Constrained Space(s)

Metaphorically,

the design of the

player's interface establishes

both actual and imaginative relationships

to the sounds the technology retrieves. And for

now, at least, the metaphors employed by the player

are strikingly similar to those employed by most radios. On trying the player

several years ago for the first time, we

searched for streaming audio sites, clicked on the player's icons

for Stop and Play, manipulated the little volume lever,

and

so on, noting the varying

quality of sound we were receiving. We were, at least for the

moment, less interested in what was coming

across than in the fact that we could hear anything this way. Our

office computer, which had been silent

or nearly so, was now talking, even singing in a way that was

comforting in its familiarity.

But surprisingly, alas, a little boring, too. That is,