Their discussion of transparency and reflection is expanded in the chapters that follow. In the second chapter they describe another of the works from SIGGRAPH, Wooden Mirror by Daniel Rozin. In this piece, what the viewer initially encounters is a large, framed panel made up of wooden tiles. When the viewer moves in front of the "mirror," a hidden camera captures his/her image and relays that to a computer that signals controllers behind each tile. The tiles adjust their position, using light and cast shadow to create a reflection of the captured video image. Bolter and Gromala discuss Wooden Mirror in terms of this balance between transparency and reflectivity. "It is a strangely truthful kind of mirror that doesn't deliver on its promise of transparency, in part because the wooden tiles have a pleasing texture that makes us aware of the surface" (34). The experience occasioned by this mirror is both "looking at and looking through," reflective and transparent (34). Bolter and Gromala then move away from Wooden Mirror and into a discussion of interface design. They point to the tendency to talk of the disappearance of the interface as the proper aim of design. They give a history of the Macintosh interface in order to demonstrate that pure transparency has always been a myth, that interfaces function most successfully when they oscillate between being transparent windows on information or experience and being opaque/reflective surfaces that users can identify and manipulate. "The danger of transparency is that the interface will mask the operation of the system exactly when the user needs to see and understand what the system is doing" (55).

Bolter and Gromala more or less follow this structure for the rest of the book, deviating only in the conclusion and colophon: They describe a specific work from SIGGRAPH, including the design of the Art Gallery itself, and use that as a jumping off point for analysis of specific points about digital design. In particular, they continue to reinforce the ways that successful digital artifacts are both transparent and reflective, both window and mirror. This metaphor, however, starts to seem a bit overplayed given the lack of direct theoretical engagement and explication in this book. In their acknowledgements, the authors state that while familiar with the theories of Dawkins, Deleuze and Guattari. Haraway, Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Lacan, and Baudrillard, they

"choose not to discuss them, because this is a book about the craft of and the material engagement with digital art and design, and we believe that the theoretical literature often strays too far from practice to be useful for our purposes" (x-xi).

Bolter and Gromala's choice here is unfortunate. Without more detailed attention to the particulars of a theoretical framework that this book might articulate, their emphasis on "windows and mirrors" falls flat by the end of the text. Ironically, the lack of theory in this book creates a distancing from practice similar to the one they criticize as residing in theory. The implied binary between theory and practice is not helpful, and seems both critically and practically questionable. Deciding that designers are to be the

specific audience of this book in no way alleviates the need for critical and eoretical depth. Bolter and Gromala's project could only have been made more valuable by adding a level of theoretical rigor, the onus being upon them to do so without "[straying] too far from practice to be useful" (x-xi).
In the six-page colophon at the end of the book, Bolter and Gromala turn their attention to the design of their own book, a topic that would have been better placed toward the beginning of the text. Here they discuss of Excretia, a dynamic, digital typeface designed by Gromala. Excretia is a biomorphic font, its actual visible manifestation depending upon the physical state of the typist who is connected to it by biofeedback devices that measure galvanic skin responses, respiration, and heart rate.

"As she writes, these continuous streams of data affect the visual character of the typeface. The words 'throb' as her heart beats; they grow tendrils and spikes if she becomes 'excitable.' As the writer works, the text she has already written may continue to change, or she may choose to freeze it to reflect her state at the very instant of the writing-- in effect, to create a biological-typographical record" (166).

There are several images of various manifestations of Excretia, a typeface that is about experience, both in the writing and in the reading. The authors suggest that Excretia be understood as an example of an interface operating as both window and mirror. The authors further note that Excretia was used on the splash pages at the beginning of each chapter. What readers notice, however, is a significant gulf between Bolter and Gromala's description and visual depiction of Excretia in the colophon, and the text that she they find at the beginning of each chapter. The splash pages are not dynamic, reflective surfaces. The text on these pages appears in forms that are familiar and static. A more successful use of Excretia would have exploited the dynamic fluctuations of the font, even if frozen as the snapshot of a particular moment in the writing. If Bolter and Gromala really wanted to push the text as a reflective experience rather than just as a transparent conveyor of information, the splash pages could have become images of Excretia in action. Though perhaps illegible at times, this would have been a much more compelling engagement with the printed text as interface.

Throughout Windows and Mirrors, the histories of particular technologies are accessible and prove valuable framing devices for particular discussions. The selection of artworks and their descriptions are illuminating. Likewise, their focus on embodied participation with digital artifacts is both striking and necessary in discourses about digital technologies.

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