talk

04/06/2024

Brandenburgische Zentrum für Medienwissenschaften

In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Jan Distelmeyer

APIs as media

APIs, i.e. programming interfaces, play a central role in the 'interface complex'. They determine the extent to which external users can access and modify a platform's data. This leads to a tension between disclosure and control. In my presentation, I will use two examples to show how I use data visualizations to make the potential space of APIs visible, work with them and demonstrate their structures.

The concept of the “interface” was originally developed in physics in the late 19th century - to explain the conduction of energy. From the end of the 1950s, the term interface became established in computer technology for the regulated relationship between people and computers. To this day, the term “interface” is often used to describe the human-machine relationship that we encounter every day, for example in the form of graphical user interfaces. However, the term interface encompasses much more. Interfaces do not only mediate between computers and people: Rather, interfaces establish connections on all present and hidden levels in, between and to computers, which are necessary today for the functioning of digital technology in its diverse forms, embeddings and networking. Interfaces perform mediations for and as computer work: from hardware-hardware interfaces for the cables of the Internet to APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to sensors of self-driving cars or “smart” cities and all those software/hardware constellations for people to provide input. The term interface addresses these diverse forms of connections - and helps to question the complexity of the digital present precisely because these interface forms are also permanently interlinked. They belong and work together, are interdependent and thus form an interface complex.