All situations are composed of an area of 
attention (figure ) and a very much larger 
(subliminal) area of inattention (ground ). . . . 
Figures rise out of, and recede back into, ground  
. . . for example, at a lecture the attention will 
shift from the speaker’s words to his gestures, to 
the hum of the lighting or street sounds, or to the 
feel of the chair or a memory or association or 
smell, each new figure  alternatively displaces the 
others into ground . . . . The ground  of any 
technology is both the situation that gives rise to 
it as well as the whole environment (medium) of 
services and disservices that the technology 
brings with it. These are side-effects and impose