In this research, the term interface refers to the ways and methods in space and time, where machines and humans meet and interact. Most of the time, the term interface is used in lieu of the common term user interface. The user interface has a strong connotation to the graphical computer or a smartphone screen, and the work discussed in this thesis extends interactivity beyond the flat surface. Interaction happens through interfaces, and they let us do, learn or find things easier — extending our skills and knowledge and augmenting our minds
Qualities of Simplicity in Designing Interactive Art
(Krippendorff, 2005). Interfaces and interaction are relatively new field of research under design studies, but growing in importance since our communication with others and the world happens through increasing number of constantly renewed devices and their interfaces. Again, interfaces are both designed and used. Interfaces are designed in order for interaction experi- ences to happen.
With digital tools, the participants’ experiences are mediated through an interface. If the interface is understood or learned easily, it guides us to be able to interact with underlying con- tent and technology naturally and effortlessly (Krippendorff, 2005). This notion suggests that the interface acts as a sort of gate or negotiator between the content and the user. Often this is illustrated by comparing an interface to the layout of a book: a good layout and typesetting allows for good readability, as the page numbers, headers and footers tell the reader on which chapter and page he or she is, chapter titles
offer a pause with each new chapter, the table of content acts as a map or guide to the content, and so forth. On top of this, we can consider the way a book is handled, pages are turned, how the book feels in your hand — interacting with a book is natural, and we do not think consciously about using it, about turning pages, about finding
a certain chapter or page. We can concentrate only on the content, forgetting the interface in
between. This kind of transparency, organisation and reduction of clutter of an interface are often endorsed qualities in design guidebooks. It is important to remember that the interaction happens in time through the interface, which can change: it behaves according to the rules it has been programmed by, and according to how it is manipulated. The interface gives feedback based on the user’s actions, which change their emotional state. This guides the interaction process forward towards exploration or investigation and can produce shifts in attention or even change the dynamic of a social group (Spillers, 2004).
s
Interfaces are designed and used; they
act between the technology and the
user. Interactive art is often interested
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2 Research context: Designing art
Tangible and natural user interfaces
Tangible interfaces relate to physical objects, which have been augmented with digital information, in a spatial installation setting, instead of a graphical user interface (Ishii & Ullm- er, 1997). Virtualisation of the interface has become a huge trend, as computers with graphical user interfaces and smartphones dominate our work life and our free time. Representations of real-life tools and actions have been replaced with desktops, icons, menus, virtual buttons, sliders and switches. This allows us to write, draw, manipulate text and data, create music, etc., with mouse clicks or finger presses. However, it is possible to detect another trend in Interaction design. We interact with everyday objects with all kinds of user interfaces: auditive, visual, hap- tic and combinations of these for various devices, services, instruments, tools, vehicles, objects, apparatus. Most of them are not computer-related, and all of them need to be learned at some point in life: how to use a rotary dial telephone, how to use an e-book reader, how to operate a disposable camera. As we have been using various tools and systems every day, in most cases interaction with these objects seems natural.
In this research, the discussed interactive artworks are mostly situated in the cross sec- tion of the digital and the physical world. They interact with tangible user interfaces. The interface is not only graphical and aural, but extends to, for example, physical buttons, sliders, even everyday objects such as umbrellas and towels, which have become part of the interface. Certain physical things are touched, manipulated or controlled to access and manipulate digital information systems. The way the physical elements are laid out, the way they are situated in the space needs to be discussed. The physical things can also act as outputs, or they can present back media to the physical world — for example sounds, text and graphics (Fishkin, 2004). Interactive installations discussed in this thesis explore these kinds of Interaction design spaces. These kinds of tangible, natural and multimodal interfaces can be seen as a departure from common desktop-based user interface metaphors: windows, icons, menus and pointers (Oviatt, 2012). With minor exceptions, interacting with the artworks presented in this thesis does not take place using common interaction tools or input devices such as the keyboard and the mouse, or even with the nowadays ubiquitous touch-screen device used with fingers. This is certainly not the first time such interfaces are used or presented, though this research is being carried out at an interesting time when traditional user interfaces are changing to be used in multimodal ways. We are already in the age of touch and gesture-controlled artefacts, with more and more
Qualities of Simplicity in Designing Interactive Art
speech and machine vision-based interfaces on the market. The common goal for alternative interfaces is to gain direct control of tasks, without the interface getting in the way. This thesis presents these kinds of physical interface solutions via interactive art. Many of the discussions and findings presented in this thesis can be applied to other products besides interactive art and interactive computing, including systems or artefacts which do not possess the computing component.
Interactive artists are not the only ones searching for novel ways to interact with com- puters. The seamless-use interfaces can be called natural (user) interfaces (see e.g. Raisamo, 1999; Rauterberg et al., 1998). In natural interfaces the focus is on interactions which mimic everyday actions, such as speech, hand movements and gestures, facial expressions and other non-verbal communication. Although natural user interfaces are often nowadays related to touch and gesture-based interfaces, in this thesis the term is also understood to incorporate interfaces which involve natural objects and materials such as coffee cups, handbags, clay, sand, etc. In this research the development of interactive artworks, experimenting with tangible and natural interfaces, is seen as an essential skill and practice of an Interaction designer (Fallman, 2008). Exploration as part of an Interaction designer toolkit is explained in more detail in the chapter 3.3 Interaction design methods and interactive art.