Crawford’s paper was remarkable in re-shaping my understanding of what makes something interactive, and how to approach the definition of the very term
At first, I also agreed with his statement about seeing as a conversation between two entities. This reminded me of one of my literature classes, where we discussed reading a paper is like the author trying to have a conversation with us. However, as I am writing this, and after reading the paper, perhaps I was mistaken to agree with this argument, as a conversation requires some degree of back-and-forth, which is something that papers and books do not do. Unless you consider it from a technical sense – if you are reading a book from a Kindle, where there are tons of buttons and opportunities to interact with the book e.g You can highlight any word, and it will look up the definition for you. That is seen as interactive, but reading from a physical paper does not allow users to have that sort of reaction.
This prompted me to question – what is the distinction between a reaction and an interaction? Which the author conveniently brings up at the right time. He brings up the situation of a tree branch falling, and the way he responds – that response does not prompt the fallen branch to suddenly get up and start flying around – it is still still. This example helped me to understand the difference. Once the user reacts to the prompt or situation, the other entity must react and continue as per the user’s actions and word.
What also deepened my understanding of interactivity is Crawford’s example of the Nintendo Fridges. He argues earlier that interactivity should be entertainment, but there are nuances to this statement. He explains that though adults may find a fridge to be mundane, children would like, as they can “play” with its lights by closing and opening the door. He explains that the fridge is still interactive, albeit uniquely. I learnt that interactivity has different grades: High, moderate, low, and none. An item like a fridge has low interactivity, but reading from a Kindle has a high interactivity. I found Cicero’s statement on the notion of interactivity very appealing. I discovered the notion of “imitation” in the interactive sense — I learnt that reading is an activity that imitate the idea of interactivity — as our emotional capacity is exercised there, thus alluding to the idea of interactivity, it not truly interactive. Additionally, Cicero believes “Fuller nourishment comes from the living voice.” – Another (biological) entity provides you with the intimacy that deepens your correspondences and actions with someone or something. Which made me think about the difference between interactive technical projects, and interactive human projects.
When Crawford moves on to performance, it helped me to understand how important the role of an audience is. I discovered that the larger the audience might be, the more challenging it might be to interact with them. In the theatrical world, it takes a large cast to be able to execute this – as you would have to break the fourth wall in order to deem a play as interactive. This instantly reminded me of interactive still lives. It is when an actor or the cast pose as part of an environment, allowing the audience to manipulate the scenery using their body. For example, if the scenery is a forest, then one actor may pose as a tree — and the audience ‘walks’ through this forest (keeping in mind this is a still life therefore the actors don’t move), and they play around with their environment. The audience would shape scenery by moving around the arms of an actor to make the tree appear wider, or perhaps, making them lay on the ground to show that is has fallen. That is an example of interactivity in performance, which Crawford argues barely exist.
He also argues at the end that “good interactive design integrates form with function”, which I sort of struggled to grasp as I did not understand what he exactly meant by form as it was sort of slapped on at the end, but I assume that he means that those who are in charge of interactivity must step out of convention to make a good interactive design.