After a weeks reading, I’ve regained a deeper vision of what is Interaction or Interactive art. And following is my thoughts towards the two given questions:
Question 1: After reading The Art of Interactive Design, in what way do you think that the circuits you built today include interactivity? Please explain your answer.
As the Crawford’s definition on interaction, interaction is “a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak”(1). When we’re building our circuit, the circuit and ourselves, the builder, can be seem as the two interactive actors. Take the doorbell circuit as an example. When I intend to ring the doorbell, I press the button of switcher, which conveys my intension to the circuit, using Crawford’s words, “the ball” is passing to circuit’s court. The circuit analyze my request and then respond, ringing the doorbell. I receive the ringing as a signal of the circuit works well, then the cyclic interaction process is completed. Though it seems like a simple command of ringing a bell, it have gone through a whole process of interactive communication between me and the circuit.
Question 2: How can Interaction Design and Physical Computing be used to create Interactive Art? You can reference Zack Lieberman’s video or any other artist that you know.
The interactive design and physical computing can provide medium and technical support for interaction art. Zack Lieberman’s Eye writer is an excellent example. Physical computing applies to computer programing, and that finally transforms the movement of eyes into painted lines and shapes. And the micro CCD CAM connecting to the computer program enables the computer to receive and respond to the movement of the artist’s eyes, which uses the interactive design to build up bounds between artist and devices. In other words, the interactive design provides the basic idea of how to build up bounds between artist and the device, while physical computing put it into practice and finally makes the art work function as expected.