Found an old report I did back in school years ago. Did a mini research on my since-then acute interest topic on interaction design, new media and what's not. It's nothing new now, but it's interesting to revisit some then-new old perspective.
Here's portions.
Interactive Design - The New Voice.
"To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatise, to persuade and perhaps, to amuse."
From the old era and breakthrough of movable type and seeing the birth of worldʼs 1st artificial human mind - the computer, we human consistently try to revolutionize the different means and medium to aid us in projecting our submerged visions and sounds packed discreetly in our mind.
How can we further surprise ourselves each time? I wonder. Could there be a peak of every trend and then loses itself like a deflating balloon? The thought lingers. "Why we didn't think of that?" - Just makes me wonder why ideas are infinitely emerging. Just like why is there always a great new song. Wouldnʼt human run out of tunes?
It goes back to Adam and Eve, they break away from conformity not because they are different, they do because they dare to be.
To design is no longer about putting up a show and waiting for applause. Itʼs more. We want to provoke, to pause, to evoke, to challenge, to question, to tease, to ask for dis/agreement from the people we speak to, in all prospective senses. We want response. We want interaction. We want an exchange.
The places where we work, the homes where we live and the cities where we consume - can no longer be understood as framed and fixed territories, but is rather to be seen as living organisms consisting of both digital information and physical space in close and dynamic coexistence.
Talk about new media. Look around you. What have you discovered? What have you realized that it have change since the days u last noticed. From ordinary movie posters to the moving poster television. What I have personally once visualized would happen, have happened. I remember when around 8 years ago, I look at those ʻflippingʼ movie posters and thought to myself, “Wouldnʼt it be fantastic if they could just have a big TV screen to feature those movies every now and then instead of having the trouble to constantly change the posters?” Well, somebody did it first.
Incorporating digital technology into the art practice changes and broadens the field of art. New forms of art are emerging; for example, interactive digital installation art. Interactive installation art is a hybrid art form, inspired by fields as diverse as installation art, theatre, music, computer programming, biology and engineering. New forms of collaboration, new types of artists and consequently new forms of artistic expressions are emerging.
The space of art is changing while interactive spatial arts are establishing new and different relationships with the art consumer. Letʼs just name a renowned UK creative collective - Tomato, the visual contortionists and senses stimulators. Some of their works and clients are Busaba, a famous restaurant in London. They created a series of interactive menus, of which the ultra-bright screens light up the exterior, displaying the menu which is one continuous loop of text and graphics. The buttons are based on doorbells to provide familiar interface.
Then for their client Selfridges, 22 window installation for the Tokyo Life season were created in London. The scheme included robot jellyfish, neon kanji poetry as well as interactive windows filled with giant characters that inflate as passers-by approached the window.
Music visual installations have always been the ultimate eye candy for party goers that would further stimulate their clubbing sensation and moods. Tomato was commissioned for visual direction for Electraglide in Tokyo and Osaka in November 2003. This was the largest dance event held in Japan. (See below) They were responsible for installations within the chillout area and for six hours if sound reactive visual performance on the dance floor.
Another is an Interactive Video Grid project that uses an infra-red light and camera in clubs so people could take a snapshot of themselves and see it projected in a grid on the wall. Their latest project features “cube”, a series of installations exploring how three dimensional light reacts to sound and movement. The cube is filled with a semi-translucent liquid and the light reacts to sound and movement. Exhibited in Japan and Singapore.
Unfortunately, experimentation is not something that many clients are keen to pay for. And the fine art world is extremely conservative and has lost touch with this element of playing around with new forms. We develop a sense for things. It is closer to an artistic investigation than to the development of ʻstyleʼ that can be applied to products or procedures, which is common in the more industry driven design world. If you donʼt need to know what you will find during your work, then the work becomes more experimental and experiential.
“A successful piece of installation has to have the sensibilities of lots different disciplines,” says Tomas Roope, one of the directors of Tomato. “No single discipline covers the idea of the visual, temporal, accoustic, spatial and tactile that goes into the creation of a successful piece of interactive work.” When approached in this way, interaction design becomes a much broader paradigm, one that can translate into other creative areas.
Thus, even if the interactive element is minimal, the rewards the project gains would be in high appreciation level from the audience and their curiosity to pause and investigate it further. Though, their interests are in the crossover of physical computing with interactivity, as well as in the migration of real-time, multi-user experiences from the gaming world into more complex situations and experiences. One thing is certain: nothing is certain. “Now that the novelty factor is wearing off, the interesting aspects will flourish- I hope,” comments Joel Baumann, who is another director of Tomato.
With such heritage of visual communication to draw from, it is easy for both artists and designers to fall into a groove that others have made. The future of interaction is a broad, barely touched canvas waiting to be scribbled upon."
References
IDN : Interaction and Experimental Design
Haque Design + Research > ww.haque.co.uk
Tomato Creatives > www.tomato.co.uk
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Yea, that was the old thoughts. Let me tell you new ones some time later.
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