar
> ...poetic qualities instead of marketability.

Implying, of course, that comparable levels of _usefulness_ are already
established.

I will reserve my judgment until I see an actual practical demonstration that
establishes that usefulness.

~~~
spaceseaman
The statement assumes that one considers the poetic qualities as _significant_
as marketability - not _useful_. You seem to have misunderstood the creators'
intentions as they have no interest in providing you a "practical
demonstration" or anything practical at all.

Art has little direct _use_ \- Michelangelo's David has very little practical
value, yet it's significance is immense.

The creators of this project do not care for the practical value of any of
this. They wish to experiment in the hope that some poetic qualities of their
work will be deemed significant enough to carry on into new works (some of
which may actually be _useful_ ).

~~~
mfukar
> as they have no interest in providing you a "practical demonstration" or
> anything practical at all.

That was my exact understanding.

------
rekado
On Diversity:

> Our perception of the world around us and how we see ourselves in, it is
> mediated by the decisions of a few privileged managers, programmers and
> designers[...]. To suggest any other way of living in a networked society is
> to risk being percieved as blasphemous, uncool, out-of-touch, escapist or
> simply absurd. These interfaces have become so embedded in our conception of
> reality that we now have a crisis of the imagination, where it is difficult
> to even think of anything different.

I think that we are indeed losing computing diversity. Even something as
boring as an Emacs-based computing experience (i.e. doing everything in Emacs)
is often considered other-wordly or out-of-touch. Not having (and not wanting)
a "smartphone" is another thing that is often responded to as almost
unthinkable.

------
stevewillows
One small piece of this has reignited my desire to build something similar to
the BERG Tiny Printer [1]. My only issue with such a thing is that I don't
want to use thermal paper.. or any paper if I can avoid it.

Going forward, I think there may be a market for a small eink tablet (~4.5" or
so) that presents curated news, articles, etc -- something ideal for commuting
by bus, plane, or any other passive time without loads of animated ads, popups
for newsletters, and absolutely nothing 'social.' This leads me toward a
desire for proper epub releases for magazines like The New Yorker and stuff
that could scale to a smaller screen.

Services like Zinio [2], which most libraries provide, would be an excellent
tie-in for a small device like this.

[1] [https://vimeo.com/32796535](https://vimeo.com/32796535) [2]
[http://zinio.com](http://zinio.com)

~~~
IanCal
You could probably hack something very simple together with a kindle + email.
Construct an ebook of top stories / headlines and email it to your kindle
account, all the syncing/etc is then handled for you.

~~~
Wiles_7
Calibre does it.

[http://blog.calibre-ebook.com/2011/10/custom-news-
fetching.h...](http://blog.calibre-ebook.com/2011/10/custom-news-
fetching.html?m=1)

~~~
falcolas
It does, but having used it, it's a real nuisance to clean up on a Kindle
reader. You have to go through Amazon's web page to clean up the used
articles, and its a bit of a pain.

A very cool feature, but ultimately not very practical.

------
mwcampbell
This is, of course, a response to the "paperless" movement. The trouble is
that the movement away from paper and toward digital can be about more than
the capitalist drive for efficiency.

One of the words the author used was "universality". For me, that has a moral
component as well. Consider that information stored in a digital textual
encoding is universally accessible. For example, blind people can read it
through text-to-speech or a refreshable Braille display. Text-to-speech is
also useful for people who have trouble reading due to cognitive disabilities.

So, print things out for your own consumption if you like, but please don't
require others to consume information in that form. And, insofar as "the
_________ office" refers to a group environment, I think the best word to fill
in that blank is "universal" or "inclusive".

BTW, when I heard "screenless", I imagined an office full of people using
speech synthesizers as blind people do. In the blind community, "screenless"
refers to a talking device with no screen (very often a device made
specifically for blind people that lags behind the mainstream, but that's
another story).

~~~
msb
While I agree with your sentiment, I would argue that translating digital
information for physical consumption (paper, e-ink, etc.) does lead to
improved access for people with disability.

Digital textual encoding is only universally accessible if the context it is
situated within is also textually encoded. The lack of context (i.e., poor
accessibility compliance) across digital mediums is the single largest
inhibitor for the visually impaired community. Once digital information is
prepared for print, the source of output is simply a matter of changing
peripherals (printer, braille embosser, braille display, text-to-speech).

The authors may not have intended to directly address the needs of disability,
but I do not think that their use of "universality" is misplaced. We should
applaud any effort that encourages society to think beyond the constraints of
the graphical interface.

------
ashark
I’ve been meaning to put together a music player for my kids that uses one of:
qr codes, bar codes, or NFC tags to select the music to play (no screen). The
first two having surprisingly expensive readers (you can buy a crappy
smartphone for the price of a dedicated usb always-on auto barcode or qr code
scanner, and cheap webcams can’t focus correctly for the job of close-up code
reading) and the latter confusing the hell out of me for any option that
doesn’t use really expensive hobbyist-targeted tags ($0.50/tag or higher) have
kept me from going beyond the googling phase.

~~~
captainmuon
I had a similar idea. Since we have a lot of old Disney films on VHS, I would
like to be able to put the box in a place and have the system and play back
the HD version from my media center. I investigated RFID/NFC tags, but what
would also be cool would be a kind of ultra flat scanner.

I imagine something purely optical, with no moving parts. You have a glass
plate, maybe a few cm high, that you put the object to be scanned on, and the
light is reflected into the plate on to a small CCD sensor hidden on the side
or somewhere else. It doesn't have to have a great resolution, just enough to
distinguish different movies. I tried googling, but it seems something like
that doesn't exist (probably the achievable resolution is too bad for real
world usage).

Its a bit unfortunate, I'd like to bring back a bit of physicality to my
computer interactions.

~~~
nickloewen
Perhaps you could read the barcode on the box?

~~~
captainmuon
I'm trying to avoid a barcode reader "gun", or hanging a barcode reader from a
cantilever. Ideally, I just want a flat platform, or something that can hold
the box.

I'm pretty sure it should be possible to make a waveguide from properly shaped
plexiglas and mirrors, so that you can hide a sensor below or in the side, and
have it focused on the plexiglas surface. However, I can't figure out the
geometry.

I guess if I actually built the project, the RFID tags would be the best
option.

~~~
nickloewen
That makes sense. I agree that RFID is probably the way to go. What I was
thinking of was closer to what you are describing though, or to a supermarket
style in-counter barcode reader. I don't know if there's a minimum barcode-to-
reader distance, but I suspect you could hack something up by building a box
around one of these types* of readers.

Another downside to the barcode approach is also that it requires correct
alignment. Maybe you can get greater convenience from RFID.

On the other hand, the RFID approach means you don't have to modify the boxes
at all. Because the code should hold some semantic meaning, you could maybe
even set it up to download the requested movie on demand, so that you don't
have to build your own database...

Regardless, it's a fun idea!

* [https://www.amazon.com/Barcode-Omnidirectional-Hands-Free-Su...](https://www.amazon.com/Barcode-Omnidirectional-Hands-Free-Supermarket-Adjustable/dp/B01MSJPPJU/ref=sr_1_85?s=office-electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1514007050&sr=1-85&keywords=barcode+scanner)

------
rbanffy
"The Screenless Office is a system for working with media and networks without
using a pixel-based display."

Oh boy... I miss the sound of teletypes, typewriters and, of course, vector
based displays ;-)

No, seriously, I miss all those things... I'd kill (no, not really, but close)
for a CDC 6600 console, a Tektronix calligraphic display terminal or an IBM
2250.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Are any of those available on ebay?

Alternatively, can those things be remade using modern tooling and/or the
availability of cheap electronics from china?

~~~
rbanffy
> Are any of those available on ebay?

Sometimes a TTY appears. IBM Selectrics are easy to find. CDC and Tektronix
stuff is _much_ harder/borderline impossible. Building a vector CRT like the
CDC and the 2250 is a major engineering undertaking these days and I don't
even want to start what would it take to build a storage tube like Tek had.

I think a x,y display can be built off a CRT that miraculously escaped
recycling and, by modulating RGB cannons, you may even get color vectors for
free.

I'd love to do such a project, but the analog parts are way above my head.
Haven't touched that since college.

------
agentultra
I've found workflows with my reMarkable tablet that allow me to spend less
time in front of a screen. I find getting away from my workstation to go think
is immensely valuable. With my org-based publishing system I can put code,
diagrams, and documents that render to PDF and sync to the device which allows
me to "go offline" for a bit and edit, reflect, and remix those thoughts.

It's not quite as extreme as Screenless but I'm totally down with the message.

I'd like for my reMarkable to eventually be more capable of uploading my
gestures to my server where I'm running recognition software that can talk to
my compilers, theorem provers, etc and send me back more information.

I'd like to work in a space where the devices and artifacts surrounding me are
more intuitive and conducive to the way I think rather than blending myself in
with the way someone else designed the experience of thinking for me.

------
BillinghamJ
Sorry... what?! This seems absolutely absurd. Not to mention an incredible
waste of paper.

~~~
dovik
Not absurd: artistic!

~~~
falcolas
The latter does not preclude the former. :)

That said, the wastefullness of it doesn't appeal to me, though some of the
ideas behind it do. I would think an adaptation of a e-ink display would be
much more practical and much less wasteful, while conveying similar meaning.

------
usermac
Found a youtube video of it here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3LwrUpFVPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3LwrUpFVPI)

------
gaze
This is really beautiful. I love the idea of designing interfaces that pinch
off the flow of information just a bit so our attention can’t be forced to
jump around as fast.

------
mikeokner
A photo would really be worth 1,000 words on that landing page.

------
cmiles74
I work as a software developer, I don't think I can really get away from
having a screen as the central fixture on my desk. That said, for those whose
work is not so centrally fixed around computing, elevating a monitor to the
most central location on their desk strikes me as far less helpful.

My partner works works with college students, they are a counselor and
adviser; meeting with students is the primary focus of their work. I was
surprised to see, however, that the computer and display was still a big part
of their desk. They have one of those L-shaped workstations with the front
portion cleared so they can talk to students and the wall-side dominated by
the computer's display.

Does the screen need to dominate their workspace? What sort of constant
attention drain does the display represent on them and the students? I also
believe it leads to unreasonable work performance related expectations, namely
that they are entirely up-to-date on the most recent received email messages
and memos, etc. Most of their time is spent working with students, the
computerized portion of their work is mostly in the morning, brief snippets in
between appointments and the end of the day.

This "screenless" idea seems somewhat extreme, but perhaps having the
computing device in a clearly diminutive form-factor would go a long way
towards changing their relationship with the machine, as well as expectations
for how much time they spend reading email, memos, etc. I definitely think
it's worth exploring.

In my opinion, the "open" office plans seem the most extreme version of this
idea that the computing device should be central to one's workspace (and by
extension, one's work). In some of these plans, there's almost no personal
space at all, certainly no room for decoration or personal touches. On the
contrary, the entire space is defined by the computer.

[http://vanessaauditore.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/privac...](http://vanessaauditore.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/privacy-in-the-open-plan-office.jpeg)

------
fusiongyro
I am surrounded by books I hardly ever read, because I can get instant access
to information without moving, thanks to my screen. But there are problems: 1)
my screen also gives me instant access to an amazing vastness of distractions,
and 2) the quality of information in the books around me is often much higher
than the quality of information I can get instantly. But because of 1), I
don't appreciate 2).

I think it would be interesting to experience a screenless office. Obviously I
would think more deeply about things. Some of that thought would be "wasted,"
in the sense that I would be working things out I could simply look up on
Stack Overflow. But I think there is a cognitive difference between working
something out yourself and copying someone else's answer. In the former case,
it feels like you are sort of exercising your own capacity to think, and in
the latter case you can remain somewhat disengaged. The former is like walking
a path, the latter is like watching a video of someone else walking it.

While paper is a renewable resource, this project is more of a thought
experiment. Are we happy with the way we have become dependent on screens for
computing? Every technology brings some tradeoffs—are we happy with the
tradeoffs we are implicitly accepting? If not, what are we willing accept in
return for change?

------
gumby
I don't think this is for me but I love this crazy idea and I love that
someone is pushing the boundaries of my assumptions.

------
redsec
What about all the papers and ink that this project is using ?

~~~
maemilius
This. I can kinda get behind what they're trying to do, but damn that uses a
lot of paper...

------
quickben
Very interesting to see how this turns out for artists.

From one side, there are studies that show that brief interruptions boost the
brain searching for creative solutions.

From another side, nothing gets done because FB, Reddit, cats and the likes
tend to pull one in longer than expected. If somebody interupts you they go
away after the issue, social media is there with another item forever.

Maybe we are seeing something fundamentally new, coming slowly with this idea?

------
Tepix
It's curious that they don't seem to use speech synthesis and voice
recognition as another screen alternative at all.

------
chimmy_chonga
> Currently, it exists as a working prototype with software "bureaus" which
> allow a user to read and navigate news, web sites and social media entirely
> with the use of various printers for output and a barcode scanner for input.

Seems like a lot of wasted paper

------
ianai
I love the idea of having more ways to interact with computers/the internet.
Pixels have been great, but I’d suggest technology based on them won’t ever
fully hit a true “new phase” until much more can be done without pixels.

------
symlinkk
Am I wrong or is there nothing on that website that shows this thing actually
working?

------
tomcooks
Nice project and great food for thought.

Why waste paper when you can use e-paper and achieve the same result, minus
treeageddon?

------
richrichardsson
Only 2 words sprang to mind: one was "Hipsters" the other rhymes with
"tucking".

~~~
egwynn
I agree 100%. So glad someone's finally bucking the prevailing hipster trends
these days.

------
Arzh
Very dumb, perfect execution. 10/10 would art again.

------
heavenlyblue
Highly ecological. Hurray for the liberally-minded artists.

------
GrumpyNl
The waste of paper will be enormous with a office setup like that. Just use
dedicated ereaders or something like that.

------
hawktheslayer
I printed up this website on my dot matrix printer to read for later.

------
jasonvorhe
I sense a Luddite uprising.

~~~
egwynn
I sense a you didn’t read the post / don’t know what Luddites were.

Put less flippantly: The Luddites hated technology because they feared it
would take their jobs. While this project calls a lot of strong technological
conventions into question, it doesn’t reject technology nearly as
fundamentally as the Luddites did. It also has nothing to do with the feared
obsolescence of labor.

~~~
jasonvorhe
I do know who Luddites where and what the site is about. It was meant as
tongue in cheek but I think it just wasn't that funny. Sorry about that.

------
wafflesraccoon
This has to be a joke, it feels like a Portlandia skit.

~~~
zrail
It’s art. Read the entire thing, it’s pretty short. The participants page goes
into a little detail of the origin of the project.

------
ktpsns
When I read the headline _screenless office_ , I thought about getting rid of
monitors and desk chairs and replace them with high-resolution virtual reality
headsets. I really want to be in the future when I don't need to sit all day
at a desk staring at a screen.

~~~
pmlnr
Now imagine doing this for years: every morning you walk into a windowless,
empty room. Put VR on, work our 9-5. Get VR off, back in the windowless, empty
room.

It would completely destroy me within days.

