Dimensions of interaction

 

Aesthetik // aesthetics

In every process in which something is formed through decisions of a maker, these decisions can have aesthetic dimensions.
Interactive work practices open up domains for aesthetic decisions that differ from the domains traditionally covered in art-history.


Procedural aesthetics


Kinetic aesthetics


Relational aesthetic: Experience

 

Since in interactive works it is the contribution of significant others (in many possible different roles) that realises and embodies the work, the quality of a work can not be discussed without taking into account the experience of these contributing others into the collective. The experience of the others is part of the critical context of the work.


The collective of Architecture of Interaction: it is of crucial importance to concieve every step of the execution of an interactive work with the experience of the important others in mind. These experiences obviously cannot be controlled by the makers of a work, but they can be designed to quite some extent. A useful conceptual tool for designing the experience of others is to concieve the form of their freedom towards the work. What seems to determine the quality of an interactive experience from the perspective of the others is not so much the amount of freedom offered, but the extend to which the freedom offered is interesting.


In other words: the others should have an interesting form of freedom towards the work. This form consists of the different possible ways in which the others can be present in the work, or in which they can read the traces of the work. This form of freedom can be extremely limited, as long as it is interesting.


The collective of Archtecture of Interection: in interactive works it is the quality of the experience of the participants, onlookers and post-actual audience that determines the quality of the work. Of course this experience should always be seen in relation to the intentions the initiating maker had with regards to these experiences.

 

 

 

(c) Interaktionslabor & Architecture of Interaction 2008