The concrete of NOW
Jennifer Seevinck · Libri Publishing eBooks · 2011
Introduction In this chapter I discuss my approach to making the interactive art system +-now and the insights that it generated. These are insights into the structure of interaction as well as means to effect these. The approach I use is a practice-based research approach. It is a densely interwoven fabric of practice, theory and evaluation that involves reframing the concepts behind the art work, conducting evaluation studies, engaging with theories of emergence and aesthetics and reflecting on the landscape that inspired the work. One reframed concept is that of open-ended design. As will be described, this was a design objective for +-now. During the process of making +-now I related open-ended interaction to emergent interaction. Open interactions tend to be non-repeatable, unfixed and unbounded while in an emergent interaction something qualititatively new and surprising occurs. Both are unpredictable and creative. My practice has involved exploring these characteristics and the effect they have on interaction experience. As an artist, I found that an unpredictable interaction experience can be very worthwhile. It offers both opportunities and challenges. This is new and possibly even controversial territory for interaction designers. I discuss it and other design issues for emergent and openly structured interactions later in the chapter.