Interaction is an action (communication, emotion express, feeling changing) with mental thinking which people make while can using inanimate objects, computer, technology or media to support emotion expressing then have self-reaction or emotion changing on themselves after this action.
Before the first lesson, interaction simply means communication to me. You hear something from the others, then you have reaction showing to other. After I read first week’s reading. Two points change my understanding. One is the three steps Crawford mentioned on how people build the interactivity. In step one, after listening the girl just gather the information then assembles them into a coherent whole. In step2, the girl contemplates and cogitates. Then she develops her response to Gomer’s statement. In step 3, she turn her thoughts into words and speaks them(Crawford 5). This enlightens me that interaction needs thinking(mental work) which is a really important part in the whole process. The second point is that interaction is not just between people, but also between people and machine. Just like the refrigerator door game example. The process is simple, but it is still interactive for the small child during playing with the refrigerator door(Crawford 6). This enlightens me that interaction also contains people with inanimate objects. After the second and the third week’s reading, I realized the difficulty in using technology in interaction is how to bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual(O’Sullivan and Igoe 1). When building the interaction artwork, the artist needs to focus on both parts. He needs to care about the physical action while also how the environment will affect people’s action. Then base on this, he needs to build the output using technology to communicate with his audience. The second point hit me is the components can be used serially or in parallel or the two can both exist in the same artwork. Make good use of serial and parallel can greatly improve the project. The third point hits me is no matter computer or other technology, they are treated as a medium of communication between people (O’Sullivan and Igoe 6). They are used to support people not to dominate people’s feeling. These are the process how I sharpen my understanding.
The project doesn’t align with my definition is the Algorithmic Drive – Spectacular autonomy. The Algorithmic Drive is an interactive installation and performance inspired by inspired by autonomous cars and dash cam compilations. This project doesn’t align my definition is it is raised by vehicles that maneuver without human intervention. However, in my definition, human intend to show up in the process and is the dominate of the process. However, this interaction is to let the machine be the dominate part and to reduce human’s participation in the process. In my definition, human are willing to sometimes eagerly to participate in the interaction, but for this interaction, the project helps people live easier but don’t need people’s participation in the whole process. So interaction don’t always needs people participate in the whole process but they can benefit and get comfort from the interaction.
The project align with my definition is the Artificial Arcadia – Measured and adjustable landscapes. In this project, people can see the details of the landscapes for those part they want to. They want to see what the landscape is like, then the computer shows the details of the landscape and the picture to people, then they know the detail information of the landscape. This align my definition, because people have mental action wanting to see one part of the land, then technology is used to show the landscape to people, then people have a reaction of how the landscape is. The point this align is people are willing to participate in the process and is the dominate of the whole process which different from the Algorithmic Drive which reduce people’s participation.
Before we develop the final idea, we discussed what is interactivity. We gave the several responses. 1.Input, processing, output. 2.Performance and conversation, dialog with the audience 3. Both parties have to be involved 4.Communication and processing → result. From the research of the two projects, I noticed that interactivity needs people’s participation while also need to benefit people from difficulties. Then base on the prompt while we need to invent a product that exist only in the future, we came to two ideas. One is the Interactive life preserver. We make the assumption that the ice caps have melted by the time of 2119. Inflates with contact to water, deflates when dried. The other is Interactive DeliPipe/Futuristic dumbwaiter. Food and any other objects needed dropped through which is a instant delivery service. For the second one, I read some news that some company have already testing this kind of the delivery service so I think it in recent years. And by research, the Algorithmic Drive can only measure and show the information and pictures of the landscape but can’t solve this problem showing that there is still huge gap between knowing the natural problem and solving the natural problem. So I think the life preserver really meet the prompt because it can deal with all kinds of natural disaster basing on measurement of the disaster which possibly happen in the future. We made a vote then decided to use the life preserver idea. Also, It needs people’s participation because the preserve is privately made for the users. It will base on different body structure to change the function of each preserver so it can protect human body from the disaster maximumly. At the same time, it can benefit people making people’s lives easier just like the Algorithmic Drive do, providing convenience to people.
The anchor represent the life buoy which can change base on different water quality so it can have great effect in all water area. There are also fire unit on the preserver to deal with different fire. We draw some pictures to represent fire while also walking and acting around to show the interaction when facing drowning, typhoon, forest fire, pollution and earthquake about how the preserver can protect people from disaster when facing different situation.
