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Engaging with Experience
Lizzie Muller
"By one of the ironic perversities that often attend the courseof affairs, the existence of the works of art upon whichformation of an aesthetic theory depends has become anobstruction to theory about them ... [T]he work of art is oftenidentified with the buildiriq, book, painting, or statue in Itsexistence apart from human experience. Since the actual workof art is what the product does with and in experience, theresult is not favourable to understanding." (Dewey 1980: I)
Inthe opening paragraph of John Dewey's Art as Experience heargues that research in art mistakes its own object by focusing onobjects rather than experience. He describes the dual existence ofart as growing from the experience of the artist, and manifested inthe audience's experience of the work. This is not simply a
collapsing of the distinction between producer and consumer; rather it isan acknowledgement of the similarities of the lived experience of makingand perceiving, and of their mutual inter-dependence. RichardShusterman has pointed out how Dewey's move away from a closedartistic product to an open and transformative aesthetic experienceanticipates later theories associated with post-structuralism(Shusterman 2001). Certainly Dewey's words foretell a generalmovement in contemporary culture towards a privileging of experience
For research in art the implications of this shift are profound. Taking theactive and creative role of the audience seriously necessitates a researchfocus on the audience's lived experience, which is often perceived asamorphous and difficult to study. The Engage symposium and thediverse and exciting collection of papers that it has attracted addressthis need from the particular perspective of interaction. The ernphasrs ison computer-based interactivity in art but this is framed by it herecognition that interaction, in its broadest sense, reaches to tile heartof experience itself.
Interaction is central to Dewey's pragmatist account of experience, anoto other accounts that emphasise the fundamental fact of our embodiedexistence in the world, notably J,J. Gibson (1979) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (2002). For Dewey art is expressive of and constituted in theinteraction of the "live creature" with the world; "The first greatconsideration is that life goes on in an environment; not merely in, it out
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"I'm an interactive artist; I construct experiences. Since theearly 80'5 I've been exhibiting my installations in galleries,trade shows, science museums, and public and private spaces.These exhibitions serve as a public research laboratory wheremy Ideas about interaction and experience are tested, affirmedor shot down." (Rokeby 1998:27)
properties that might make up a new visual taxonomy of mixed-realityartworks.
The production of creative social and technical environments is the focus'for other artists. Andrew Johnston et al descnbe the creation andevaluation of responsive system for stimulating musical exploration.Kazuhiro Jo et al describe how different environmental conditions affectthe experiences' of participants in performances of their "Sine WaveOrchestra". Reflecting on her work in the "Avoca Project" Lyndal Jones'describes the creation of a site specific experience that allows.participants, through interaction, to consider the effect of their actionson the world around them.
Theorists and curators are also using interactive art as a focus forexperimenting with new ways to understand the role of aestheticexperience in a highly technologlsed and rapidly. changing world. The.symposium features several theorists who are taking on this challenge:Kathy Cleland explores the way that different media constitute andencourage new forms of subjectivity and new ways of seeing ourselves.as visible entities in the world. Joanne Jakovich and Klrsty BeJiharz showthe relationship between architecture and interaction and present aframework for implementing techniques and matenals from interacttveart in architectural practice. Su Ballard posits emergence, lnterruption-and noise, as the processes through which viewers experience artinstallations. Mike Leggett compares interactive art practice from thelast decade with contemporary examples to ask whether a more maturerelationship to audiences has emerged.
From a curatorial perspective Natalia Radywyl draws on ernpiricalresearch in a gallery context to demonstrate emerging forms of visitoragency and experience in the museum. Julianne. Pearce. reflects oncuratorial strategies for engaging audiences through Interaction In public
spaces.
Cross-overs between the field of interactive art and disciplines suchasHuman Computer Interaction (HC!) are providing access to useful new.'methods for understanding and studying interaction and humanexperience. In her book "Plans and Situated Actions Lucy Suchman ha::;.described how people achieve meaning in their encounters With.interactive artefacts through action. This achievement is absolutely-dependent on the contingent resources of the situation. To address thesituated nature of interaction Such man emphaSises the methodologlcaJneed for empirical approaches to understanding experience (Suchrnan1987). The Engage symposium highlights the potential of quantitativeand qualitative methods from HCI for gathering and analvsinq prrrnarvaudience experience data. Daniel Fallman uses the Reparatory Gndtechnique, Zafer Bilda employs Protocol Analysts and Yun Zhangdemonstrates a coding technique based in discourse analvsis.
because of it, through interaction with it." (Dewey 1980: 12).Computer-based interactive art is an art-form where the nature ofexperience and interaction is particularly and often self-consciouslyexplored. Interactive artworks come into being and exist in their fullform when they are used. One of the great contributions thatinteractive art has to offer contemporary culture is as a test bed forlearning more about the nature and operation of interaction andexperience in art. Artists are leading this experimentation. DavidRokeby, for example, describes his engagement with interaction andexperience thus;
The Engage symposium places special emphasis on the reflections ofpracticing artists. A number of artists' papers describe their attempts toinduce particular effects and emotions in the audience's experience oftheir work. Anna Davies reflects on the creation of social anxiety in herwork "In the house of the shouters ... ". She shows how an iterativecreative process allowed the "behaviour" of the installation to evolvesymbiotically with that of the audience. Alex Davies describes how thedesign of his work "Dislocation" subtly leads its audience to situationswhere perceptual illusions create virtual worlds in which real andfictional people are felt to momentarily inhabit the same physical reality.Tina Gonsalves and Sarah Moss both explore ways to generate and testfor affective responses in their work. Gonsalves describes howcollaboration with neuroscientists in the use of bio-feedback technologiesis allowmq her to interpret and work directly with participants'physiological responses as an input for interaction.
Other artists' papers use particular theoretical frameworks to describethe relationship between their artwork and their audience. Mari Velonakiapplies Jean-Louis Baudry's conception of the relationship between thespectator and the projected image in cinema to the audience'sengagement with the characters that inhabit her interactive installations.Roman Danylak equates the relationship of sign and signified with thefoundational role of touch in the creation of meaning in gesture-basedartworks.
Ian Gwilt and Janet Maries both explore the emergence of new formalcharacteristics through the impact of digital technologies. Mariesdescribes the effects of the conflation of linear and non-linear narrativein interactive documentary. Through his reflexive and provocativeartwork, "Untitled Media", Gwilt engages the audience in identifying the
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Tools and techniques from the "user-centred" approach in HCI also offervaluable production and evaluation methodologies for the developmentof interactive artworks. Nick Mariette describes the iterative design of aseries of location-sensitive, mobile sound works called "Audio Nomad",and their evaluation in terms of user-perception. Garth Paine describesthe development and testing of a new kind of musical instrument interms of its cognitive perceptual affordances. George Khut shows howtwo HCI frameworks for understanding user-experience can be appliedto the audience experience in his art-work "Cerdiomorpholoqies". Basedon this analysis he shows how interactive art acts as a medium forcritical enquiry,
Shusterman, R. (2001), Pragmatism, In: Gaut, B. and McIver Lopes, D. (Editors)Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. Routledge, London.Suchman, L. A. (1987), Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
The papers published in this volume represent a significant contributionto our understanding of interactive art experiences. The impact of thisdiverse collection of perspectives reaches beyond the field of interactiveart and of HCr. Dewey posits aesthetic experience as a heightenedform of experience, through which we can understand the nature ofexperience itself. For Dewey art reflects our adaptation and growthwithin a changing environment. Using the example of Impressionism heargues that changes in our world-experience relate fundamentally to theemergence of new forms of art;
"[The Impressionists'] new subject-matter demanded a newform, And because of the relativitv of technique to form, theywere compelled to experiment with the development of newtechnical procedures. An environment that is changedphysically and spiritually demands new forms of expression...the very meaning of an important new movement in any art isthat it expresses something new in human experience, somenew mode of interaction of the live creature with hissurroundings ... " (Dewey 1980: 316)
In interactive art we see the emergence of a new form of expressionwhich responds to a new, highly technologised form of lived experience.In studying and coming to understand the experience of interactive art,we are coming to understand better our experience of the world.
References
Dewey, J. (1980) Art As Experience, Penguin, London.
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception Houghton Mifflin,Dallas; London.
o Merleau-Ponty, M. and Smith, C. (2002). Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge,London.
Rokeby, D. (1998). The Construction of Experience: Interface as Content. In:Dodsworth Jr., C. Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology.ACM Press, New York.
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Forward
Ernest Edmonds and Lizzie Muller
"The idea for the Creativity & Cognition conferences began ona small Dutch island, Terschelling, at a New Year gathering atthe end of 1991 . The problem that was identified was ... thescientists (interested in creativity) and the artists (interested incomputing), did not meet together. The computer-orientedmeetings were not informed by creative practitioners and theart-based meetings were not informed by computer expertsThe Creativity & Cognition series was created in order to bringall of the stakeholders together." (Candy and Edmonds, 1999)
The Creativity and Cognition Conference has grown to become aregular, international ACM SIGCHI event. The 2007 meeting willbe held in June Washington DC, chaired by Ben Shneiderman(CC2007). In parallel to the Conference, a series of Creativity andCognition Symposia has been launched and held in Sydney
Australia. Each Symposium is focused on a specific problem within thescope of the Conference concerns. Engage is the fourth such meeting. Itis concerned with research into audience engagement with interactiveart.
The experience of the audience is at the heart of interaction and, inparticular, interactive art. Computer-based interactive artworks comeinto being and exist in their full form when they are used. They cannotbe understood only as objects, but must be thought of as time-basedexperiences, or periods of engagement. There is an increasing interestfrom practitioners and researchers in the field of interactive art inlearning more about audience experience from theoretical, empirical andapplied perspectives. This symposium reviews the latest work in thisarea and future directions for the field, drawing together' differentdisciplinary approaches and perspectives including artist led research,curatorial and theoretical research, human-centred design perspectives.
The topics covered in Engage have arisen in large part from Beta_space,CCS's exhibition and audience research initiative in partnership with thePowerhouse Museum and supported by ACID. Beta_space is anexperimental exhibition area for interactive art at the Powerhouse. Itextends CCS's practice based research in art and technology into apublic context (Edmonds et al 2006).
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Many people and several organizations have made invaluablecontributions leading up to and enabling the Engage Symposium. ThePowerhouse Museum has been an exciting and vital partner in thedevelopment of Beta_space and the concepts that surround it. A numberof staff have made important contributions, but we must specificallythank Matthew Connell, whose untiring support has enabled much ofthat work.
Engaging with Experience
Lizzie Muller
ACID, the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design, has been extremelyhelpful in joining with UTS to fund much of the research aroundBeta_space and now to specifically sponsor this Symposium. ANAT, TheAustralian Network for Art and Technology, are a vital source of supportfor digital art initiatives in Australia, and have generously sponsored theattendance of Ti m Boykett. We also thank OZCHI 2006, as Bill Gaverappears courtesy of this leading forum for work in all areas of HC!.
We thank our invited speakers, Tim Boykett, Andrew Brown, Bill Gaver,Beryl Graham and Mike Stubbs, and all of the contributors for theirstimulating papers.
"By one of the ironic perversities that often attend the courseof affairs, the existence of the works of art upon whichformation of an aesthetic theory depends has become anobstruction to theory about them... [T]he work of art is oftenidentified with the buildinq, book, painting, or statue in itsexistence apart from human experience. Since the actual workof art. is what the product does with and in experience, theresult IS not favourable to understanding." (Dewey 1980: 1)
References
Inthe opening paragraph of John Dewey's Art as Experience heargues that research in art mistakes its own object by focusing onobjects rather than experience. He describes the dual existence ofart as growing from the expenence of the artist, and manifested inthe audience's experience of the work. This is not simply a
collapsing of the distinction between producer and consumer; rather it isan acknowledgement of the similarities of the lived experience of makingand perceiving, and of their mutual inter-dependence. RichardShusterman has pointed out how Dewey's move away from a closedartistic product to an open and transformative aesthetic experienceanticipates later theories associated with post-structuralism(Shusterman 2001). Certainly Dewey's words foretell a generalmovement in contemporary culture towards a privileging of experience.
Shigeki Amitani has made an important effort, on all of our behalves, bybuilding and maintaining the web site and paper management system.Finally, we are very indebted to Deborah Turnbull, our Co-Editor of theProceedings, for her tireless, always enthusiastic, administration ofeverything to do with enabling Engage to take place.
Candy, L. and Edmonds,E. A. (editors). (1999) Proceedings of the ThirdInternational Symposium Creativity and Cognition. ACMPress,NewYork.
CC2007.http://www.cs.umd.edu/hciI/CC2007 /
Edmonds, E. A., Muller, L, and Connell, M. (2006). On Creative Engagement. VisualCommunication. Vol 5(3). pp 307-322.
For research in art the implications of this shift are profound. Taking theactive and creative role of the audience seriously necessitates a researchfocus on the audience's lived experience, which is often perceived asamorphous and difficult to study. The Engage symposium and thediverse and exciting collection of papers that it has attracted addressthis need from the particular perspective of interaction. The emphasis ison computer-based interactivity in art but this is framed by therecognition that interaction, in its broadest sense, reaches to the heartof experience itself.
Interaction is central to Dewey's pragmatist account of experience, andto other accounts that emphasise the fundamental fact of our embodiedexistence in the world, notably J.J. Gibson (1979) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (2002). For Dewey art is expressive of and constituted in theinteraction of the "live creature" with the world; "The first greatconsideration is that life goes on in an environment; not merely in it but
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ENGAGE: Interaction, Art and Audience Experience
A CCS / ACID Symposium
The experience of audience is at the heart of intera ction and, inparticular', intc ractive ar-t. Computer-based interactive artworks comeinto being and exist in thou full form when they are used. They cannotbe understood only as objects, but must be thought of <:15 time-basedexperiences, or periocls of engageml'nt. This colle ct ic n of paperspresents the latest work In the area of interaction, art a rid audienceexperrence. It draws together' different dis ciplinarv appr'oaches andperspectives iricludino artist led research. curatorial and museccqicalapproaches ami interaction desiqn perspectives.
Editors:Ernest EdmondsLizzie Muller'Deborah Turrib u!l
Held at:University of Technology, SydncyPO Box 123 BroadwayNSW Austra.o 2007
26-28 November 2006
CONTENTS
List of Contributors v
Symposium Committee xi
ForwardErnest Edmonds and Lizzie Muller xv
Engaging with ExperienceLizzie Muller xvii
Creativity and Cognition Studios PressUniversity of Technology, SydneyPO Box 123 BroadwayNSW Australia 2007
Reflections on the Nature of InteractionErnest Edmonds xxiii
INVITED PRESENTATIONSTelephone:Fax: 'Website:
+61 2 9514 2384+61 295144761www.creativityandcognition.com/engage06
Physical or Virtual, it's all RealTim Baykett 4
ISBN: 978-0-9751533-4-5 Modes of Creative EngagementAndrew Brown 6
© Copyright 2006 of the authorsAll rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyrightnotice may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informationstorage an~ retrieval system, without written permission from thepublisher: reativity and Cognition Studio Press. All papers have beenpeer review . .A-
Probes and Commentators: Placing Interpretation at theHeart of Design
Bill Gaver 8
Participatory SystemsBeryl Graham 10
Printed by the UTS Print Services The Economy of Interaction in Public Art Galleries andMuseums
Mike Stubbs 12Cover Design by Ian Gwilt
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Long Presentations:
THEORETICALAND CURATORIALAPPROACHES
Emergence: The Generation of Material Spaces in AnthonyMcCall's 'Line Describing a Cone'
Susan Ballard 16
Media Mirrors and Image AvatarsKathy Cleland
From Audience to Inhabitant: Interaction as a Medium inArchitecture
Joanne Jakovich, Kristy Beilharz
The Promise of the Arty Little MicrofishNatalia Radywyl
ARTIST LED RESEARCH
Touch as the Act of Signification: Naming as a Key DesignConcept for Gesturally Intuitive Interactive Space
Roman Danylak, Ernest Edmonds
Frolicking with Phantoms: Illusion in Mixed RealityAlex Davies
Creating a Social Anxiety Interface in the Artwork 'In thehouse of shouters'
Anna Davis
Towards a Visual Taxonomy in Mixed Reality ArtIan Gwilt
Partial Reflections: Interactive Environments for MusicalExploration
Andrew Johnston, Ben Marks, Linda Candy, ErnestEdmonds
Styles of Participation and Engagement in Collective SoundPerformance Projects ..
Kazuhiro Jo, Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Kumiyo NakakoJI
Some Digital Media Approaches to Non-Linear Narrativesand Interactivity
Janet Maries
INTERSECTION OF HCI AND INTERACTIVE ART
Eliciting Audience's Experiences to Improve Interactive ArtInstallation
Hanif Baharin, Ann Morrison
II
28Catching the Interactive Experience: Using the RepertoryGrid Technique for Qualitative and Quantitative Insight intoUser Experience
Daniel Fallman 144
40 Interactive Art as Embodied Inquiry: Working withAudience Experience
George Poonkhin Khut 15650
Short Presentations
THEORETICALAND CURATORIALAPPROACHES
62The Bairdboard Bombardment: A Decade of Engagement
Mike Leggett68 Surface, Site, Screen: Interactive Art in Public Space
Julianne Pierce
80 ARTIST LED RESEARCH
90
An Exploration into Deeper Engagements of Audience andCreative Process
Tina Gonsalves
100The Avoca Project: Place and Art and Interaction
Lyndal Jones
The Reflective Practitioner: in creation of a presence basedexperience
Sarah Moss
110 Identification-Projection-Interaction: The Participant in anInteractive Art Environment
Mari Velonaki
120 INTERSECTIONOF HCI AND INTERACTIVE ART
Evaluating Audience ExperienceZafer Bilda
134 Perceptual Evaluation of Spatial Audio for "Audio Nomad"Augmented Reality Artworks
Nick Mariette
111
172
184
196
208
218
230
248
260
The Thummer Mapping Project - ThuMPGarth Paine
Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Case Studiesin Art and Technology
Yun Zhang, Linda Candy
APPENDIX: ACID - Designing the User Experience
AUTHOR INDEX
iv
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS270
Editors:
282
292Ernest EdmondsCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustraliaernest@ernestedmonds,com
294
Lizzie Mu(lerCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected]
(
Deborah TurnbullCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected]
Authors:
Hanif BaharinUniversiti Tei«lologi MARAPerlis, [email protected],edu.my
Susan BallardArt Theory,Otago School of Art,Dunedin, New ZealandSu,[email protected]
Dr Kirsty BeilharzKey Centre of Design Computing and CognitionUniversity of [email protected],au
v
Andrew BrownAustralasian CRCfor Interaction Design (ACID)Queensland University of TechnologyAustraliaa.brown@gut,edu.au
Ernest EdmondsCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected]
Tim BoykettTime's UpLinz, Austriatim@timesup,org
Daniel FallmanUmea UniversitySwedendfallman@gmail,com
Linda CandyCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralialinda(wlindacandy, com
Bill GaverGoldsmiths CollegeUniversity of LondonUKw.gayer@gold,ac.yk
Kathy ClelandSchool of Letters, Art and MediaUniversity of SydneyAustraliakathy.dela [email protected],edu,au
Tina GonsalvesCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustraliatina@tinagonsa!ves.com
Roman DanylakCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected],edu.ay
Beryl GrahamSchool of Arts, Design, Media and CultureSunderland [email protected]
Alex DaviesCollege Of Fine Arts (COFA)University of New South [email protected]
Ian GwiltFaculty of Design, Architecture and BuildingUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustraliaIan ,[email protected]
Anna DavisiCINEMAUniversity of New South WalesAustraliaannasthetic@qmail,com
Joanne JakovichKey Centre of Design Computing and CognitionUniversity of SydneyAustraliajoanne@jakovich,net
Kazuhiro JoRCASTUniversity of TokyoJapanjo@jD,org
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Zafer BildaCreativity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected]
SYMPOSIUM COMMITTEE
Co-Chairs:
Ernest EdmondsLizzie Muller
Yun ZhangCreatitivity and Cognition StudiosFaculty of Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology, [email protected]
Symposium Manager:
Deborah Turnbull
Program Committee:
Mark AmerikaUniversity of ColoradoUSA
Simon BiggsEdinburgh College of ArtsUKAndrew BrownQueensland University of TechnologyAustralia
Danny ButtSuma Media ConsultingNew Zealand
Kathy ClelandUniversity of SydneyAustralia
Brigid CostelloUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
Ross GibsonUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
Ian GwiltUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
Penny HagenUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
x xi
Tom HewettDrexel UniversityUSA
Fee Plumleythe-phone-bookUK
Liz HughesExperimentaAustralia
Andy PolaineUniversity of New South WalesAustralia
Janis JefferiesGoldsmiths College - University of LondonUK
Melinda RackhamAustralian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)Australia
Andrew JohnstonUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
Joel SlaytonSan Jose State UniversityUSA
LyndalJonesRMIT UniversityAustralia
Russell StorerMuseum of Contemporary Art, SydneyAustralia
Rob van KranenburgUniveristy of GentBelgium
Maureen ThomasUniversity of CambridgeUK
Kim MachanMultimedia Arts Asia Pacific (MAAP)Australia
Darren ToftsSwinburne University of TechnologyAustralia
Maria MirandaMacquarie UniversityAustralia
Cameron TolkinwiseUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
Andrew MurphieUniversity of New South WalesAustralia
Alastair WeakleyUniversity of Technology, SydneyAllc;trrllirl
Jack OxUniversity of New MexicoUSA
Yusuf PisanUniversity of Technology, SydneyAustralia
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