Physical Computing’s Greatest Hits (and misses)
In this article by Tigoe, a variety of different examples of ‘physical computing’ projects are discussed and lightly analyzed. I believe that this article is particularly useful for us Intro To IM students in order to start thinking about various ideas we might have for our final projects and how we could implement our ideas into action. It is also highly helpful that in the article, Tigoe also provides a simple explanation of how each of the provided examples most likely works.
Additionally, I think the first statement of the article is crucial for individuals to not easily give up on their project when they are just getting started. Tigoe writes, “Sometimes when people learning about physical computing hear that a particular idea has been done before, they give up on it, because they think it’s not original. What’s great about the themes that follow here is that they allow a lot of room for originality.” This statement precisely encourages everyone who is interested in physical computing not to get discouraged just because something has been done before but rather explore the possible options to make it original. As for myself, I have not yet decided on what type of final project I might be making but I will surely use this article as a resource for more ideas and brainstorming.
Making Interactive Art: Set the Stage, Then Shut Up and Listen
In this different article from Tigoe, the presentation of an interactive artwork is discussed. The article is well structured and explains at first the common misconceptions newcomers to the field might face because of what we were taught about art in school. Then the article goes on to discuss a perspective on how an interactive artwork or environment must function. Even though this is subjective to each individual, I believe the provided formula is a great framework for how these types of projects must be structured. This article is highly complementary to the article discussed above, and I believe it gives us a thorough perspective on how we should approach our future projects in interactive media.
What I found interesting, though, is that there are multiple factors that might not have been mentioned. Ultimately, is it accurate to assume that the majority of people will have mixed reaction. As noted in the article, I believe that the context and the environment in which the media is presented is a high contributing factor to the overall experience of the audience. I think that cultural context can have a significant effect on how the installations might be interpreted. This is most likely not the case for us university students as we are highly integrated with our current environment, but for bigger projects, the artists might want to consider how the geographical location might affect the experience they are trying to provide. Nevertheless, I believe that overall this article is highly beneficial for us to understand how we should structure and organized a interactive media project or experience.