The Universal Surface

A computer application called IOGraphica can track the movement of a computer mouse cursor and convert it into an image that shows all the paths the mouse has taken. The lines on the images indicate the paths of the mouse, and the black circles represent where the mouse stops. The more times the mouse stops, the bigger the black circles get. The white circle with the little black dot in the center indicates moments at which the mouse is clicked. These images are similar to maps, recording the mouse behavior over the recording time period. I asked several of my friends to record their mouse movement when using their own personal apple computers. I then titled those images using the recording time of each one. I was curious about how my viewer would read those images, in other words, how they would interpret the visual information from those abstract lines and circles. This was the first time I started to research visual perception.

I compared the reading experience of this work with the experience of reading maps. A map enables us to read abstract spaces and directions in a more straightforward and efficient way by using conventions, such as symbols and legends. People who read the images generated by IOGraphica also use a convention that exists in our cultural memory. I found that the random looking path of the mouse movement actually has a pattern, because the design of the computer system has predetermined how we move our mouse. One can interpret the crossing black lines on the top of the image as a menu bar of a computer screen, because the design of the computer system is universally understood. I also read these lines as gestures that constitute the act of contemporary white-collar work. They represent the manifestation of such digital labor in a poetic, aestheticized form. In any amount of time, there are thousands of people moving their mice and completing their jobs using computers. To measure the value quantity of digital work becomes hard with the absence of material. The hand movement shown on The Universal Surface offers the viewer a unique chance to read those creations of value beyond the timeline.