Unfocus Timer (2024)
(status: prototype v2)
A physical timer to momentarily allow a state of unfocused internet.
On Craving
Our phones have trained us to minimize the distance between a craving and consumption.
This distance becomes traversible through the swipe of a thumb. The finger becomes the unit of action, of the resolution of a compulsion.
In Buddhism, the Pali word tanha means thirst, desire, greed, craving. This kind of tanha is understood to be the origin of suffering, or dukkha -- we suffer because we are attached to our cravings. Many observational practices including Vipassana meditation or Alexander Technique involve being equanimous in order to examine the craving as it arises, and to let it pass.
By elongating the observational resolution from 'the thumb and a swipe', into 'the legs and its stride', the aim is to support, but not supplant, a kind of observational practice around browsing habits induced by these cravings.
* * *
(NYTimes, YouTube, Instagram, etc).
The mechanical timer counts down:
30 minutes.
15 minutes.
5 minutes.
Intention
thumb -------> legs
screen -------> space
An attentional artifact crafting physical affordances for Internet habits and practices.
The timer temporarily allows internet access to domains that are normally blocked. The blocked domains are ones that I hold the most muscle memory for; the sites that I might navigate to nearly unconsciously with my fingers.
By making the timer a physical object in my kitchen, far away from my computing devices, habits of distraction that I might have on my computer, or phone, become transformed into physical (and thus spatial) actions.
1.
Instead of swiping to a URL with my thumb, I have to get up, use my legs, in order to turn the timer's knob.
2.
The unit of distraction and unfocus is not in the action of the finger, but of the leg, of full-body movement. The immediate twitch of the thumb is transformed into a larger, full-body kinaesthetic action.
3.
By elongating the action, impulse is transformed into intent.
In other words: I can't twitch my way into distraction; by a distraction necessitating a walk across the room, the room affords more intent in being online.
On Unfocus
The timer is an unfocus timer, not a focus timer. After the knob is turned, during the countdown, a state of internet distraction is meant to be perceived as a temporary, unstable state. After the timer ticks to zero, a state of focus settles back down.
Awareness and presentness is always here, if we settle down enough to notice it.
On Experience
This is primarily an experiential project; a project intended to actively change an aspect of experience.
Like most experience, there is a limit of communication with signifiers that are overly correct (perhaps, the opposite of 'not even wrong'). For example: one could say: "Meditation is about sitting and focusing your awareness". Technically, this is simple enough. Experientially, though?
If you're reading this, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Process
For more information on the process, see the build log.
Interested?
Send me a note, if this is something you might be interested in trying for yourself!