My Definition

From my own perspective, interactivity refers to a special activity between two participants (and they don’t have to be all humans). Each of them takes part by receiving messages from the other, processing the messages and giving a response based on the messages. This progress may go repetitively and the effects of the activity can be evaluated.

Research

Project 1

I just found an interesting work, Arche-Scriptures – Our digital traces in the future-past.
It looks interactive and it even uses Arduino. However, I don’t think it aligns with my definition of “interactivity”. 

The creators mainly used ceramics, Arduino and some digital processing and display softwares to finish the work. It shows the possibility of preserving audio information on ceramic, which is often considered as an ancient and fragile material.

Below is the more detailed description cited from the original webpage.

 

“An artifact found at a speculative archeological dig-site is being scanned by a decrypting machine, through which the visitor is invited to listen as the original audio data engraved onto the ceramics is slowly retrieved and sonified. The experience offers a glimpse on a possible future past, it speculates on the future of our digital traces through an ancestro-futuristic perspective, provoking a discussion about continuity, preservation and archiving.’Arche-Scriptures – Our Digital Traces in the Future-Past.'”

CreativeApplications.net, 1 Aug. 2022, www.creativeapplications.net/processing/arche-scriptures-our-digital-traces-in-the-future-past/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2022.

“ARCHE-SCRIPTURES revolves around understanding ceramics as a possible medium to store digital information. It ’emerges from an impossibility, from the ambivalence between two disparate realms: archaism and future’ – it proposes an archaic digital medium, a paradox of fragility and permanence, which seeks to ‘resignify the assumed linearity between past and future, deconstruct the idea of vertical time, history and technology’“

Borges, Fabiane. ANCESTROFUTURISM Ancestralities and Technoshamanism.

 

The work shows the concept of interactivity to some degree, but not enough. A full process of interactivity should include Input, Process and Output. The visitor is invited to extract the messages on the  ceramics, so we can say that the ceramics send out messages successfully. The “Output” of the ceramic and the “Input” towards the visitor is done. The visitor retrieved and sonified the original data to get an audio message, where the visitor finishes “Process”. Then the audio message is accessible. However, the ceramic doesn’t finish “Input” and “Process”, and the visitor can’t give an “output” because the ceramic can’t receive any kinds of messages.

Though it doesn’t align with my understanding of “interactivity”, it does give me some inspirations.

First of all, an interactive device should have a strong ability to receive the information, stimulation or any other kinds of “output” from outside, or it can’t interact with the user effectively.

Meanwhile, you should learn to create a charming scenario, such as the archaeological site in this project. Such a scenario can improve the visitors’ willingness to take part in “interactivity”. This, of course, functions as a punchline of a project, instead of the main body of it.

Project 2

Later, I thought I found a more interactive project: On reflection: An Interactive Film Installation.

“Using advanced machine learning technology and a camera, this interactive installation tracks the participant’s movements and finds, in real-time, matching dance poses among thousands of scenes from famous musicals. When the participant stops moving, the clip from the matching scene from the musical starts playing, immersing the participant in the music and dance from musicals of different eras.”

“On Reflection: An Interactive Film Installation.” CreativeApplications.net, 22 June 2022, www.creativeapplications.net/member-submissions/on-reflection-an-interactive-film-installation/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2022.

In this case, the visitor conveys an information through his/ her movements or postures and the system receives them. Then the system analyzes the information received and searches through its database to find the clips of dances that best match the visitor’s posture. Then the video of the dances are played for the visitor to admire. Therefore, the visitor may perform another posture motivated by what he/ she has seen. Here you can see a full circle of interaction. 

  . . . >>>Dance Flips (Output) >>>  Visitor (Input)  >>>  consideration (Process) >>> another posture (Output) >>> System (Input) >>> Analysis (Process) >>> Dance Flips (Output) >>>  Visitor (Input) >>> . . .

Red are done by the visitor

Blue are done by the system

Therefore, the project aligns with my definition of “Interactivity”.

It also deepens my understanding of interactivity. I come to realize that a successful work needs a lot of technical support. For example, in the work above, a series of sensors and AI learning are of great use. Otherwise the system won’t respond to the visitors’ actions that effectively.