RESEARCH
While looking for a successful interactive project I was looking for two main characteristics.
1. The project has two or more actors that communicate with each other
2. Complex interactions
By complex I mean multiple methods of interaction, multiple inputs or outputs etc.
I. Interactive Table
This project is interactive because of its ability to interact with the user and other objects by lighting up. Both actors can speak and respond to one another (ex. placement of the hand = speaking to table, the table speaks by lighting up). However, of the three projects I researched, this is relatively the least successful as an interactive experience because the interaction is somewhat limited. I would love to see a project like this with more outputs and inputs. An ideas I have would be a thermal input that produces a specific color. The table would be able to tell you when your drink is at a good temperature.
II. Interactive Installation
Of the three that I researched this was the most interesting to me. It is an installation with multiple interactions. By blowing into a box, in another space, wind creates a sort of tornado. There is a monitor that reflects movements as a shadow. There is another box which upon blowing into triggers a separate component to blow bubbles. In each of these interactions the actors, the user and the project, communicate with each other cyclically. I am especially fascinated by the way space between the actors is used in this project. It is interactive from a distance. In my blog-post titled “Interaction Is…” I explained how an interactive project allows the user to become a part of a story. This project is a perfect example of that. The user is able to create art in an indirect yet interactive way.
III. Rain Room
This project is a rain room that uses 3D motion sensors to locate objects or people within its domain. Rain is falling everywhere except for where the sensors identify a presence. This project is very successful to me because it interacts with multiple senses making it thoroughly immersive. Similar to the one before, this project uses the concept of space in an interesting way which inspires me to think what else could be done using the components of nature by manipulating small portions of it.
Defining Successful Interaction
As I stated earlier, successful interaction is cyclical communication between two actors. The cyclical communication discussed in The Art of Interactive Design is a cycle of two actors encoding and decoding messages. In addition to this fundamental piece of successful interaction, I think a project can become even more successful by becoming more immersive. During both my group project and midterm project, I worked with the idea of immersion. In my group project we discussed the potential of a piece of technology that interacts with all five senses. Later, during my midterm, we built our project off of the idea of fully immersive games.
In “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interactive Design” ,Brett Victor writes, “We live in a three-dimensional world. Our hands are designed for moving and rotating objects in three dimensions, for picking up objects and placing them over, under, beside, and inside each other. No creature on earth has a dexterity that compares to ours.” It is for this reason that I think that interactive projects should have complex systems of interaction. Our lives are becoming more and more technology based. It is incredible what we can do with technology. With an intersection of the capabilities of technology and the human body, a very successful project can be created. I believe that an ideal interactive project combines 2D technology and the 3D world allowing for complex communication between the two.
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