This recitation made sense because it was during the time period of lockdown. It was challenging and time-consuming for me to figure out the coding. Fortunately, I eventually got it to work properly!

The Circuit

As instructed, I built a tilt switch by combining a tilt sensor and wires and then built the circuit as shown in the diagram.

I uploaded the sketch in order to have the serial monitor show 1 when the tilt sensor is upside down and 0 when it is upside down. it sometimes gives extra variation, reflecting that the process is unstable.
For the next step, I switched to the Serial plotter to look at the graph of the transition.

I then modified the code as given to detect the upside-down transition. In this case, the serial monitor only changes from 0 to 1 instead of floating continuously.
Questions：

At approximately what angle of tilt does it transition between HIGH and LOW?

When the tilt sensor is horizontal.

What else do you notice about its behavior?

The chart fluctuates as the angle approaches the horizontal plane.

What if you tilt the forearm?

The movement will be a little more stable because the change is harder.

What if you hold the wires several centimeters away and tilt them?

I think this is because weight-based changes are rapid. The movement would be a bit more stable.

What if you shake it?

The graphic will fluctuate rapidly.

To depot the tilt switch, I used the millisecond function as instructed to make the graph stable.

WORKOUT 1: BICEPS CURLS

Video of me testing the tilt sensor:

WORKOUT2: JUMPING JACK

For this workout, I did some more obvious movements with my wearable cable. I couldn’t record the movements and the screen at the same time, so I did record them separately. The system recorded the times relatively correctly, but it would incorrectly record some additional times.

Questions：

Can you make changes to the speed of your “jumping jack” to detect it?

Faster speeds will cause more disruption to the system.

What happens if you change the debounce lockout time? What do you need to change to detect one “jumping” exercise?

Changing the lock time to 10 or 90 does not improve stability.

How reliable is the counting? How many extra, or missed, counts happen as a fraction of the number of real exercises done? What do you think would happen to these fractions if you adjust the debouncing time).

This isn’t reliable enough. When I lift my arm, it is easy for extra counts to occur.

WORKOUT 3: START AND STOP TIMING

// constants won't change. They're used here to set pin numbers:
const int buttonPin = 6;    // the number of the pushbutton pin

int buttonState;             // the current reading from the input pin
int lastButtonState;   // the previous reading from the input pin

// the following variables are unsigned longs because the time, measured in
// milliseconds, will quickly become a bigger number than can be stored in an int.
unsigned long lastDebounceTime = 0;  // the last time the output pin was toggled
unsigned long debounceDelay = 50;    // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers

void setup() {
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);  //Set sensor pin as an INPUT pin
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // read the state of the sensor:
  int tiltVal = digitalRead(buttonPin);
  
  // If the switch changed, due to noise or pressing:
  if (reading != lastButtonState) {
    // reset the debouncing timer
    lastDebounceTime = millis();
      Serial.println(buttonState);

  }

  if ( (reading != buttonState) && (millis() - lastDebounceTime) > debounceDelay) {
    // whatever the reading is at, it's been there for longer than the debounce
    // delay, so take it as the actual current state:
      buttonState = reading;
  }
  
  // save the reading. Next time through the loop, it'll be the lastButtonState:
  lastButtonState = reading;

 //if you want to use Serial Plotter, add these two lines:
  //Serial.println(buttonState);
  //delay(1);
}




  if(tiltVal== HIGH){
    counter += 1:
    
    if(counter != 8){
      Serial.println(counter);
      delay (1000) ;
    }
      else if(counter=8){
        Serial.println("Yay, you've done a set of curis!!");
        counter = 0;

const int SENSOR_PIN = 6;

int tiltVal;
int prevTiltVal;
int buttonState;
int lastButtonState;
int button;
int prevButton;
int counter = 0;
int pressGoal = 8;
int period = 20000;
long time_now = 0;

unsigned long lastDebounceTime = 0;
unsigned long debounceDelay = 90;

void setup() {
  pinMode(SENSOR_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);    // Set sensor pin as an INPUT pin
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Start your Workout");
}

void loop() {
  // read the state of the sensor
  tiltVal = digitalRead(SENSOR_PIN);
  int reading = digitalRead(SENSOR_PIN);
// If the switch changed, due to noise or pressing:
  if (reading != lastButtonState) {
    // reset the debouncing timer
    lastDebounceTime = millis();
  }

  if ( (reading != buttonState) && (millis() - lastDebounceTime) > debounceDelay) {
    // whatever the reading is at, it's been there for longer than the debounce
    // delay, so take it as the actual current state:
      buttonState = reading;
  }
  
  // save the reading. Next time through the loop, it'll be the lastButtonState:
  lastButtonState = reading;
  
  // if the tilt sensor value changed, print the new value
  if (tiltVal != prevTiltVal) {
    Serial.println(tiltVal);
  }
  prevTiltVal = tiltVal;

  // for Serial Plotter use
  //Serial.println(tiltVal);

  button = digitalRead(SENSOR_PIN);

  if (button == true && prevButton == false) {
    counter = counter +1;
    Serial.println("time:");
    Serial.println(counter);
  }
  prevButton = button;

  if (counter == pressGoal) {
    Serial.println("Yay, you’ve done a set of curls");
  }

  if(millis() >= time_now + period) {
    time_now += period;
    Serial.println("Stop! Your time is up!");
    exit(0);
  }

  delay(10);

  
}

I first followed the instructions to build the circuit transistor should be replaced by a potentiometer, thus measuring and plotting the values with AnologRead.

In the beginning, I was missing a wire because of a connection error, so the way my motor turned was very unusual, it would not be controlled by the sliding rheostat, but was pumping on its own without regularity. So we checked the wire connection, found the problem, and solved it in time. 

The next step was that we connected the two machines that Sebastian and I built separately to make the final version.

Then I changed the code with the function diagram and we were surprised to find that we could control the pen with AnologWrite’s console logging potentiometer value

Question 1: What kind of machines are you interested in building? Add a thought about using actuators, the art of digital manipulation.

As for me, I think the type I’m interested in is iterations that might replace very basic human labor, which requires a lot of patience. I think actuators can help people do repetitive tasks and make our lives easier. Because it can translate energy sources into physical-mechanical motion, it can maintain both linear motion and manipulation, as well as circular motion, without human labor. The art of digital manipulation is creative and useful. Photographic manipulation, digital art, and generative visual art can all be considered digital manipulation. It is creative. It uses digital technology as a presentation process. However, algorithms are considered cold and hard, on the other hand, art is something soft and warm. The combination of both algorithm and art makes the creation unique and special. It is also useful. Digital manipulation of art allows art forms to be created randomly. Humans can have deviations in creating their work, however, computers may not. If you set it up with a random code, the entire art can be generated randomly, without human bias or thought.

Question 2: Choose an art installation mentioned in the reading ART + Science NOW, Stephen Wilson (Kinetics chapter). Post your thoughts about it and make a comparison with the work you did during this recitation. How do you think that the artist selected those specific actuators for his project?

The work in the reading “The Drumming And Drawing Subhuman, 2000” really caught my eye. Both the robot and my work contain motors, and they can both be involved in the process of creating a work of art; the robot creates the music, while my drawing machine creates the drawing. The difference is that the robot is automatic, while my drawing machine must be controlled by a human. The artist chose the actuators that allow the robot to move its arms and create music with the sound of drums.

Spring Garden_Audrey Lindy_Instuctor: Marcela
        Because of the epidemic, we had to be locked down at home to be quarantined in March when spring comes, but we still want to welcome spring in a special form of  IMA students, so we wanted to use light and electricity to create a garden of flowers and butterflies indoors.
       The materials we use are                                                                                                                              Satin cloth （shining fabric）x 0.5m                                                                                                        Origami paper x2                                                                                                                                                    DC motor x1                                                                                                                                                             Arduino x1                                                                                                                                                            Electric wires a few                                                                                                                                                  Iron wire 0.9mm x 28m                                                                                                                                        glass lampshade 15cm x 18cm x1                                                                                                                               We want to use this expression to reflect the change of flowers and butterflies, butterflies flying up and down and flowers blooming under the control of the motor, to reflect the vivid spring scene.

        We were inspired by the lotus candles that we used to use as children for birthdays, which suddenly bloomed when they were lit, so we thought we could also create flowers that bloomed under motor control.

        So we wanted to create a spring landscape with motor-controlled flowers and butterflies. The challenge was that we were isolated at home and my group and I were not able to work together to complete the project. Lindy and I had to make the flowers and butterflies separately and assemble them when we returned to campus in order to display the complete artwork.                                                                                                                                                     However, after many discussions and improvements, we settled on the solution of creating ornamental motorized controllable butterflies and flowers in a glass enclosure to achieve the desired effect, as the limitation of isolation did not allow for more interaction on the piece.

Idea

The idea for our group came from the book The Fish of Lijiang. Time dilation and time sense compression are two interesting concepts mentioned in the book, which inspired us that the ability to have subjective control over time is what we wanted to achieve with our invention.

Bring Storm

In the beginning, the members of our group wanted to make a design invention about holographic projection. We all thought the idea was cool and futuristic, but we realized that it would be almost impossible for us to render the scenery created by the holographic projection on cardboard. Then Anny offered my opinion. She envisioned a perfume that could change the way people feel about time, help them enjoy it, or make boring time go by faster. But they didn’t think the perfume presentation was that futuristic and suggested we could make a helmet or headband. Unfortunately, we found that many other groups had already made something like this. Anny came up with the idea that we could make a headset that could connect to the brain via bone conduction. The form of the headset looks less exaggerated and can still be futuristic by decorating it like a butterfly.

Final Design

Our group’s project is a headset that can change the way people feel about time. The headset is controlled by a watch, and when the bottom of the watch is pressed, the person wearing the headset can share the time. In other words, their perception of the flow of time is altered so that, for example, one second can be five seconds. The people around them won’t notice any difference. This is more about changing subjective feelings than objective facts.

Making Process

The first thing we wanted to do was make headphones that looked like headphones, so we made two box-type things that were attached with a piece of cardboard. That was easy to do, but the problem was that it couldn’t be worn securely. So Anny thought we could do hanging earphones, but it was a bit complicated and she just made them herself. We didn’t expect to be able to use this, but when she was done, it worked. For aesthetics, Anny added two more butterflies on the outside. The watch was made by Owen and the other headphones were made by Lexie, Anny and Ling together.

Evaluate

We were wondering how to draw this product out and came up with the idea of a birthday party. Since the headphones are not too big, they are easy to carry. We decided together how the story would be handled, and I distilled it into a script. We rehearsed it a few times before the reading that day and it went very well. We also bought a cake and some candy as props to create a birthday atmosphere. The whole process of collaboration went very smoothly, and although we were torn in making decisions, we agreed on them quickly. And the prop making and rehearsal process was also very efficient, we finished it in only three meetings. The performances were also very good, with slow-motion performances that made everyone laugh. But the presentation of our work was not enough, it should have been more detailed, and the sharing of sugar distracted the audience in some cases, and should have focused more on our product.

Video Record

Critical analysis and assessment of performance from Mood Bubble

The Mood Bubble team’s project is a machine that can connect and share people’s emotions and memories. People can upload their emotions to the master brain through a tube connected to the head. I think this piece has a good intention to make it easier for people from different backgrounds to show empathy to others, and it relates to the winter market in a way because it also conveys the idea of sharing awareness. It meets the interactivity criteria of the assignment because this machine can help two or more people communicate their ideas, thus creating different scenarios for different users.

However, it is not so creative because it borrows ideas directly from the novel with only few changes. The performance is fairly easy to understand, with all those emotions and physical tubes painted on the head.

In this class, we were given various types of sensors to interact with the circuit. By building circuits, we managed to understand how sensors work and how to interact with them.

Q1:The first circuit we built connected an ultrasonic sensor, which can be used to detect distance. However, when we tried to do something with it, it did not respond as expected. It seems to be more sensitive to changes in lateral distances rather than longitudinal distances. The sensor can be used to detect distances that are difficult for humans to measure, for example, at the depth of the sea.

The second circuit we built contains a vapor sensor. A motor is also connected to the circuit to indicate changes in the vapor input. This sensor can be used to detect vapor concentration in environments such as mines and construction sites to ensure human health.

The third circuit we built is much like the one we built in the previous class. The force resistor was used to detect the pressure on the sensor. However, it seems to have a limitation because even if I press hard enough, the motor does not move more after a certain amount of movement. The load cell can be used to produce weighing machines or weighing meters.

/*
  Knock Sensor
*/


// these constants won't change:
const int ledPin = 13;      // LED connected to digital pin 13
const int knockSensor = A0; // the piezo is connected to analog pin 0
const int threshold = 100;  // threshold value to decide when the detected sound is a knock or not


// these variables will change:
int sensorReading = 0;      // variable to store the value read from the sensor pin
int ledState = LOW;         // variable used to store the last LED status, to toggle the light

void setup() {
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // declare the ledPin as as OUTPUT
  Serial.begin(9600);       // use the serial port
}

void loop() {
  // read the sensor and store it in the variable sensorReading:
  sensorReading = analogRead(knockSensor);

  // if the sensor reading is greater than the threshold:
  if (sensorReading >= threshold) {
    // toggle the status of the ledPin:
    ledState = !ledState;
    // update the LED pin itself:
    digitalWrite(ledPin, ledState);
    // send the string "Knock!" back to the computer, followed by newline
    Serial.println("Knock!");
  }
  delay(100);  // delay to avoid overloading the serial port buffer
}

The fourth circuit contains an element that acts as the handle of a game controller. However, because the relationship between the input and output in this circuit is linear, the output of the motor is nearly the same, only rocking from side to side, although the thumbstick can be rolled in all directions. Of course, this sensor can be used to produce game controllers.

#include <Servo.h>
Servo myservo;
int val;
void setup() {
  myservo.attach(9);
}
void loop() {
  val = analogRead(A0);
  val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 180);
  myservo.write(val);
  delay(15);
}

Q2：

From my perspective, code plays a critical role in making circuits work, especially for some complex circuits. The code is like a commander that makes sure the inputs and outputs work well and meet the needs. It’s like a tutorial or recipe because we can learn from the code which pins we need to connect or which components we need. This is not only a guide for us but also for the components on the breadboard, which work according to the instructions given by the code to do a complete job.

Q3:

Computers have been integrated into our daily life. It provides us with many conveniences, for example, we no longer need to go to books to find certain reference materials, instead, we can just look them up online, which saves a lot of time. In addition, with computers, it is much easier for us to keep in touch with our friends and family. What’s more， according to The Language of New Media, the creation of computers will do a great change to the new media. “All new media objects, whether created from scratch on computers or converted from analog media sources, are composed of digital code; they are numerical representations.” It does bring a lot of changes to our lives, but we need to be careful when dealing with these changes because there are some negative effects. Data can be computed and analyzed in milliseconds, leading to human dependence and laziness on computers. Even simple calculations will be more inclined to rely on computers. Second, the speed of news dissemination of all kinds is accelerated due to computers, leading to the fragmentation of people’s time.

For this week’s recitation, we built three circuits with Arduino.

Materials:

• 1 * Arduino Uno
• 1 * USB A to B cable
• 1 * breadboard
• 1 * buzzer
• 2 * LEDs
• 2 * 220-ohm resistors
• 2 * 10K-ohm resistors
• 2 * pushbuttons
• A handful of jumper cables

Circuit 1:

The first is a simple circuit to connect an Arduino and a breadboard, and the code is to fade the lights. Connect the 220-ohm resistor and a LED to the circuit, and one end of the wire is connected to the ground, another is connected to the pin9. We succeeded on the first try, we studied the code for a while to see how it worked.

Circuit 2:

And for the second circuit, it basically turns the LED in the first circuit into a buzzer. The code we use is to make the buzzer play a piece of music. It is so funny to hear that there are different kinds of music playing all around the classroom. And we couldn’t hear it very clearly at first because of the poor contact between the cable and breadboard. When the short music was being played, we felt very excited.

The buttons are connected with 5V for the power and also connected with pin11 and pin10 respectively for input. Two LEDs are connected with resistors for limiting the current to protect the circuit and also connected with pin2 and pin3 respectively for output. The buzzer is connected with pin8 for output.
Circuit 3:

It is very complicated and needs a lot of time to make completed.

The biggest problem we had when connecting this circuit was that the wires tended to fall out and the connections were fragile, so we spent some extra time checking every component and every wire connection. At first, we only had sound but no lights when one side won the game, so we checked that the link was wired correctly and that the LEDs were working. Then we changed another cable and LED, to make the whole thing even more stable. Finally, we succeed.

Question 1: Another kind of button could be the cardboard button we built in Recitation1. In fact, we did try, connecting the cardboard buttons to the circuit. We tested the game again and we found that using the cardboard buttons can be pressed faster than normal buttons. Loki changed his buttons to cardboard buttons, and I still use the previous button. I can win him a lot when we both use the regular buttons, but only a little when he changes the cardboard buttons. I thought of another creative button that connects a pressure sensor to the button. Pressure can only be recorded if it is good enough. This increases the difficulty of the game. According to physical calculations, “Without a computer, you can connect a button you press to a light that is on. With a computer, you can make the relationship between buttons and lights more complicated.” “For many people, the input is All they want to learn from physical computing. They are already satisfied with their ability to express themselves on a computer through a screen or speakers but feel limited by mouse and keyboard input. Input is often easier than output because perception Activity requires less energy than moving things.” The input is often so simple that people may not pay attention to the input. Building a creative button can make the circuit more interactive because it improves input and humans can have more opportunities to interact with the circuit. Question 1: Another kind of button could be the cardboard button we built in Recitation1. In fact, we did try, connecting the cardboard buttons to the circuit. We tested the game again and we found that using the cardboard buttons can be pressed faster than normal buttons. Loki changed his buttons to cardboard buttons, and I still use the previous button. I can win him a lot when we both use the regular buttons, but only a little when he changes the cardboard buttons. I thought of another creative button that connects a pressure sensor to the button. Pressure can only be recorded if it is good enough. This increases the difficulty of the game. According to physical calculations, “Without a computer, you can connect a button you press to a light that is on. With a computer, you can make the relationship between buttons and lights more complicated.” “For many people, the input is All they want to learn from physical computing. They are already satisfied with their ability to express themselves on a computer through a screen or speakers but feel limited by mouse and keyboard input. Input is often easier than output because perception Activity requires less energy than moving things.” The input is often so simple that people may not pay attention to the input. Building a creative button can make the circuit more interactive because it improves input and humans can have more opportunities to interact with the circuit.

Question2: Using a 10K resistor per button can effectively avoid short circuits and keep the pins from floating. A 10k resistor pulls the digital input pin down to GND when the switch is on. This way, we can ensure that the button will work properly.

The Winter Market

This fiction talks about a post-modern world with high-tech inventions, the people who live there commonly wear something very high-technical like a “black glint of polycarbonate at her wrist”, described as this fiction said, they have different kinds of thoughts and opinions. The author uses the romance of the Internet age to present reflections on the impact of a developed high-tech world.

Lise is a drug-addicted girl who also suffers from a congenital terminal illness. She relies on an exoskeleton to support her whole body. When she was found, she was dumped in the garbage because of the lack of electricity in the exoskeleton, but she did not say a word until someone kindly rescued her. go. Her existence feels inherently incomplete. If she wants to experience the life of a normal person, she can only rely on technology; if it is not enough, she relies on drugs and imagination. Only in the dream state as compensation can she get rid of the congenital pain and poverty, and experience the feeling of freedom that is almost insane. Therefore, if she wants a “normal” or even better survival, it is impossible to leave drugs and technology; and paradoxically, the realization of every dream comes at the cost of the decay of the flesh-to the “Kings” On the eve of completion, she was already on the verge of dying from drug addiction, but no one of the staff dared to persuade her to quit—continuing the dream requires capital, and she knew that her time was short, and she could only use technology to get rid of her physical body at one time. , her dream-like survival can continue, which requires unimaginably huge capital. Her method is to sell her dreams at one time, so she finds editors like the male protagonist to make “Kings”.

So from her thirst both for dreams and real feelings, I want to invent dream feelings implanted memory card, which can translate different kinds of real feelings of being existed in different kinds of environments and situations into a piece of digital information.

This kind of memory card can be implanted into people’s brains whenever and wherever they want, by plugging into recording and programming while sleeping, the state of the user’s dream can bring out and give the experience of that information to the user. Because the dream scene experience is more personal and liberal, we cannot limit and manage the setting of the scene, and it will be more difficult to avoid projects that are too extreme and harm the interests of others.

Newton’s sleep

In this story, people are trying to escape from the destroyed earth because of the serious environmental pollution problems, and there are also so many people who died from the extremely polluted living conditions. However, in my opinion, these kinds of problems, or we can be called their crises, will not only happen in science fiction, for the nowadays environmental problems, these things maybe will become true states in the future.

So I imagined there will be a wearable device that looks like a watch on people’s wrists,  but a  laser transmitter indeed.  People can use it to give out a kind of laser that can protect them from the air pollution or water pollution in daily life, just like to create a small, safe and clean area for individual person to insure their daily life not being influenced by the bad environment. But it might just fit for a short time of the environment changing, it. needs to fit in different periods of climate-changing, so the laser also needs to be iterated with the different conditions of the environment.

The Fish of Lijiang

The artificial sky of Lijiang in the fiction story makes me think about maybe we can invent a kind of airtight roomage in different places or areas in this world. It can be designed by anyone who has the right to live in this airtight box, they can make their sky or ground in any color they want. And there’s also a temperature controller that can be individually used to control the temperature of the area around individuals. So different boxes can be planted in various kinds of plants, or live different kinds of animals. Just like giving more chance and liberty to the diversity of species, maybe The Truman Show is a vivid example model of this kind of invention.

During the first week of recitation, I paired with Loki to connect and make a circuit.

As a liberal arts student, I learned for the first time that many circuit components play a vital role in the proper functioning of circuits.

The first are resistors. Resistors are mainly used to regulate and stabilize current and voltage in circuits. Since the battery provides more current and voltage than the LED light can carry, to prevent a short circuit, a resistor should be used when connecting the light.

The second is the LED. Whether the LED light is on or not reflects whether a circuit is running normally, which can help us better grasp the internal situation of the circuit and quickly respond to the circuit connection.

A variable resistor is a resistor whose resistance value can be adjusted. It is used when the circuit current needs to be adjusted, or the circuit resistance needs to be changed. In our circuit, it acts the same as a resistor.

The switch is one of the core components of our circuit. It controls the work of the buzzer and LED lights through the connection and blocking of current, and promotes the interaction between the circuit and people.

The buzzer will beep when the current is connected to the circuit. Its presence facilitates an auditory shift in the circuit. The power supply is critical to the operation of a circuit, providing energy for all components to function properly.

GND is used as the 0V reference point for different functional circuits, which helps to reduce mutual interference between circuits and form other current circuits. Finally, there is the circuit board, which is a unique design and structure that provides the medium for the connection and communication of all the above circuit elements, and the platform for forming the circuit.

In the first step of connecting the buzzer to the circuit, we found that the buzzer was not working. So we consulted the learning assistant and found that when the switch was wired, there was no diagonal line but the same direction connection, resulting in a short circuit at the switch, so the buzzer did not work. We went through the switch block diagram in the reference, changed the wiring at the switch, and finally completed step 1.

 In the second task, we carefully inserted the resistors and diodes with one of their two cables inserted parallel to each other and the other next to the connecting cable. The whole process went smoothly.

If they are connected in parallel, there will be a situation where the LED cannot be controlled, and the LED will stay on instead of following the switch.

Then we successfully finished the last task.

We also replaced the original switch with the self-made switch. Question 1:

R1 is mainly used to regulate and stabilize the current and voltage in the circuit. Since the battery provides more current and voltage than the LED1 can carry, to prevent a short circuit, a resistor (R1) should be used when connecting LED1.

Question 2:

Question 3:

I think the interactivity of the circuits we make today is that we can turn on an LED and sound a buzzer by pressing a button and closing the circuit. I find this circuit to be very interactive. When I press the button, it’s like listening to the interaction. The circuit starts thinking from my instructions, and finally speaks the information in the form of a buzzer and LED, forming a benign interaction between information and between people and circuits.

Question 4:

Interaction design and physical computing create media and platforms where humans resonate with the digital world, providing tools for the transformation of information about human behavior and the creation of interactive art. Just like a human-computer interaction technology called Eyewriter launched by Zack Lieberman, it can capture the focus of the line of sight and use the eyes as a brush to write and draw, not only to help paralyzed patients better express their personal needs but also to promote interaction The creation and development of art. The application of interaction design and physical computing expands practical human tools, enabling humans to create more colorful art.

      As I have read all three readings and watched many videos about interactive arts. The most impressive thing left in my mind was the action of response among different figures or entities in the whole interactive process. It is definitely that giving out and analyzing information then giving back the actions are the most important components in interactive art pieces. Then, when we talked about the definition of interaction, Crawford has talked about it in terms of a conversation in The Art of Interactive Design, “a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen think, and speak”. However, I think it’s a definition in the context of pre-electrical society, which means the nowadays interaction can be defined on a large scale of electrical device and alive entity. 

    So in the digital age, interaction is a kind of information processing between two actors, as one of the entities gives out the signal and the other one responds corresponding information, which their combination can give out a result to the whole system. Lev Manovich has mentioned that the principles of new media are gradually formed during the Industrial Revolution, which includes “modularity”  “variability”  and “automation” in his article Language of New Media. I think what he argues in his point of view is very direct and specific because media is one of the major carriers of interaction, the action of the sensor is the typical example of interaction, so the interaction can be presented even more representational.

A good example of interactivity:

This is a projection that can interact with the people who donate their two euros to this machine by using their credit cards, then the people will receive a certificate paper and also get the satisfaction of helping a starving or hiring kid. People give out the information of two euros and the machine will respond by printing a certificate, at the same time, the Charity organization can also use the donation to help some poor kids. This machine definitely carries out interaction with people who donated.

A not-so-good example:

This project is aesthetically amazing. I love their concepts and the installation. However, the projector just gives out the projection and doesn’t get any reaction back from the receiver, so it’s not an interaction art piece in the strict sense.

The story of our video is that in the online world, a girl wants to join a group of people and become friends with them. The three people have the same behavior, which symbolizes that people’s behavior and life in the online world have become more and more homogeneous and mechanized. The girl wants to imitate, but looks different every time, she can’t join them. She gradually became lonely and realized that she needed herself.
We came up with this idea because today, the Internet plays an important role in our lives and affects our behavior. It’s easier for people to imitate what’s popular on the Internet, and it’s harder to find real friends online because everyone is behind the screen and you don’t know who they are. So in the video, we ask a girl to imitate others and finally realize that she wants herself. We want to tell you that you don’t need to be part of any group, just be yourself and don’t get lost in the Internet world.

The storyboard is just a draft, providing an idea of how to make up the actress and how to arrange the frame.  

We want the video to look interesting and coherent, in contrast to the topics we want to talk about. We chose to shoot the video from almost one angle to create a sense of plainness. We use the green screen because we want to change its background.
We divided the girls’ clothes according to the color, and chose the original wallpaper of the Windows system as the background, as a metaphor for the Internet world. The pop-up window that appears when the computer goes wrong is a metaphor for adding a girl to it as a mistake. Different colors of ink indicate the relationship between them. We also express love with our hearts. We use fireworks to show that a lot of people are playing, marbles to show that she is playing alone, and paper to show changes in girls.
We use bright light to make the video look colorful and fresh.
Because the text of our video is not so poetic, it is difficult for us to think about this metaphor, but after changing the shooting many times, we finally chose the shooting that we were satisfied with.

During the editing process, we added pop-ups, stickers, and other things to make the whole video interesting and coherent. We also alternately played some pictures and repeated some audio to create a strong impact, and we overlapped some shots to convey more information.

Anny and I came up with this idea, wrote the text together, and the shooting part. She is one of the actors and I am a photographer. In terms of editing, she is responsible for handling each material, and I edited together at her suggestion.

Thanks to Anny for her hard work, making the entire video production process more convenient and relaxing. The collaborative process helped us reject incorrect ideas and improve our work from time to time. I learned some techniques for processing videos from her.

We didn’t make too many lens angle changes because we wanted to create a flat feeling. The colors of our videos are very bright and can provide a sharp contrast. The speed of the video is not that fast or slow, which allows the viewer time to understand. And the narrator’s robotic tone helps to create a wired atmosphere.