I define interaction to be the a dialogue, with one party providing a prompt and allowing another, separate party to respond in the manner of their choosing. In “The Art of Interactive Design”, Crawford define interactivity to be “a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak” (5). Crawford, here, provided the basis of the what a dialogue or conversation means. Interaction requires the presence of at least two parties. To “listen, think, and speak” can be translated to say: see what is there, consider what can be added or done to what is there, and engage with the item. In other words, interaction requires the input of multiple parties. Tom Igoe goes on to further this idea by stating, “[t]he thing you build, whether it’s a device or a whole environment, is just the beginning of a conversation with the people who experience your work” (Igoe). In the case of interactive design and art, the “device” or “environment” are considered to be one of the actors in this interaction. But, in addition to the dialogue between parties, they both must be free to make their choice, to “think” and to “speak” on their own. Igoe uses the analogy of being a director for a show, you can only guide the conversation but you cannot dictate the manner in which one will respond to your guidance. For me, interaction is the input and autonomy of multiple parties to respond to one another.
An example of a project that I would not consider to be interactive would be the RE:PLACES, which stands for Recycling PLA Closed-Circuit Extrusion Shaper (RE:PLACES – Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler). The robot was created by Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler to excrete plastic objects around an exhibition (RE:PLACES – Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler). This project would not be considered interactive according to my definition. My definition requires the presence of multiple actors or parties to be considered interactive. As such, the only actor in this case would be the robot working with plastic. In this case, I would consider there to be low or non-existent interaction.
An example of a project that I would consider to be interactive would be Overloaded.supply, created by Ignacio Pérez to combat the increasing amount of manmade objects (Overloaded.supply – Superfluous (object) futures). The project “generates endless patent drawings using neural networks” (Overloaded.supply – Superfluous (object) futures). A user can use the tool to generate new designs, modify the designs, and claim their creations (Overloaded.supply – Superfluous (object) futures). This project is considered to be interactive because of the role of both the user and the device. The user is able to make decisions about which designs they like, how they would like to modify the design, and the whether they want to claim the product. The device is able to provide suggestions for designs and guidelines for modification. Both the user and device are parties able to contribute to the end result.