Windows and Mirrors:

Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency
(2003) by Jay David Bolter and Diane Gromala, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, London


This reading talks about how interfaces shape our experiences of the material presented.
"The most visible, and in some ways the most important, part of any digital application is its interface - the face that the aplication presents to its users."

Bolter offers examples of digital art to illustrate the importance of interface, arguing that it is the interface that defines the whole experience.
Parallels are drawn between digital interfaces and windows and mirrors. The computer screen can be seen as a window, "openning up into a visual world that seems to be behind or beyond."
But when the user begins to interact with the interface (activating buttons and menus) the interface acts more like a mirror, "reflecting the user and her relationship to the computer."
No interface acts solely as the 'window' - it is never completely transparent.