My Definition of Interaction
Two or more sides–whether human or other objects in a space and time–communicate, affect, react, and respond to each other in a certain way. It should mutually and alternately take in the information sent by the other side, processing the information, and making reactions based on the process. Therefore, a complete interaction process should contain the following four parts: convey, receive, process, and output. In a relatively complex interaction, the process of how one individual handles the information can be subjective, which means a possibility of a completely distinctive outcome of the same given information.
PROJECT1: 新媒体舞剧—《墨生》SEE THE WORLD OF SOUND
作品主创：程雨阳（导演/纪录片出品人）
联合创作：聂晓光（技术支持）
舞蹈演员：石飞洋（青年舞蹈演员）
In this project, we can see the visualization of guqin music and the transformation from human movements to an exaggrated form of Chinese ink-painting.
In the first pair of music and ink-painting, the constantly changing rhythm and volume of the music play a role in sending information. Then, as the computer receives the information, it processes it in a certain way, and presents the outcome on the screen by changing the shade formed by the proportion of water and ink.
In the second pair of the actor’s movements and ink-painting, the body language plays the part of conveying information. The computer then captures and follows the movements, and records them by outlining the actor on the screen.
These two pairs above can be seen as an expression of interaction. In reality, they actually work at the same time, thus we can see the both variation of the shape and shade of the ink-painting at the same time. In fact, we can even put body movements and the music together in another pair, since dancing to the music is also interacting with the music, but this is relatively complex and subjective as well.
PROJECT 2: 1194D
“Initially started as a tweak of 115C8 in 2013, one of Kwok’s Algorithmic Creatures based on finite subdivision, 1194D is an experiment on multiple geometric creatures co-existing within a tetrahedron-based grid environment. In 2017, The project was improved and revised into an immersive triple-screen audiovisual installation as 1194D^3 for .zip Future Rhapsody art exhibition curated by Wu Juehui & Yan Yan at Today Art Museum in Beijing, China.”
This second project, however, does not align with my definition of interaction completely. Based on the information quoted above and after watching their demonstration video, I didn’t find a process which shows a mutual and alternative reaction between the audience and the installation. Although the installation presents the artifact in an innovative and breathtaking way, it doesn’t show how information was conveyed by one individual (like the audience or the installation), how it was handled, and then how it was outputted by the other one. In this senario, there were only two actions, convey and receive, but lacking the processing and outputting parts.