Instructions:
1) Navigate through the web of links
2) Find Mr. Tuttle
3) Find the connection between each face- the 'inter' space
The Pointer: Littered throughout the site is the image of a hand that points to a page explaining the meaning behind the words/images. It is meant to guide not so much as signify, despite its status as a link between the signified and the signifying.
The “Face Maze”: an alternative (inter)face
Throughout time, Man has mapped the features of his psyche upon his environment. The allegory was a way of making real abstract concepts so Man could interact with seemingly insubstantial ideas so he could make sense of his world. In this worldview, the sun was a God, bringing forth consciousness, the river the flow of life (and likewise, it's mouth was the entrance by which life flowed), and so on. The allegorical understanding of the world solved the issue that reality is always mediated by our senses by attributing human qualities to Nature as the Other, thus creating the semblance of familiarity in the foreign.
Later on, Nature became a metaphor by which he could signify these same concepts. Language created a distance between signified and signifier by acting as the bridge by which meaning was produced. The sun was not merely a God, but signified the source of meaning.
As mankind progressed, this extended to all of his own creations. Buildings had facades, and windows were the entrance into one's soul. A fixation on the 'face' remained, however, as the face was the center of consciousness- the 'control room'- in the geography of the human body.
With the advent of technology, this carried on to cars, radios, computers and even the internet. The "interface" of the digital age can seen as an extension of this tendency. Computers have faces, and the 'interface' was the environment by which one navigated the features of the computer's consciousness. In a truly narcissistic fashion, the computer can be said to an extension of Man's consciousness, enabling him to realise his abilities through a mechanisation of the mind.
However, a price was paid as it did so by creating even more distance between Man and his environment. Reality, not only subjected to mediation by linguistic signs, was now mediated by layer upon layer of technology, putting him further away from the connection/communion with his world he desired.
The Face Maze seeks to restore this connection by embracing the dissociative, fragmentary approach. One clicks one's way through it in order to see "what's next", stirred by boredom and the need for instant gratification. However, it does so in a game-like fashion, restoring the element of play to a technology otherwise devoid of emotion.
1) Navigate through the web of links
2) Find Mr. Tuttle
3) Find the connection between each face- the 'inter' space
The Pointer: Littered throughout the site is the image of a hand that points to a page explaining the meaning behind the words/images. It is meant to guide not so much as signify, despite its status as a link between the signified and the signifying.
The “Face Maze”: an alternative (inter)face
Throughout time, Man has mapped the features of his psyche upon his environment. The allegory was a way of making real abstract concepts so Man could interact with seemingly insubstantial ideas so he could make sense of his world. In this worldview, the sun was a God, bringing forth consciousness, the river the flow of life (and likewise, it's mouth was the entrance by which life flowed), and so on. The allegorical understanding of the world solved the issue that reality is always mediated by our senses by attributing human qualities to Nature as the Other, thus creating the semblance of familiarity in the foreign.
Later on, Nature became a metaphor by which he could signify these same concepts. Language created a distance between signified and signifier by acting as the bridge by which meaning was produced. The sun was not merely a God, but signified the source of meaning.
As mankind progressed, this extended to all of his own creations. Buildings had facades, and windows were the entrance into one's soul. A fixation on the 'face' remained, however, as the face was the center of consciousness- the 'control room'- in the geography of the human body.
With the advent of technology, this carried on to cars, radios, computers and even the internet. The "interface" of the digital age can seen as an extension of this tendency. Computers have faces, and the 'interface' was the environment by which one navigated the features of the computer's consciousness. In a truly narcissistic fashion, the computer can be said to an extension of Man's consciousness, enabling him to realise his abilities through a mechanisation of the mind.
However, a price was paid as it did so by creating even more distance between Man and his environment. Reality, not only subjected to mediation by linguistic signs, was now mediated by layer upon layer of technology, putting him further away from the connection/communion with his world he desired.
The Face Maze seeks to restore this connection by embracing the dissociative, fragmentary approach. One clicks one's way through it in order to see "what's next", stirred by boredom and the need for instant gratification. However, it does so in a game-like fashion, restoring the element of play to a technology otherwise devoid of emotion.
