CubicEye.net Comparison With Eyebeam.org and the Work of Cory Arcangel
Scene from Cory Arcangel installation Super Mario Clouds, 2002
Representation of three-dimensional forms through the single-point, single-plane perspective of the cathode-ray tube projection used for most views and projections of Internet urls has long been problematic for designers of Web pages intended to convey concepts of collected information. Understanding three-dimensional objects with only one viewpoint can be deceptive. In the context of viewing information displayed on Web pages, either for casual browsing or deep contemplation, users understand the limitations of what is seen and unconsciously process the limitations in experiencing volume, texture, space, gravity, mass, and weight, inherent in computer screen displays.
The technology created in 2001 by Pennsylvania-base CubicEye.net thus seems at first a movement toward unconventional and forward-thinking information display yet proves ultimately to be severely limited in scope, execution, and fundamental concept.
According to a story from an August 13, 2001, business news wire routing service for press releases, “The CubicEye metaphor of content management and delivery is based on effectively harnessing the mind’s ability to quickly and easily utilize spatial context.” What this means, basically, is that CubicEye displays linked, related Web pages in a perspectival format that appears to create depth as it theoretically reveals the content of numerous pages upon a single computer screen.
In fact CubicEye presents a visual organization system that is biologically, as well as logically, counterintuitive; this is likely the reason this “new” technology has not taken off. Viewed in light of Edward Tufte’s theories of graphic display, CubicEye is fails several of his stated criteria for good Web page organization and design. While CubicEye does show a lot of data, it does so clumsily and with a great deal of redundancy. The human eye cannot distinguish easily which marks, texts, and colors are critical to comprehension and which are irrelevant.
Some of Tufte’s principles are not directly applicable to the CubicEye program since the pageview system is user-generated and not limited to a specific collection of data or search parameter. Thus the “blame” for unattractive, unfriendly displays lies partially with the information manipulator. However, some violations of Tufte are inherent in the CubicEye interface. Some text by default will run along a vertical axis; graphics, when displayed out of their intended plane, are repulsive and ugly; and incongruent, viewer-deficient color combinations are unavoidable. Examples replicate an old-fashioned Autocad type of architectural rendering, shows how confusing a perspectivally disoriented amalgam of discrete Web pages can be when viewed using CubicEye’s system.
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