hi melissa and kelsey and others,
thanks so much for your elaboration on the questions of sustaining
engagement in interactive projects. i wonder if list members could
describe practical examples of works they have presented (made or
curated) in which both feedback and momentum were considered?
i sometimes feel with works of new media art, that the feedback from
visitor input is considered, but the work can be read as a one-liner
when the piece isn't explicitly about sustaining engagement (though
this aspect of simultaneity in new media art can be quite nice, and
indeed the point of the piece, as is the case with a work of art i
saw in brussels this past weekend, buttons by sascha pohflepp that is
a digital camera which instead of presenting you with the photo you
have just taken, shows on its small screen a photo from flickr which
was taken at the exact same time). design and architecture projects,
as opposed to discrete objects or gallery based work, might indeed
demand different momentum - or rather exist on a different time
scale, as you've pointed out. i was particularly interested in the
work milkandtales have done considering the engagement of the
"passersby" -- if anyone wants to talk about that, it might tie
nicely into the discussion about to get underway at the urban screens
conference.
from sunny sunderland,
sarah
On 9 Oct 2007, at 18:24, hello wrote:
> Dear Beryl, Sally Jane, Danny and all everyone who has been
> following the thread,
>
> Thank you for your feedback. It is very interesting to get a point
> of view from artists and curators. We do work from the perspective
> of designers, where we often are not our own client and respond to
> an exterior brief.
>
> Two main topics have been picked up: timing and authorship.
>
> From our interactive design perspective, timing affects engagement
> in two manners: in its relation to when a response is given to
> participant input and in relation to keeping a momentum throughout
> the experience.
>
> Often, the more immediate the response, the easier it is for the
> players/stakeholders to associate their actions with it, to relate to
> it. Helping to exploit the full potential of the impact, immediacy
> of feedback mechanisms gives a greater sense of interactivity.
>
> Experiences can happen over a few minutes, hours, days, weeks,
> years. For any scale, momentum needs to be sustained. Time scale is
> always a factor to reflect against other factors – how much
> intensity of interaction is needed over what period of time? What
> level of engagement do we need from users over what period of time?
> Various techniques can be used to maintain momentum: creating a
> sense of suspense, planning a series, breaking up long periods of
> time with new events. By planning when and how events come into the
> experience, timing creates the story.
>
> Perhaps the later is more relevant for curators, in the sense that
> each piece has their own timeframe and together, they create a new
> timeframe that the visitor/stakeholder/player navigates through and
> momentum must be kept as a whole.
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