I ran across this disertation earlier this week and found it worth sharing: Interface Realisms: The Interface as Aesthetic Form. It posits that "The interface is the basic aesthetic form of digital art" and goes on to discuss what that means and what the implications are, suggesting that contemporary culture can be seen as an interface culture. Here's the complete thesis:

Quote:

The interface is the basic aesthetic form of digital art. Just as literature has predominantly taken place in and around books, and painting has explored the canvas, the interface is now a central aesthetic form conveying digital information of all kinds. This circumstance is simultaneously trivial, provocative, and far-reaching--trivial because the production, reproduction, distribution and reception of digital art increasingly take place at an interface;[2] provocative because it means that we should start seeing the interface as an aesthetic form in itself that offers a new way to understand digital art in its various guises, rather than as a functional tool for making art (and doing other things); and, finally, far-reaching in providing us with the possibility of discussing contemporary reality and culture as an interface culture.

The article is lengthy and I haven't finished reading all of it, but I'm still interested in hearing what others here think about it.