Rants
Dual levels of behaviour, experience and interaction (or reaction)
POSTED IN Installation, Rants, Reflections, Tangible interactions
I am currently thinking a lot about dual levels of behaviour, experience and interaction (or reaction).
First some background:
The installation I’m working on these days is based on the idea of a division between the whole and the parts that constitutes said whole. A fascination with the theory of emergence, a term usually used about the novel and emergent behaviour seen in more or less complex systems based on relatively simple autonomous agents (examples are the way flocks of birds fly in formation, the way schools of fish move as one, or the way ant colonies organize with no central control), has given rise to the installation’s form
The installation is built on a system of 16 autonomous agents, in the form of microcontroller controlled units each with an embedded LED (light), LDR (light sensor) and solenoid (for percussive sound). All the units are identical in shape and loaded with the same code. The units are spread throughout a space in all three dimensions, with a gap of approx. 1.5 meters between each other.
An analogy for the behaviour of the units is that they are like social creatures, feeling safe and content in the company of others like themselves. But when something/someone isolates them, they start to get agitated, wanting to get back into the fold. The units will regularly ping each other with light, and as long as they are touched by a beam of light within given intervals they are happy. The LED and LDR of each unit are placed at 90 degrees to each other, thereby making a rippling effect possible, as a unit can be separated from others on one side, but is still able to agitatedly blink it’s LED, transferring its “adrenalin” to the next unit in the group.
So, to take it from the beginning again:
I am currently thinking a lot about dual levels of behaviour, experience and interaction/reaction.
In the context of the above mentioned installation:
- Dual refers to the local versus the global, the individual unit versus the group, the active versus the passive interest shown by visitors.
- Behaviour refers to how the autonomous agents function by themselves, and how the installation functions when viewed as a whole.
- Experience refers to how people perceive the whole installation versus the parts that it is made of.
- Interaction/reaction refers to the kind of action people take when in the presence of the installation, whether they keep to the edges looking at, and listening to, the whole or diving into it playing around with the separate units.
My hope is that the installation will be perceived on both levels. First when someone enters the space it is in, they might stop up for a bit, viewing the play of light and shadows bouncing from unit to unit, listen to the soundscape. After a bit they might start getting interested in the separate units, trying to figure out how it works. The difficult part to predict is whether most people will dare start walking between the different units, discovering how they can be affected (or at least that they can be affected). I am looking forward to doing proper user tests to find out more about these things.
People are different. Some people shy away from everything that might put them in the spotlight, while others jump at every opportunity to explore new things. I hope that the installation will cater to both types of people, as visitors may choose themselves whether they want to interact or react, and whether the level of the behaviour in the installation that they experience is local, global or both. There are of course tricks one can use to force the timid visitor to interact in an installation such as this. One way is to create a sense of security by exhibiting in a smaller space, thus removing the audience/performer association from the experience. Another way is to place the first units a visitor will encounter right by the entrance to the space, forcing them to move through the installation to get inside. The trick is to hold on to the original idea of dual levels of experience; it must be possible to observe the installation from outside, while encouraging people to walk among the agents.
Secret knock detecting door lock
POSTED IN Rants, Tangible interactions, Video
Here’s a nifty project for you:
You can read the instructable here.
Armchair viewing, redefined
POSTED IN Rants, Video
Beautiful advert from UK Toshiba:
Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers
POSTED IN Inspiration, Rants, Video
Here’s the wonderful piece “Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers”. Interesting use of the everyday environment. Definitely an eyeopener when it concerns where sound/music can come from. Kudos for wonderful storytelling.
Agenda planner for JavaZone 09 – Incogito
POSTED IN Rants
The agenda planner Incogito for JavaZone 09 is finally live. I had a two week internship with Macsimum this summer, working as an interaction designer on the project. The planner is written by members of JavaBin.
Workspace after
POSTED IN Rants
A wee bit better after all the crap has been moved over to the other part of the room…
Setting up workspace
POSTED IN Rants
Getting settled in a new workspace can be more taxing than you initially imagine…
Getting started again
POSTED IN Rants
This site has been dead for a while, I just didn’t get into the habit of working on it. This time I hope to get going properly. I will try to merge it with another blog I’ve been running for schoolwork, hopefully quite soon. I have planned a rebuild of the site, to better incorporate works in progress, as well as finished projects, both school work and private projects. Good luck to me.
Once more (with feeling)
POSTED IN Rants
After a couple of hours of sleep I am back online. Now for the last sprint. Some projects under Works, couple of blog posts, and then on to finishing the presentation. I must confess that writing this post is mainly a way of starting todays work on an easy note.
My dreams last night were filled with code, style-sheets, galleries and blogpresentations, not the most comforting of dreams either. Only comfort was waking up and realizing that everything was working. Whew!
“The beginning is the end is the beginning”
POSTED IN Rants
This is an excellent song by The Smashing Pumpkins, but it also happens to be quite consistent with the way I feel right now. After being in a constant wordpress/java/html haze the last couple of days my site has finally started to look and work in a way fairly close to my original idea. I would like to declare war on the different standards, as well as bad coding (trying to do anything with the original WP theme without everything else falling apart has been one of my major problems, sound familiar?), but that’s life. I guess my only course of action if I want total control is to learn coding from the bottom up instead of the tweeking approach I have now, but I don’t think that’s going to happen just yet. I’ll just have to live with it for now.
Anyways, from fire to ashes and then fire again, I’m back, and everything works (for now at least). Can’t complain, can I. The architecture of the page is up and running, and the plan is laid out for how to fill it with content. So now everything should be just fine. My deadline is in 20-ish hours, so no real rush anymore, whew.
Here I come! (or something like that)
