Making Interactive Art: Set the Stage, Then Shut Up and Listen

This reading (and I won’t be anything less than honest) is what I didn’t want to hear. It’s a hard pill to swallow, especially as I am trying to transition more into making interactive art and leaving more room for the extraordinary rather than the (people would call them mundane) paintings I’m used to.  I’ve come across this concept before and I got really defensive when I was being told to not let people know about my intentions and my emotions, about my motive, which is something that needs to be clear when you’re writing an essay- but not when making an interactive art piece (according to this reading). I agree with this reading on a lot of the point the author makes, one of them is to not impose and annotate every single part of the experience for the user. Trying to leave more room for the imagination and for the user to actually “converse” properly with the interface/piece you’re creating is really important for feedback and for the whole overall artwork to be more satisfying for the user. Besides, some would say that imposing one opinion on what a piece means (even if it is your own ) would be some form of propaganda, would it now?

 

Midterm Project Plan: Spinning Art Reveal Using Pitch

 

For my midterm project, I am going to make a spinning wheel using a servo and a sound sensor. According to the pitch it detects, the servo will turn and reveal a different piece of art. I think the code aspect of this is going to be more complicated than the visual/design aspect of it as I have a very clear idea on what I want it to look like at this point. I have not used a sound sensor before so this should be an interesting challenge, to say the least.