Understanding performative behaviour within content-rich Digital Live Art
Sara Heitlinger, Nick Bryan–Kinns · Digital Creativity · 2013
AbstractAbstractResearch into human–computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally been concerned with users' abilities to complete tasks at desk-bound computers. However, recent research into Digital Live Art (Sheridan 2006 Sheridan, Jennifer 2006. "Digital Live Art: Mediating Wittingness in Playful Arenas." PhD diss., Lancaster University. [Google Scholar]) and audiences' engagement with interactive art focuses on 'non task-based uses of computing' (Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007, 13), such as the user experience. As computing becomes more mobile, wireless and tangible, there is a shift to understand the needs of 'users as performers' (ibid.). As a result, research has begun to draw on the methods and theories in the performing arts to better understand these needs. However, much of this research into interactive art focuses on playful or physical experiences of users, and fails to address work with social content and themes to be communicated. This is a critical analysis of Sheridan's framework for understanding performative behaviour with technologically mediated interactive art (Sheridan 2006 Sheridan, Jennifer 2006. "Digital Live Art: Mediating Wittingness in Playful Arenas." PhD diss., Lancaster University. [Google Scholar]; Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007). By applying the framework to works with rich thematic content, our findings indicate that the framework needs refining in order to better understand the ways in which users engage with interactive artworks of this kind.Keywords: performanceHCIinteractive artDigital Live Art AcknowledgementsThis research was made possible with an EPSRC-funded studentship at a RCUK Doctoral Training Centre.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSara Heitlinger is an award-winning artist, writer and researcher interested in the relationship people have with their environment and the ways they use creativity to survive in crisis situations. She won a UNESCO Digital Arts Award for her project 'Privileged Tactics II' about environmental sustainability (together with Franc Purg) and has shown work in exhibitions and festivals around the world. Sara has a BSc in computer science, and an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her PhD focuses on design for social and environmental sustainability in the context of grassroots urban food-growing communities.Notes on contributorsDr Nick Bryan-Kinns is Senior Lecturer, Deputy Dean and Director of Admissions at Queen Mary University of London. He leads interactional sound and music in the Centre for Digital Music and has published award-winning international journal papers on mutual engagement, cross-modal interaction and tangible interfaces from his multi-million-pound funded research. He provided expert opinion for the NSF and European Commission, chaired the ACM Creativity and Cognition conference 2009 and BCS-HCI 2006. He is a BCS Fellow, recipient of ACM and BCS Recognition of Service Awards, and chair of ACM SIGCHI-CCaA Community. He received his PhD in 1998 (London).