Windows and Mirrors

The first three (3) chapters of “Windows and Mirrors” by Jay Bolter and Diane Gromola was a very interesting but excellent read. After the two different perspectives were introduced, I was a little surprised because just as many of my fellow classmates I was expecting more theory to be explained but instead we were given different perspectives on when looking at the computer. One perspective introduced was WINDOWS as something we look through to help structure what we would like to see and MIRRORS as something we use to a reflection of something. It was apparent that both authors believed that the computer has grown to be as large or as important as the traditional mediums and has developed to be an extension of man. I agree with the author’s premises as they define the use of the computer as I view my interactions on the computer. As I re-read the chapters, I found myself evaluating the interfaces I used on the computer and categorizing each under the authors’ definition of windows or mirrors. I found this exercise to be extremely fun and challenging at the same time as I found many of the interfaces to fall under both. Before reading this passage, I never looked at the computer as tool as described in the text but the authors did a great job at explaining the computer as a creative medium.  And as I explained in class, it may be because I had prior knowledge from my previous media ecology class but I found this read to be extremely understandable and directly correlating to the ideologies discussed by Marshall Mcluhan and Walter Ong.