When I first joined the Introduction to Interactive Media course, I did not know what to expect. My perception of interactive media at the time was highly connected to that of a visual artist. Coming from an artistic background and having taken many art courses throughout my life, I have come to accept interactivity to be highly based of the audiences reaction.
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised when the course that I am in turned out to be something that I had dreamed of trying by myself, but never having the time. Chris Crawford puts it perfectly when he says, “interaction: a cyclic process in which two actors alteratley listen, think, speak.” My understanding of the interactivity had been highly subjective, and I found myself in the position of naming various items ‘iteractive,’ even if they were not ideally so. I liked Crawford’s example of the degrees of interactivity, specifically how he talked about the fridge possessing a low degree of interactivity. This led me to think back about some commercial or idea I saw/had, where a smart fridge would scan all the food inside if, and provide you with various information, e.g. constructed a grocery list for you, or proposed recepies that can be made with the ingredients available. I believe that type of fridge can pass for being interactive.
Ultimately, I believe that this chapter highly changed my views on interactivity, specifically what it means for something to be interactive. The three main steps, listen, think, speak, can most likely be applied universally, and thus I see huge potential in this field of study.