Compounded from the Greek skeuos (’container’, ‘tool’) and morphē (’shape’), the term skeuomorph was originally coined in 1889 by amateur archaeologist Henry Colley March to describe ornaments derived from pre-existing human-made structures. Tools as early as The Hammer had to be iterated upon, becoming more effective at each step, while retaining some redundant feature/s of a previous evolution.

When it comes to human-AI alignment, skeumorphs can serve as useful material metaphors. Skeuomorphs have been embedded into networked technologies since the dawn of digital computing; the word ‘computer’ is itself a skeuomorphic term, evolving from human ‘computers’ who were adept at performing calculations by hand. At every stage, we must choose which technologies to keep, retain and discard in our individual lives, communities, and broader societies.

This project is an interactive drag-and-drop dress-up game that mimics classic 2D flash games from the early 2000s, itself an anachronistic depiction in today’s 5D media environment. Users are invited to virtually ‘align’ their avatar with a personalized set of technologies, from The Hammer to wired headphones to Neuralink. The aim is to invoke a reflection on past/present/future realities and (re)align temporal possibilities.