Cleaning is a sacred act. It has been done in the Indian culture (and also in other cultures around the world) since times immemorial. The Indian culture and traditions have been full of rituals and ceremonies in almost every event. And all of these rituals happen after an act of cleaning. There are festivals in which you have to clean up the houses as a compulsion, as it is said that the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, only enters those houses that are clean. In the traditional times (and also to a large population even today), people would not even take food without cleaning themselves up completely after bathing and performing a sacred ritual. This is even done in the coldest of months, and in the harshest of conditions. Many see these acts as cleaning the human soul. At times the act of cleaning also signifies the need to keep off the bad omen and the evil spirits. An extension of this is the ridiculously superstitious ceremonies that are held widely across the country. In times of adversities, the gods are summoned even more and every bit of effort is made to please the gods, so that the souls can be ‘clean’ and the society ‘cleaned’ of the adversity.
Being an Indian, who is religious, and who does not take any food on all most all days without having a shower (unless of course if I am starving), and who wants the goddess of wealth to bless me, I think that “Cleaning my computer’s desktop” (more specifically on a Mac) is a truly sacred act. The sacred experience that I have every time I have to clean my desktop gives me a joy and a sense of satisfaction that perhaps no other act does.
I see the computer’s desktop as an extension to myself. It is an extension to my room and my physical desks, which are a part of my lifeworld and both of which are neat and well organized. My lifeworld mostly comprises of clean spaces (kitchen, living room, bedroom, even my shoe?shelf). Whenever I have a breakdown and there is a disturbance in my flow, I know that it is time for a cleanup and hence perform another of those sacred acts. Similarly when doing digital interactions on the computer, when I am unable to perform an activity, which I intended to, I know that the flow has been broken. It is at that particular moment that I know that it’s the time to get up and clean the chaos that has accumulated on the desktop (from here on, the term desktop applies to the computer’s desktop).
Of all things, this act of cleaning also helps me become more reflective of my actions. It helps me to pay attention to things that might have slipped out of my mind. It allows me to plan my activities better and devote time to stuff that I might have been neglecting for some reasons. It also allows me travel back and forth in time. I am able to remember events that could have been related to a file, and also plan in future about the activity that I need to perform. Being able to do so, I am able to prioritize my tasks and go about things in a more organized manner.
This whole act of cleaning comprises of numerous small rituals (tasks). I generally start by observing the stuff that has occupied the center of the screen. Then I would go on to first identify the files that need my attention. Then I would press shift + delete after deciding if the file is an unwanted file, or place the files in their appropriate folders if required. The sound that the Macintosh systems make is music to my ears in itself. I simply love the audio feedback that this interaction of moving the files gives. It adds to my user experience in interacting with it. The way the destination folders open up when I am trying to move a file into it is a good visual feedback that I am placing it in the right place.
After the organization of the files has been done, then I would go about re?arranging the folders on the interface. This re?arrangement at times would also be based on the wallpaper that I select to be displayed on the desktop. The wallpaper changes almost every time I do this act of cleaning the desktop. Lastly I would purge the things from the trashcan and delete it forever. The relation between these two signifiers, the folders and the wallpaper tells a lot about my present state of mind.
As mentioned earlier, I am a religious person. The computer for me is a source of knowledge and the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, resides in it. As Indians we revere the books and pray to it. So the notion of even the foot touching the books, sitting on books, touching paper with foot is not sacred and we touch it with hands and ask forgiveness if such a thing happens. Therefore this act of cleaning the desktop is important, as it is a connotative to the lifestyle that is so rooted in the Indian traditions. A chaotic desktop signifies untidiness in the real world. It also gives an impression of the mess that I am going through, of the problems in the time management that I am facing, of the numerous works that are pending, of me not keeping the goddess happy. The other connotations for these could also be busy times or the lack of a proper focus in doing things. These negative connotations also inspire me to clean the desktop at regular intervals.
One may think whether this act of cleaning is done for me, or for someone else to see? While the sole person for seeing and designing the stuff around is me, there is often the need to show or share the desktop with someone else. The sender here is me, as a human being, a person. The final addressor however, in reality is a computer, which is a lifeless entity. The addressor here is a personification of me and it is this personified entity that the receiver views. This personification therefore forces me as a person to have a desktop that is a reflection of me. The addressees however still are humans. One does not expect the other computers to ‘see’ and experience my desktop, unlike the humans (may be in the time of advanced artificial intelligence, but not yet now). So when I select the wallpaper of natural scenery, or that of an actress I admire, I want the addressee to know that I admire them. The addressees understand this further, as the icons are arranged in a manner to allow for a prolonged engagement time in viewing the wallpaper.
Selecting the wallpaper is an important task in the cleaning act. Sometimes the wallpaper selection is highly influenced by events that have happened in the near past, like a feeling of patriotism, followed a recent terror strike in India and hence I had a wallpaper that was a signifier to the country I love so much. Sometimes when the act of cleaning is done in a mood that is confused, or lacks a direction, the wallpaper would be a source of inspiration. This could be a person I admire, like Einstein, Gandhi, or simply a quote that would motivate me, like “Be the change you want to see in the world”. And if I have recently shot some photographs myself, the wallpaper would be a photograph from that shoot. These again are a reflection to the real world, where in my room one would find posters, clipping, and quote on post?its from these different things.
The folders are arranged in a manner to not occupy the central position on the screen. I have the tendency to have things in a manner arranged along the periphery of the screen. This is also reflective of my nature to have a clear vision directly in front of me. This connotation comes from the notion of the journey, where one needs to have a clear vision ahead in order to progress. And as mentioned this is also because I want myself, and the addressees to have a clear view of the wallpaper. The folders are named according to the activity or according to the time when that activity were done.
One may argue that why not have the settings so that every time something is downloaded or saved, it does not end up at the desktop. Well I have done so, and the computers are designed in a way to have them downloaded to a non? desktop folder by default. But, like they say, “Old habits die hard!”; I simply follow the same analogy that I do in my real life. I dump the things on the bed, or on the physical table, and after sometime clean it up to make it more organized. It is these acts that make the activity so enjoyable even though it ends up taking some time.
In conclusion I must say, that even though technology centered interactions and other digital interactions have taken center?stage these days, I still find myself mapping my activities in the digital / online world to the way I have been doing it in the real world. Cleaning the computer’s desktop to me is highly experiential in nature. It gives me a pleasurable feeling. While I am doing it, I am aware of the larger picture that either I am removing an unwanted thing, that had been occupying some important real estate on my screen, or putting an order to things by placing them in the appropriate folders. I tend to be smiling all the time, as come?on, who does not like a clean place. In the end its all about bringing smile back to me when I have to find a file or perform an activity and can do it smoothly without any breakdown.