A tentative title and focus for my next zine
Yesterday, I sent out all copies of CW-PUB-001: Field Notes on Productive Friction. I've decided that it's going to be the first zine in a three-part series, and I'm currently thinking that the second one will be entitled CW-PUB-002: Interfaces of Refusal.
Indicative content for me to wax philosophical about:
- 404 — the path existed, then didn't (i.e. erasure rather than blockage)
- Access Denied — a refusal with no explanation
- The Spinning Wheel — patience simulated on your behalf
- The Form That Won't Submit — the button remains a suggestion
- Insufficient Permissions — visibility without access
- The Retry Loop — told to try again (as though trying was the failure)
- Terms You Must Accept — consent as formality
- The Silent Failure — nothing happens
- The Human Escalation — the moment refusal admits its own limits (and hands you to a person)
Refusal isn't really the opposite of an interface as it has its own grammar. For example, a 404 isn't a "blocker" as much as just cut the ground from under your feet. And a spinner doesn't "make you wait" as much as kind of perform waiting on your behalf.
It's a whole, cold, absurd, bureaucratic design language that we've trained ourselves not to notice. So, just as Field Notes on Productive Friction was about noticing the "wallpaper" so Interfaces of Refusal will help us to take notice of how machines get in the way of what we want to achieve.
My aim isn't to just catalogue annoyances, but to show how we passively accept "no" as an answer. This may shift over time as I get into researching and writing, but I'm hoping to connect it meaningfully to the previous zine, and point to the next one (still TBD).
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