Why? What Would You Do on a Sunday Afternoon?

My keyboard smells of roses and my display emanates whiffs of lovely lemon. Today, you see, was keyboard cleaning day. No, I don’t have an annual, preset date for that, I just felt like it. And it was due – badly. So badly even, that I’m only putting up the above picture as an illustration. The images I took when I first opened it up are too gross to even ponder. Think over a year’s worth of eating, drinking and performing other activities hunched over the trusted Qwerty. I am very happy with it, by the way. Not only does it look like new, it feels different as well. That’s only natural, now that it’s no longer inhabited by microscopic civilizations so advanced that they were about to discover the water mill and the printing press – or the microscopic keyboard civilization alternatives thereof at least.

I did everything slowly and precisely. Vacuuming for the first large chunks of dirt, cotton buds for the finer work and meanwhile washing the keys under the tap with hot water and soap. I also made sure I had an example of how the keyboard looked like before disassembling it, in case I wouldn’t remember. And I have to say, I’m glad I did. It’s amazing how you become lost when those x-amount keys sit there slowly drying on their towel, staring at you.

What struck me most, though, was how meaningless these keys become when you take them apart. Single letters remain reasonably easy to decipher, although I did stare at the v quite some time, wondering if it was in any way related to < or >. But it’s the smaller, more vulnerable ones that become tiny mysteries of their own. Even with the layout next to you, you can’t help but suddenly wonder what this – actually is, and if it’s numerical, alphabetical or perhaps a distant cousin of ~ even. The differences between / and | and \ also become minute when taken out of context. That’s when you notice keys have sides, top and bottom, something that had never reallyo ccurred to me before. But even with this practical tool of distinguishing their orientation, you do realize how much we see rely on seeing things as a whole. Just like we do faces and the world even.

In psychology that’s called Gestalt (shape or guise) and it’s been the basis for entire theories and therapies. It figures: we see people as a whole, their faces a combined presentation of their mood, character and thoughts. Imagine seeing only eyes or noses. I suppose it’s not much different from looking at these petite instances of : and ; and 9 and 6… And what about 0 and o? That’s not an easy one either. I was suddenly full of awe of the world and of semiotics in particular: that study of signs and of the meaning we give to them. Designers have read and filled bookshelves on what is the perfect symbol or logo for signifying everything from your hard drive icon to emergency exits. It’s all quite amazing, and although I didn’t experience some life-changing epiphany over it, I was quite taken in by it all. The power to read, write and communicate through these little squiggly lines. And the thoughts and ideologies they can convey!

Oh, well, let’s not wax too prosaic. I’m finally going to watch Goodbye Lenin! – talk about ideologies and the signs used to communicate them – and if it’s any good, well, I’ll tell you about it. With WordPress now offering up to 10GB of space, I’ve calculated that at this rate, I could blog for another 3,000 years or so. You ready?