Kreuger's Responsive Environments

Wow.
After the first page, I already had millions of teeny ideas running through my head.

The point of a responsive environment is that the participant is making decisions and the computer is basing its responses off the participant's actions. But the computer also has an input on what the participant does when it changes the response, causing the participant to think and try something new. It's really cool because it is the most complete form of interactivity I have learned about this semester, it really is like symbiotic relationship where one can't do something without the other.

My project was going to be something like that where the participant chooses a path and depending on what happens next they might want to do something else with the story. But the difference is that my piece would not have computer programming creating a new response, I would be choosing the response. Though this tool (computer programming) could be useful to create a very malleable, realistic narrative.

The idea of GLOWFLOW was really cool and could be helpful in trying to convey that people wander around in life not knowing that they are altering things and creating a new reality with each action. If applied to my work, a person could move through a space and projections and audio would change depending on where they go, creating the storyline based on their movement. If they didn't know why things were unfolding the way they were because of them it would be interesting to parallel how some things happen in life and you don't know why. This article really shows me how interested I am in duplicating human experience and emotion in my work in a way where it is obvious because it is out of context of every day living.

But Myron Krueger is right when he says that participants should be aware of how the environment is responding. The piece would not be as strong because part of the point is that they can work with the computer and the environment to change the artwork and have a new thought process based on the response.

Reading about METAPLAY just made me smile because it is innocent and childlike in a way where adults discover the simplest thingg. It shows how easy it is for people to connect with each other from the simplest of tools if the execution is done right. I like that it's almost more about human interaction than computer/human interaction. The computer is just a tool.

Interaction as an actual medium actually makes sense to me and I never thought I would get out of the idea that a medium needs to be tangible. I love that using responsive environments can possibly use art to improve intelligence and form human bonds. I think using interaction as a main focus rather than the program used to create the visuals or what color to make something can help make a piece so much stronger in a contextual sense. I look forward to using this idea in the future. It's really kind of exciting.