“Is interactivity utterly subjective?” I thought this was a compelling question, especially with regards to our conversation about interactivity in class.
Crawford suggests that interactivity could possibly be one of a few “objective truths”, however also still not completely objective- as he goes on to prove how we can use personal subjectivity to measure the degrees of interactivity within an object. Here, he offers the example of Boolean properties, and how we tend to think of interactivity as a Boolean–it either exists or it doesn’t. Crawford proposes that we should instead view interactivity as a “continuous variable with relative measures”. An example of this would be to rate or measure interactivity from high to low, or strong to weak. This leaves some level of subjectivity, in that each person may rate an interaction differently on the scale.
I appreciate Crawford’s efforts in reaching a middle ground. He does not completely dismiss the objectivity nor the subjectivity of interactions, and instead constructs a means of using both concepts in our understanding of what is interactive, and what is not.
As for Crawford’s review question “come up with your own damn definition of interactivity!”– that is a question I hope to revisit and answer by the end of this course.