Windows and Mirrors provides an interesting way of how we should look at digital applications. As Bolter explains a digital application should include both a strategy of transparency as well as reflexivity. As he explains, digital applications always reflect the user in a way that is disimilar in other media. He does provide an example of a painting by Hans Holbein called The Ambassabors and explains that you cannot just look through the painting but you must become an active member of the painting in order to fully understand its meaning.
This is highlighted within digital art as he provides a number of examples. Through each he shows how art becomes a reflection of the self. The ability to customize digital art creates a unique experience for each person and therefore it is not just a representative of the artist itself (Window) but a representive of the viewer as well (Mirror). This is an interesting way of looking at new media. Therefore it is no more a oneway conversation.
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just to be clear, the argument is that we have tended to emphasize transparency of the interface in western culture, and we need to be more cognizant of the reflective interface, and how the viewer is involved in the message and its meaning.
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