Interactive Art Research Articles

Contributors’ Notes

Contributors’ Notes

Cangjie's Poetry

This paper describes the conceptual background, artificial intelligent system design, and visualization strategies of an interactive art experience: Cangjie's Poetry. This artwork provides a conceptual response to the human-machine reality in the context of language, symbols, and semantic meanings. In the Cangjie's Poetry art installation, the intelligent system (Cangjie) constantly observes surroundings through the lens of a camera, writes poetry using its symbolic system based on its interpretation, and explains the evolving poem in natural language to audiences in real time. Due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, multiple presentation formats of this work were developed, which include in-person installation, virtual installation, and a special edition with pre-rendered video. This work prioritizes ambiguity and tension between machinic vision and human perception, the actual and the virtual, past and present.

Drop

This paper describes an interactive art installation titled "drop." It is the first artwork using the Waterdrop Projection-Mapping (WPM) system, which animates levitating waterdrops. With this artwork, the anno lab team infuses physical characteristics into computer graphics and materializes them as tangible pixels. WPM consists of a waterdrop generator and an ultra high-speed projector. The team uses an ultra high-speed projector to cast stroboscopic spotlights mapping on waterdrops to create an optical illusion of animating each waterdrop individually. This is a new technique to show computer animation by animating levitating waterdrops. This technique explores a new horizon to create animations with tangible pixels that the viewer can touch physically.

Between Alexandria and Rome? Reflections on Artistic Circulation and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Ethiopian Painting in the Fifteenth Century

Between Alexandria and Rome? Reflections on Artistic Circulation and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Ethiopian Painting in the Fifteenth Century

The Shape of Story: A Semiotic Artistic Visualization of a Communal Storytelling Experience

Telling stories is a central part of human culture. The development of computational systems that can understand and respond to human language is an integral part of AI research in general and narrative technologies in particular. In this paper, we describe a system that is able to understand human spoken English sentences and portray that understanding via a semiotic visual language in real-time. We then employ this system in a communal storytelling environment as part of an interactive art installation and create a medium for collaborative creative expression.

Developing the Art-Technology Intergenerational Community Program for Older Adults' Health and Social Connectedness.

As the older adult population increases, research investigating how to support their health and well-being has become more urgent. This paper discusses the development of the art–technology intergenerational community (ATIC) program for older adults in Bryan and College Station, Texas. The program's purpose was to help improve older adult's health, well-being, and social connectedness. During the program, participants attended four sessions across 4 weeks, creating interactive art projects such as light-up cards, pop-up cards with light, interactive light painting, and interactive soft circuit ornaments. Preliminary studies allowed researchers to refine making materials by designing easy-to-follow fabricated circuit templates. Participants were able to create interactive art by using various materials such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), copper tape, coin-cell batteries, and conductive thread. A total of 18 participants aged 60–83 participated in the ATIC program. Participants were asked to complete pre- and post-study questionnaires which assessed older adults' subjective health or well-being, feelings of intergenerational connectedness, and attitude about art and technology. Video data were captured for qualitative analysis on the art creation process, cognitive health, and social connectedness of the participants. Our findings show that those who participated in the ATIC program had improved perceptions of their own health and intergenerational relationships. There were also significant differences between pre- and post-study conditions for positive and negative affect. Qualitative results showed that the program participants were engaged in the art-making process and that creations helped to support intergenerational relationships with the student volunteers as well as their own family members.

Cognitive Environment at “Bansko Cultural Heritage Promotion Center”

The present research is based on “Methodics for Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Heritage with Artistic Interactions and Educational Impacts through Information and Communication Technologies (Nenov 2019), and the application of “the possibilities to promote cultural heritage with artistic interactions and educational impacts through the application of modern information and communication technologies (ICT), applying an interdisciplinary analysis of the scientific information for the cultural heritage sites” (Nenov 2019). Analysis of the activities for preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage has been made in the context of the concept, prepared by author team headed by architect Nenov – “Concept for activities for revitalization of the tourist attractions for promotion of intangible cultural heritage sites, under category “national” significance in the town of Bansko. (Nenov 2019a). The concept explores the impact of the environment in the “House of Arts Bansko” and the prerequisites for its reconstruction in “Cultural Heritage Promotion Center”. The applicability of notions, such as “cognition”, “cognitive architecture”, “interpretation of the cultural heritage”, “media façade”, educational “STEM” method and “authentic artistic interactions”, related to the research, is being analyzed as new approach for preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage. The significance of the interpretation of the cultural heritage in the context of ICT capabilities for the promotion of tangible and intangible cultural values is substantiated. Present examples for application of the Augmented reality (AR) are examined. The study presents the “possibilities for interpretation of the cultural heritage through visual research with information and communication technologies (ICT) in a real “in situ” and museum environment in the context of the cultural heritage sites and using the cited methodics, which was introduced in the dissertation “Conservation of the cultural heritage of Bulgaria in the context of the synthesis of architecture and fine arts “(Nenov 2016–2019). The possibilities for building cognitive environment are explored in the context of introduction of new technologies and good practices for popularization of the cultural heritage.

Collective Currents: Exploring Sustainability through a Collaborative and Interactive Installation

Abstract Water issues in the western United States include a long history of struggle, controversy and politics. Collaboration and compromise are required to achieve desirable outcomes in water quality and water rights. Collective Currents is an interactive art installation, developed collaboratively by a computer engineer and a multimedia artist, that explores the idea of cooperative experience in both literal and conceptual ways and creates an environment that makes reference to and engages the viewer to think about our ability to understand and solve environmental issues, specifically water quality and conservation, through collaboration.

How to take advantage of the relationship between the actual movement and the imaginary movement to create interactive art works to enrich the field of contemporary painting art.

Plastic art is not only a means for the artist to express what is inside him of ideas, but rather is a means that stimulates the viewer's senses, whether visual, auditory, or even by touching materials with their different touches, thus provoking other responses in the viewer such as imagination, understanding and emotion, which is called perceptual perception, There are limits imposed by the viewer's eye and determined by the process of feeling the effectiveness of the image, the lighting, and the movement in the work of art. Hence, the actual movement is one of the important elements that achieve the interaction of the viewer with the work, as with moving parts of the work, many forms appear, which gives new and innovative aesthetic dimensions. The research idea came based on the use of both illusory motion in lines and colors that depend on the structural properties of the shapes and their visual perception. In addition to using the actual movement, the viewer must move parts of the work to produce renewed and innovative shapes according to the viewer's vision, and from here the research problem can be identified in the following question: How can we benefit from the relationship between the actual movement and the imaginative movement to create interactive artworks to enrich the art of painting art? The researcher follows the descriptive and analytical approach regarding the theoretical framework of the actual movement, inspiration, and interactivity in artistic work in the field of painting art, and the experimental approach when applying the experiment, followed by the findings and recommendations.

Persuasive Play as Interactive Art

Interactive art utilizes the procedural qualities of computers to aid audiences in rethinking social and cultural assumptions that are disturbing, biased, or unsustainable. The notion of play that has been widely discussed in game and performance studies gives insight into designing interactive systems that physically and cognitively involve the audience. This paper introduces the concept of Persuasive Play, which involves engaging the physical body of the audience with the rules of the interactive systems to transform their previous perspectives about culture and society. This paper shares information regarding teaching interactive art based on structures of persuasive play. By adopting three schemas from game design—rules, play, and culture—, students gained guidance regarding creating interactive experiences. Student work demonstrated the three types of persuasion: demonstrative, illustrative, and associative.

Kate A. Lingley. Review of "Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China" by BuYun Chen, "Transcending Patterns: Silk Road Cultural and Artistic Interactions through Central Asian Textile Images" by Mariachiara Gasparini, and "Mongol Court Dress, Identity Formation, and Global Exchange" by Eiren L. Shea.

Kate A. Lingley. Review of "Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China" by BuYun Chen, "Transcending Patterns: Silk Road Cultural and Artistic Interactions through Central Asian Textile Images" by Mariachiara Gasparini, and "Mongol Court Dress, Identity Formation, and Global Exchange" by Eiren L. Shea.

Un crosscultural system per la scultura e gli arredi liturgici di Roma: materiali e tecniche nelle dinamiche di interazione culturale con il Meridione (XI-XIII secolo)

The article, starting from the novelties introduced about liturgical furnishings by the fruitful exchanges between Sicily and Campania, will investigate the consequences in the border area between Regnum and Patrimonium Petri, and especially in the city of Rome. The aim is to define, thanks to the study of sculptures, decoration materials and techniques, the still unresolved picture of some extraordinary Roman testimonies, intended to undermine the cultural monopoly of the Cosmati and to identify, in terms of artistic interaction, the existence of an unprecedented south-north trajectory for liturgical furnishings in Rome.

Aesthetic Experience and Creativity in Interactive Art

Abstract Interactive art, which is art that relies on the participation of a spectator and in which the spectators enter the creative process, has changed the way people relate with artworks. An experiment was conducted in a laboratory with an interactive artwork (Temporal Perspectives by Doruk Kumkuoğlu and Sadettin Bilal Savaş, 2016) to investigate whether interactivity is a factor that plays a role in the aesthetic emotions and creativity of the spectator. The results indicated a significant increase in beauty, in response to interactive art. Partial correlational network analyses were conducted to further investigate the emotional experience of the artworks in both conditions. These analyses showed differences between the conditions in the emotional response to interactive art. However, cognitive flexibility of participants did not differ between conditions. The results indicate that interactivity should be taken into account as an element that affects the perception of art.

The Body, the Threshold, and the Cut: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Measuring in Interactive Media Art

New media artists working on interactive installations often rely on different monitoring techniques, such as variable sensors in the design and the production of responsive environments and objects. In this short commentary, I will inquire into my installation Mother, Child (2011/2000) to address a new media art practice as productive alignment of agencies at the interface. The term body-sensor co-performance is used to foreground both the performative nature and the fundamental integrity of the technology and the body in interactive art. I will suggest that the setting of threshold values for different measuring operations can be understood as the boundary-making process, through which the installation feeds off the embodied liveliness of its audiences for its responsive actions. Drawing on Karen Barad’s work, these thresholds can be thematized as agential cuts. A number of specific examples in using sensors for interactivity are then addressed in order to inquire into the ways in which the questions of ethics and aesthetics entangle in creative and collaborative labors for Mother, Child.

Color Interactive Contents System using Kinect Camera Calibration

Recently, media content that interacts in real time is increasing. In this paper, we introduce a real-time color extraction content system that utilizes the Kinect camera used in ‘COLOR’ media art. The Kinect camera used in the work detects and tracks the joints of the visitors that enter the exhibition space. Kinect detected data is mapped to color calibration in a Unity environment to generate a point cloud video. Get the pixel color of the spine shoulder joint coordinates of the visitor in the point cloud image. The color data is output on the screen in the form of color one, and passes through along with the spectators. Color circle decreases as the distance between the visitors and Kinect increases and the distance increases. When visitors come in and the color circles overlap, color of the mixed part will have an intermediate value between the two color circles. This work shows the form of a person's social movement through the colors that each person has and the mixture of the colors. The technology used in this work differs from other media arts in that it extracted the calibrated image colors separately and advanced the interactive media arts. We will improve the accuracy of the point cloud that corrects the color image and the depth image, and improve the color extraction accuracy of the visitors.

A LOST NAME IN THE HISTORY OF TURKISH ART: ARİF DİNO

Arif Dino is one of the important figures in the contemporary art and culture history in Turkey. His is the brother of Abidin Dino who is one of the important artists of Turkish Contemporary art history. Playing a major role in the development of Abidin Dino's artistic style. Arif Dino is a figure who contributed to culture and arts scene of Turkey with his paintings in addition to his passion for sports, his designs, poetry, and articles of art criticism. This study is carried out in order to create a literature on Arif Dino, who was not involved in exhibitions and in research as much as his brother Abidin Dino, and in order to examine the artistic interaction between him and Abidin Dino. Arif Dino is an artist known for his versatile, unique and creative personality. In addition to his personality as a poet and a sportsman, he also produced works as exhibition stand and book cover designer in the Early Republican Period of Turkey. In this context, Arif Dino's artistry and works as well as his artistic ties with Abidin Dino will be analyzed.

Movement-Based Interactive Textiles Design for Emotion Regulation

OVERVIEW Textiles have always been an important carrier for people to express their emotions. Wearable technology brings the power of computing closer to body, which has led to the rising focus of the design of bodily emotion-related interactive textiles. Body engaged affective design for emotion regulation has become a trend in the field of games and interactive art, but the advantages of interactive textiles in this field have not been systematically studied and fully developed. This research aims to explore ways to enhance the potential of smart textiles in assisting emotion regulation of users with movement-based interaction. The research follows the Research through Design approach. Preliminary results show that several different emotion regulation strategies can be applied to the design of movement-based interactive textiles. This research offers a new perspective on the potential of emotion regulation with interactive textiles and will contribute to a deeper understanding of movement engaged affective design.

Practising affect for haunted speakability: Triggering trauma through an interactive art project

ABSTRACT This article explores how silenc(ed) traces of intergenerational violence manifest themselves as spectral absences/presences in descendants’ lifeworlds, and how descendants in turn attempt to unsettle the unspeakable and unknowable. Focusing on Istori Kita (Our History), a book and set of interactive performances by Dutch memory artist Simone Berger (2016, Istori Kita, Jouw familiegeschiedenis. Ontdek je familiegeschiedenis met je (groot)ouders. Maak Indische, Molukse, Chinees-Indische en Hollandse herinneringen aan Nederlands-Indië weer levend! Volendam: LM Publishers.), I analyse the contradictory dynamics associated with Indisch (Indo-Dutch) zwijgen[i] (silence, silencing) and chart a haunted speakability that harbours gendered, racialised and classed structures of colonial and postcolonial inequality. Haunted speakability reflects affective urgencies to unmask silences, pointing not only to the limitations of speech but also to the possibilities, challenges and limitations of practising affect as a method of unsettling the unconscious and unintentional transfer of intergenerational trauma.

Poetic “being-with”: A Case for Relational Poetics

Abstract This article repurposes the conceptual ingredients of participatory art, from 1960s Environment-Happenings to 1990s and contemporary relational aesthetics, to postulate an analogous poetics. While both epochs of interactive art exercise the same premise—that is, taking “the sphere of human relations as site for the artwork” to “induce models of sociability,” as Nicolas Bourriaud claims—the conditions of relationality entailed in each concern distinct modes of production, consumption, and governance. I trace this distinction in relation to the Foucauldian notion of “technologies of power,” arguing that, while Allan Kaprow's practice engages with the biopolitical, “disciplinary” power of liberalist regimes, the work of Félix González-Torres and Rirkrit Tiravanija engage with what Byung-Chul Han terms that “psychopolitics” of neoliberal debt relations. This examination serves as the ground from which I devise a new kind of relation poetics, a heteroglot and immersive literary bricolage that critically reflects neoliberal modes of atomised individualism. Juliana Spahr's Fuck-You-Aloha-I-Love-You serves as a means by which I distinguish poetry about relationality from relational poetry, which in turn gives rise to my own attempt at, and critical analysis of, a relational poem: a vexed interstice of what Jean-Luc Nancy calls “being-with.

On the In-application Value of Emotional Intelligence Interaction Based on Interactive Art Installation

The design of interactive art installation, which integrates interactivity, artistry and education, leads people to think their relationship with nature and society by human-installation interactive movement. Due to the repaid development of science and technology, the simple interaction with settled program cannot satisfy people’s demands. Instead, they want to step into the world of installation through personalized emotional catharsis. The current mode of communication will be changed by the in-application program within the interactive art installation. The single installation totally produced by artists’ thought will be replaced by the finished installation product with the participation of the audience. In this way, participants will immerse in the story plot and feel various emotional changes psychologically by sound, image and touch, which relies on the interactive art installation. The Listen is taken as the example to spread the idea of sharing the ecological nature of human beings and the world. Arduino, an open source platform, will be studied to show the change of modern interactive communication mode, exploring the impact of programming tool on the development of future interactive installation and providing some new ideas for the integration of artistic creation and science and technology in the future.