Chronus Exhibition
During my time at the Chronus exhibition, one thing that struck me as different from other art exhibitions is that all of the instalments had some kind of dynamic movement. All the pieces were moving in a certain way that seemed choreographed and had some kind of purpose. It seemed that a task was trying to be completed, although sometimes the task being completed was not clear. For the obvious examples, one exhibits seemed to be watering electronic components as one would water plants. This instalment used Arduino components. As for other instalments, I was unclear as to what its purpose was. The largest art piece in the room was a wooden frame with moving string attached to weights and pulleys covering the wooden frame. One thing that all the pieces shared in common though was that all of them were dynamic in some sense. One thing that this exhibition made me realise is the power of movement when trying to draw in attention. Even though we were not directly interacting with the art pieces, they still caught our attention and drew us in just by using movement. This made me realise the power of visual spectacle a dynamic movement in order to get someone’s attention. Drawing from this, I concluded that the combination of interacting with a piece in order to create a certain result would be the best way to completely catch a person’s attention.
As for interaction, I had previously defined interaction simply as humans being able to utilise a mechanical tool in order to complete a certain purpose, whatever that purpose may be. As for a more direct definition of interaction, I drew inspiration from my midterm project, as well as some examples I’ve seen from interactive projects that I saw as good examples of interaction, and bad.
Piano stairs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByymar3bds
The piano stairs first struck me as sort of mundane and useless, but thinking about it more, this turns out to be a great example of human machine interaction. Each of the stairs is programmed to play a certain note, just like the scale on a piano, thus creating the piano stairs. Although it seems very novel, the stairs help achieve the goal of encouraging people to take the stairs rather than to take the escalator. The stairs draw in a person through their curiosity and amazement. Stairs are often thought of as the less ideal option when having to move between floors, as escalators and elevators have become more and more common. In order to solve the problem of people not taking the stairs, this project made taking the stairs a more fun experience. Not only did the percentage of people taking the stairs increase, but the people taking the stairs were probably unaware that they were even doing something that they previously would have not wanted to do, that being walking up the stairs. From this example, I concluded that in order for my final project to be useful, I would have to use interaction in order to encourage people to do something that is beneficial to them. In this case, the piano stairs encouraged more and more people to walk up the stairs which is better for their health.
Centurylink Piano
Similar to the piano stairs, I see this art installation as a good example of user interaction. While walking through Centurylink mall trying to find a place to eat dinner, I notice on the outside a piano inside of a glass room. Right next to the piano was a large arrangement of LED lights arranged into a type of sculpture. Inside the room was a little kid banging on the keys of the piano while the LED lights on the outside were forming different patterns and giving the illusion of movement. What I quickly realised was that the piano was controlling the lights through some sort of algorithm. The boy, while banging on the keys of the piano, was amazed by the spectacle that he was creating. What I see in this art installation is a new and cool way for people to be drawn in and interested in piano, and music in general. I would deem this to be good user interaction as it uses interaction in order to encourage a person to do something to better themselves.
Back to Chronus
Although cool, the wooden framework with weighted strings and pulleys is what I would deem “bad interaction”. I would do so since the purpose of the piece was not clear, not just because there was no direct interaction between the observer and the piece. In my opinion, interaction does not only mean literal interaction between user and machine. Interaction also consists of a clear or easily learnable purpose of a machine. For the piano stairs and piano lights that I explained before, it was clear what the purpose of those pieces were. For the piano stairs, you step on a stair and you hear a note. This is further made clear since the stairs are already painted like a piano. Just from first glance or first step, the purpose of the stairs are clear. As for the piano in Centurylink, a piano inside of a glass room stand in the middle of a garden, clearly asking for people to come in and play the piano. Once a person plays the piano, then it is clear to them that the piano controls the light instalments just outside of the glass room. It is easily understood how the human can affect the machine. Even for the non literal “interactive” pieces in the Chronus exhibition, the purpose of some of the instalments was still clear. One piece was a motorized watering mechanism that watered pieces of hardware just as one would water plants. Although seemingly useless, the intention was clear and easily understood– watering electronics. In this sense, the audience still interacts with the piece by clearly understanding its purpose, and then wondering why that purpose exists. For the wooden frame, however, I did not know why it existed.
Conclusion
As stated previously, I initially defined user interaction as interacting with a machine in order to fulfil some kind of goal or purpose. I then learned that interaction, for me at least, does not require literal interaction. Interaction can mean that something is easily understood, or something that encourages someone to do something, whether that be through direct or indirect interaction.