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I love the idea of an e-ink display as an art piece, but does a dedicated display for news headlines really operate in the spirit of calm technology, given the

I love the idea of an e-ink display as an art piece, but does a dedicated display for news headlines really operate in the spirit of calm technology, given the current political climate?

meibo 6y ago
I think this varies a lot from person to person - I love being up to date and knowing what's going on in the world keeps me 'calm', just to give perspective. As an art piece, this certainly keeps itself in the background and never tries to get your attention, instead just catches your eye, which might fit the 'calm technology' paradigm a bit better.
mmastrac 6y ago
Neither being obsessed with the news nor being completely away from it will bring calm. You need to give yourself "just enough" time to process what's happening and yield control to the world. Of course, this is easier said than done and I'm failing terribly at it.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  And, I think the idea of just having the front page of the New York Times on your wall, which will only show a set number of stories and will only ever update once per day, could be a great moderating force!
- airstrike 6y ago
  My approach is to only read headlines (from reputable sources like WSJ and Bloomberg)
baddash 6y ago
Interesting thought. On the one hand, its lighting (or lack thereof) causes it to visually blend in with its surroundings; it doesn't stand out at all and functions as a piece of art. But its content can metaphorically yell at a person. I think calm technology is characterized by tech which is easily ignorable/does not outwardly communicate unless the user wants to interact with it. Given that the display effectively functions as a piece of art unless someone decides to look at and read it, I don't think it would contradict with this characterization. The stress that would be responsible for violating the spirit of calm technology only exists after a person decides to read the display.
dqv 6y ago
I was thinking black and white photos or geometric patterns would be awesome on this (with the right decor of course).
onecommentman 6y ago
“‘1984’ as history One of the key technologies of surveillance in the novel is the “telescreen,” a device very much like our own television. The telescreen displays a single channel of news, propaganda and wellness programming. It differs from our own television in two crucial respects: It is impossible to turn off and the screen also watches its viewers.” https://theconversation.com/what-orwells-1984-tells-us-about-todays-world-70-years-after-it-was-published-116940 https://theconversation.com/what-orwells-1984-tells-us-about... Well, it’s only halfway to 1984, since it doesn’t look like it has a camera. Let’s call this a 992 technology. For New Yorkers, walking out of the flat and being bombarded by a loud presentation of news was part of the experience for over 100 years, ever since newsstands have been around. But the difference here is instead of being bombarded with 7 or 8 differing dailies headlines, you get exactly one. The NYT. That’s a bit Orwellian. For some reason, the story of the man who ate nothing but McDonalds for weeks straight popped into my head.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  Subscribing to a newspaper is Orwellian?
- AntiImperialist 6y ago
  Well, you have a phone, don't you? It's impossible to turn off and has a camera that the government can remotely turn on.
harrisonjackson 6y ago
You could change it to older headlines. I think that NYT frontpage pdf goes as far back as 2012/07/06 (thanks other HN commentor). There are a lot of RSS feeds for daily comics that you could feed into this - maybe a smaller eink tablet for a Calvin and Hobbes each AM.

I love the idea of an e-ink display as an art piece, but does a dedicated display for news headlines really operate in the spirit of calm technology, given the current political climate?

meibo 6y ago

I think this varies a lot from person to person - I love being up to date and knowing what's going on in the world keeps me 'calm', just to give perspective. As an art piece, this certainly keeps itself in the background and never tries to get your attention, instead just catches your eye, which might fit the 'calm technology' paradigm a bit better.

mmastrac 6y ago

Neither being obsessed with the news nor being completely away from it will bring calm. You need to give yourself "just enough" time to process what's happening and yield control to the world. Of course, this is easier said than done and I'm failing terribly at it.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago
And, I think the idea of just having the front page of the New York Times on your wall, which will only show a set number of stories and will only ever update once per day, could be a great moderating force!
airstrike 6y ago
My approach is to only read headlines (from reputable sources like WSJ and Bloomberg)

baddash 6y ago

Interesting thought. On the one hand, its lighting (or lack thereof) causes it to visually blend in with its surroundings; it doesn't stand out at all and functions as a piece of art. But its content can metaphorically yell at a person. I think calm technology is characterized by tech which is easily ignorable/does not outwardly communicate unless the user wants to interact with it. Given that the display effectively functions as a piece of art unless someone decides to look at and read it, I don't think it would contradict with this characterization. The stress that would be responsible for violating the spirit of calm technology only exists after a person decides to read the display.

dqv 6y ago

I was thinking black and white photos or geometric patterns would be awesome on this (with the right decor of course).

onecommentman 6y ago

“‘1984’ as history One of the key technologies of surveillance in the novel is the “telescreen,” a device very much like our own television. The telescreen displays a single channel of news, propaganda and wellness programming. It differs from our own television in two crucial respects: It is impossible to turn off and the screen also watches its viewers.” https://theconversation.com/what-orwells-1984-tells-us-about-todays-world-70-years-after-it-was-published-116940 https://theconversation.com/what-orwells-1984-tells-us-about... Well, it’s only halfway to 1984, since it doesn’t look like it has a camera. Let’s call this a 992 technology. For New Yorkers, walking out of the flat and being bombarded by a loud presentation of news was part of the experience for over 100 years, ever since newsstands have been around. But the difference here is instead of being bombarded with 7 or 8 differing dailies headlines, you get exactly one. The NYT. That’s a bit Orwellian. For some reason, the story of the man who ate nothing but McDonalds for weeks straight popped into my head.

pseudalopex 6y ago
Subscribing to a newspaper is Orwellian?
AntiImperialist 6y ago
Well, you have a phone, don't you? It's impossible to turn off and has a camera that the government can remotely turn on.

harrisonjackson 6y ago

You could change it to older headlines. I think that NYT frontpage pdf goes as far back as 2012/07/06 (thanks other HN commentor). There are a lot of RSS feeds for daily comics that you could feed into this - maybe a smaller eink tablet for a Calvin and Hobbes each AM.