Having finished my midterm project and visited the Chronus Art Center, I feel that I have a deeper understanding of the definition of interaction. Here am I writing this blog post to share some of my new ideas.
The Exhibition:
First of all, I would like to talk about the exhibition. Comparing with other non-technology based art exhibition, the most significant difference is that, all the art pieces here are motional while traditional art pieces use static colour and shape. The moving parts are made from motors, tracks, gears, PCBs and so on. They bring strong and great joy in dynamic aesthetics.
Among all of them, the one I love most is this, The Form of Becoming.
Within my limited understanding, I guess this whole device is a machine learning art piece. Each stick is an individual that has its own range of movement, they are free to move from the bottom to the top. However, there is a reward&punishment mechanism that if the stick moves all the way up, it will fall down to the bottom. During each iteration, each individual learns what is the best outcome according to its movement and the condition of other individuals. I guess that ultimately, all the sticks will rise and fall in a rhythmic tune and display a beautiful curve.
The reason that I love it is that each individual is being affected by others while affecting others. This is the way that the system interacts, receiving data while sending data. It shows the progress from chaotic to ordered, revealing the revolution of Anthropocene. The system, organized in an ordered and symmetrical way, will greatly attract the attention of the viewers.
This is exactly one of the points that I would like to improve in the final project, that is to give the project aesthetic value, by applying section, symmetry, shape or colour combination. I want the final project to attract users eyes before they even interact with it. This will definitely contribute to a good interactive experience since the users are not only using a device but also admiring an art piece.
Defining Interaction & Research
Through this half of the semester until now, my definition of interaction improved gradually with my research and practice on different projects. At the beginning of the semester, I defined interaction as the most basic concept: “input-output”. This is the most fundamental and core elements of interaction. But on the sense of successful interaction, I shall define it as an interaction that creates aesthetic value meanwhile involving the user in strongly and firmly attracts the user. In my plain words, that is “I am participating in, and I want to participate more.”
Why? In the group project, we built a “paint your day” machine. It fits the basic “input-output” fundament, but the user is not strongly participating in it. Since all the work is done silently in the background. And in the beginning phase of the midterm project, the automatic fan we intended to build involves no user at all. Even as the creator myself, it is difficult for me to say that I want to enjoy this device more. So I established the conclusion that a successful interaction must strongly involve users in. You will accept this point by looking at the following two projects.
1. Homemade Arduino Pinball Machine
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/Frogger1108/homemade-arduino-pinball-machine-4a3314?ref=tag&ref_id=games&offset=18
A simple but infinitely joyous game, I would say as a gamer. In this project, though the interaction is very simple, just controlling two moving parts to stop the ball falling down. But the interaction experience is definitely successful. Why? Every time we play, we focus on it, we love it and we want to play more. That’s it. Also, we can see that this device is beautifully decorated, all the lights, sounds and colours are carefully chosen to create a retro style, which provides joy meanwhile fulfilling aesthetic requirements.
2. Beautifully Finished Humidity and Temperature Sensor
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/WickedMakers/beautifully-finished-humidity-and-temperature-sensor-87ada5?ref=tag&ref_id=art&offset=8
The good thing about both projects is that they all look pretty, aren’t they? But this one, though it also fulfils the “input-output” principle, I am sure you won’t stand in front of it for a long time. Why? Because the user is not participating. I would say that even just adding a knob to tune the colour of the background light will make this project much more interactive. Everyone can try tuning the colour into their favourite one, to see how cool this stuff is.
Till this point, the definition is clear. A successful interaction must strongly involve users in. The first project enlightened me and makes me even sure about what is my group going to produce in the final project. Since involving users is a must option, then what is the easiest yet funniest way? The answer is game. We are gamers, we interact with games, and now it’s time to try developing a game by ourselves. This is what are we going to stick on. We are going to create a game that is both interactive and aesthetic. Only in this way do we believe could create the most successful interaction with users.