Visiting the Chronus exhibition was without a doubt a very inspiring activity. In this experience I was able to appreciate how components such as stepper motors and distance sensors were being used beyond a classroom. I had never before attended technology based art work exhibitions, therefore, while comparing this one to visits to art museums like the Louvre, truly put things into perspective. I felt a lot more immersed into what artists wanted me to see, as they were not just still images hung up on walls. The exhibition showed interacting objects as if they were coming to real life. The three art pieces that struck my interest the most, definitely were Artificial Intuition, Beholding the Big Bang, and Rechender Rauf.
Just as the Chronus exhibition redefined art for me, I would like my final project to redefine another predominant aspect in human entertainment; and that is, games. By using interactive methods, I plan to reestablish digital and non digital games in order to make them more inclusive. I have researched projects as inspiration within both Arduino, Processing, and neither. The main project that has served for my interest is the Xbox Adaptive Controller, as it allows people with different types of physical disabilities to play games by pressing buttons with different parts of their bodies. I think it is a very successful interactive instrument, as it doesn’t only construct a bridge between a digital display and a human to connect with each other, but also its main purpose if for it to help include all members of society to enjoy Xbox Games.
Other rather less broad range scale projects I researched, were those closer to my central ideas for project. The first one, is an Ultrasonic flying game, developed by Lintang Wisesa, and it consists in an interactive experience that combines both Arduino and Processing. It uses an arduino to connect an ultrasonic sensor, which will control the flying character included in the game coded into processing. Therefore, the game itself in processing is controlled by an external factor using arduino. This project aligned greatly with my definition of interaction, and has similar ideas towards what I want to create, nevertheless it is not put in a such a great scale of inclusivity as my original idea.
Another smaller project I researched was a game example codes within openprocessing.org. The game consisted of scoring penalty goals through a processing animation. Even though this project is, by my definition, a lot less interactive, as it only involves digital actions and reactions/responses; it provided me with an insight towards the kind of game which I wanted to redefine, and in which I wanted to enhance inclusivity. Therefore, after researching about the Penalty Kick Processing code developed by Youze Aaron Huang, I realized that the direction in which I wanted to take the game, was a game that originally is a sport, such as soccer, however due to the nature of the game, it excludes playing from those who have disabilities. Therefore, with my project, I will be able to create a greater inclusive experience, that even though it will be digital, the participant will be able to feel the drive of “kicking a ball”.
During the group project, I defined interactivity as a dialogue between two agents in which there is a action-response relationship (Crawford 4). Therefore, based on this initial definition, and taking into account my experience taking a more meaningful stance for my midterm project; I would now redefine a successful interactive experience as such that does not only consist of two subjects communicating with each other through action-reaction, but also, this experience developing a more meaningful connection. After experiencing how technology can help solve so many current problematics, I believe that interactivity should embrace the ability that technology has, and actually create a change either through action, or making others reflect upon their actions. It is for this reason that regardless of the Chronus Exhibition experience being a very insightful one, not all of the projects aligned with my definition of interactivity as they did not all create a full interactive experience to my perspective because only in Artificial Intuition there was an action-response relationship with the user and object. Whereas, both Beholding the Big Bang, and Rechender Rauf, did not require two agents interacting with each other, merely just one interacting on its own.
References:
Ultrasonic flying game https://github.com/LintangWisesa/Ultrasonic_Flying_Game
Penalty goal processing game: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/118492