The two chapters showed that we set our distance and orientation to control our sensory experience which holds different meanings in cultures. In other words, we evaluate the situation based on our own culture and perception and act accordingly. I think what is showing here is also true in many other social interactions such as dinner manners.
The part makes me think most is how to apply the findings to facilitate our own research in HCI. Culture is mostly between human and human. We do not greet a computer when we see one because we think of them as tools to operate rather than identities to communicate. Since human and computer are fundamentally different in our cultural perception, how do we use the observations in human behaviors to enable new human computer interaction method. If we compare the computer controlled transparent office walls build by Mamuji and Vertegaal and the media player build by Ballendate, the difference is that the former uses the understanding of social meanings in human human interaction and design a system to facilitate that. The later is using the understanding of the space to operate a large display more seamlessly.
Another topic I would like to discuss is that the distance doesn’t need to be physical, it can be virtual as well. Hall’s book illustrated that we set different distances so that we only obtain the cultural acceptable amount of sensory information of the other people. With today or future’s communication technology, those sensory information may not directly linked to physical distance. For example, when we call someone using Apple’s Face Time video chat capability, from the way we hold the phone, the people calling will have the view from close personal distance defined by Hall. Will this limit how people use the technology?
