During my group project, I defined interaction as a conversation between two actors who alternately ‘listen, think, and speak’ to each other. I still regard those projects that are built to give certain feedback or are programmed to act in a certain way when exposed to certain movement to be not interactive. During my midterm projects, after the user-testing session to be more exact, I recognized one very important standard for a project to be interactive – user feedback. An interactive project has to be able to make the user think, and takes the result of that thinking as feedback for itself.
I researched two projects. The first one is Chatty Coasters. As is described, ‘Chatty Coasters are interactive coasters that listen for silences in conversation and insert provocative questions into them.’ It fits my definition of interaction in that the questions it raises make the users think. It does not fit my definition in that the interaction is among the users present, instead of between the user and itself. Therefore, under my definition, it can be called an interaction-promoted project.
picture for Chatty Coasters, found in the previous link
The other project that mostly does not fit my definition is Eikasía / Is This Real?. It does not align with my definition of interaction in that the user cannot change what they will see depending on the previous feedback it gives. No chance to change means no need for thinking. Some may argue that this project may lead the viewers to revisit Plato’s Analogy of the Divided Line. But Plato’s proposal exists already. This project merely takes what’s on the book and makes it real. The idea that created it may be interactive. This project is not.
picture for Eikasía / Is This Real?, found in the previous link
My new definition of interaction is a scenario where all participants (including the project itself) may give and receive feedback alternately and improve self accordingly. It is like an improvisational dance for two. To make it good, each dancer shall take his/her partner’s movements into account. Therefore, my emphasis will be on the ‘alternate’ part.