Participation Gestalt
Peter Dalsgaard, Kim Halskov, Ole Sejer Iversen · 2016
We introduce the participation gestalt framework for analysing participation in public interactive installations. Building on the concept of interaction gestalt, we define the participation gestalt as the unified perception and experience of participatory qualities as they unfold through interaction with the installation in a socio-cultural setting. The framework consists of five continua, mapping out the qualities of participation in relation to the degree of expressivity, exposure, investment, sociality and persistence that people experience when engaging in the interaction. Individually, the five qualities provide a vocabulary for analyzing an interactive installation. Combined, the five qualities constitute a participation gestalt framework by which HCI researchers can qualify how a certain forms of participation emerge around public installations. We exemplify the framework by analyzing four public installations in different socio-cultural contexts and examining their participation gestalt.