Hypercinema - Week 9 (24-11-08)

What is interactivity?

A couple questions to think about in preparation for out Hypercinema final project - A Cornell Box.
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Not just any Cornell Box, a digital Cornell Box with animation and interactivity.
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So this begs the question - What does interactivity mean? and how would that be applied to our project?

What is interactivity to you?
Interactivity is when one can contribute something to a fixed environment and elicit an outcome. 

• The "contribution" does not need to be meaningful, it could be physical motion triggering a motion sensor, it could be making a sound into a microphone, or it could be as simple as pressing a button.
• If the participant alters their input, the environment changes the outcome presentation. Interactivity is adaptive, such that there is opportunity for different output whether or not the environment resets.

An interaction presents new simulants to the participant.

• When the participant engages, something happens to the environment the button is connected to. (ie, something moves, lights up, etc...)​

Interactivity deepens one's connection with the subject matter.

• In Chris Crawford's The Art of Interactive Design, he writes "[interactivity] engages the human mind more powerfully than any other form of expression". Interactivity often utilizes more than one sense, therefore eliciting more engagement from the participant.
• The engagement that comes from an interactive experience can be more effective in communicating new information than if it were presented in written or spoken form.

​Does it add or detract to art making/storytelling - or when doesn't and when does it? 
I feel that good interactivity can be additive and meaningful to a story, especially if the intention is for the participant to walk away from the interaction with new information. 

1. Presenting real time reactions between the participant's input and the displayed changed output can connect the participant with the interaction medium.

On the flip side, interaction can detract from the message as it may distract from the intension. For example:

1. Poorly designed and unintuitive interactions are often more confusing and the participant is less likely to stay engaged.
2. Interaction can sometime also be overstimulating for some and create an overwhelming experience that the participant does not know where to place their focus.

Initial brainstorming for the project - A brain dump...

Think about the objects you place in your Cornell Box, what do these objects represent poetically, personally or metaphorically?

•  I want to tinker with the concept of time. Particularly interested in the visual representation of time.​
  • ​How do we measure time?
  • What conventions do we rely on to keep track of time?
  • What is our relationship with time? Why is it so anxiety inducing?
• Perhaps the objects will be a mix of symbolic and literal representations of time
  • ​Literal objects: sandglass, clock, calendar, wrist watch, timer
  • Symbolic objects: birthday cake or balloon (age), sunlight (not sure if this is symbolic or literal), photographs, plants, lighting fixtures (if on, its probably dark outside), morning coffee

How will you use animation, interactivity and real time environments to bring these objects to life?

• Clock objects inherently have movement and state changes, time changes, clock ticking, sand falling, etc. The interacting participant can accelerate the time change which in turn affects other objects
  • Balloon deflating over time
  • Calendar pages flipping
  • Plant blooming and wilting
  • Coffee cooling and mug emptying
  • Desk lamp turning on
  • Outdoor lighting changing overtime

Will this be a screen based work? A mobile piece? A projected work?

• Peephole diorama: Our relationships with time is so personal and so varied, perhaps a peephole can limit the visibility so the interaction is confined to a single person at a time. 
• Pepper's ghost effect: If I create a white model of the physical objects/environment, perhaps this projection method would provide a dynamic digital overlay onto the objects.

What sort of style or theme do you want your box to have?

• Daily life objects lend to a "slice of life" genre, so the style will likely fall under cozy and realistic. Something akin to the "lofi girl" aesthetic