The Art of Interaction. Ernest Edmonds

       ABSTRACT

      What can Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) learn from art? How can the HCI research agenda be advanced by looking at art research? How can we improve creativity support and the amplification of that important human capability? This book aims to answer these questions. Interactive art has become a common part of life as a result of the many ways in which the computer and the Internet have facilitated it. HCI is as important to interactive art as mixing the colours of paint are to painting. This book reviews recent work that looks at these issues through art research. In interactive digital art, the artist is concerned with how the artwork behaves, how the audience interacts with it, and, ultimately, how participants experience art as well as their degree of engagement. The values of art are deeply human and increasingly relevant to HCI as its focus moves from product design towards social benefits and the support of human creativity. The book examines these issues and brings together a collection of research results from art practice that illuminates this significant new and expanding area. In particular, this work points towards a much-needed critical language that can be used to describe, compare and frame research in HCI support for creativity.

       KEYWORDS

      human-computer interaction, interactive art, practice-based research, experience, engagement

      To Emma (in memoriam)

      and Robert, Meroë, Emma, Catriona, Lulu, and Eric.

       Contents

       Acknowledgements

       1 Introduction

       2 A Little HCI History

       2.1 The Name HCI Itself

       2.2 From Easy-to-Use to User Experience

       2.3 On to Enhancing Creativity

       2.4 Towards a New HCI Vocabulary

       3 Learning from Interactive Art

       3.1 A Little Art History

       3.2 Learning from Research in Art

       3.3 Practice-based Art Research

       3.4 Interactive Art

       4 A Personal History

       4.1 Interaction and the Computer

       4.2 Interaction: From Complex to Simple

       4.3 Interaction: From Reaction to Influence

       4.4 Long-term Engagement

       4.5 Distributed Interaction

       4.6 Interaction Engagement and Experience

       4.7 Categories of Interaction Revisited

       4.8 Revisiting the Example Artworks

       4.9 On the Implications for HCI

       5 Case Studies and Lessons

       5.1 Art, Games, and Play

       5.1.1 Lessons

       5.2 Art, Beta-testing, and Experience Design

       5.2.1 Lessons

       5.3 Art, Engagement, and Research

       5.3.1 Lessons

       5.4 Social Mixed-reality Play Space

       5.4.1 Lessons

       6 Conclusion: The Next HCI Vocabulary

       References

       Author’s Biography