Homework 2

    The most important takeaway from this week’s slides and other materials is the updated version of what I have mentioned in the first week’s post, which is that the responsive environment should have multideck of interaction. The first level of interaction should be self-evident and direct the users to the next interaction. They don’t know what to expect while entering the space, giving some hints and easy interaction can help arouse their interests as well as give something to expect when they act in a certain way. Meanwhile, every level of interaction should also be directional, leading the user to do something that will trigger the next layer of interaction. Behind all these layers of interaction, there should be a theme behind it. In this way, the artists who create these spaces and interactions are able to have a conversation with the users. Perhaps it seems to be a non-reversing process, only artists conveying their ideas to the users. While in fact, I think the surroundings are reacting based on the user’s action. And they can stand for the artist’s response. Based on the fact that an environment will most likely contain more than one person, their separate communication with the artist will, in turn, influence others. And I find this way is more inspiring when a single person is interacting with a single piece of artwork. Last semester, I take interaction lab, and the projects I have done all focused on interaction with one person. But I think in the responsive environment I can take a step further. One idea is that everyone has his or her personal experience towards the environment, and how to bring these feelings as a part of the environment and then influence others as well as themselves further is a question I am considering now. And for me doing the Interaction Lab, the fancier interaction is, it can grab more visitors’ attention and thus be more successful. But it’s not the case for an environment, it’s not the fancier, the better. Maybe the outcome is fancy enough to attract visitors, it should start from the most evident interaction and then guide users step by step and dive deeper and deeper into the topic.